The Ford Museum

The Ford Museum
Well it could not have been a better day. Today I visited the Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Deerborn, MI. It is absolutely a vast complex with everything imaginable.
The complex is set up into sections:
The Ford Museum
Greenfield Village
IMAX Theater
Ford Rouge Plant Tour
Benson Ford Research Center
I had time only for the Ford Museum and the Greenfield Village.
In the Ford Museum you see original automobiles and not just Ford Autos but those cars which were either ahead of their time or were unique in their manufacturing styles. Even part of and assembly line is there to show how this changed manufacturing. There were steam generating plants to show how early power for manufacturing was made and then complete electrical generation machines.
Ford tried to acquire those things which he thought were unique to the industrial revolution in farming, manufacturing and power to have on display. Also there were complete kitchens of the colonial, 1800, early and late 1900’s to show the transition in living for Americans.
He also enjoyed aviation and on display were the Wright Brothers plane and workshop as well as Lindberg’s plane and a complete DC-3. He also had displayed some of the planes that changed the way flight was made.
Another section showed railway engines and the transition from the early small locomotives to the large steam ones to finally diesel.
Now all of these were the original size and not just models.
They even had a whole section to show how chocolate was made and also the history of chocolate from the Azrtecs to how it was introduced into Europe and how it is produced even today.
Next it was on to Greenfield Village which seems much larger than Knott’s Berry Farm and is littered with the original buildings of the colonial era, the slave plantation in the south, a farm at the turn of the century, grist mills for making flour, the making of wool into thread and then weaving mills, and saw mills. These are all original structures brought by Ford to Greenfield.
Next in the village are the original homes and workshops of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. Ford and Edison and Lindberg were good friends and when Ford had Edison’s laboratory reproduced or brought there he had his friend reenact the lighting of the first light bulb. After Edison sat down and did that in his chair the chair was nailed to the floor and no one was ever allowed to sit in it or move it from that position to this day.
Ford also had brought there a complete railroad roundhouse and trains. A steam engine still runs around Greenfield Village and you can get a tour of the village in a model T Ford.
None of the workers in the village are allowed to drive modern vehicles and in fact you see 1920’s ford trucks being driven around to work on the structures
Ford also tried to show what the homes of early inventors were like, such as Edison, his own home, and also people like Robert Frost the poet, Webster of dictionary fame, George Washington Carver the black agricultural inventor, the writer of classroom books, and many, many more.
Well this was just a glimpse of the day and it was a long one but if you are ever in the Detroit area this is certainly a have to do item.
1 Sawmill
2 Loom
3 Early cars
4 Grist mill for flour
5 Steam tractor