Celebrating some of the most important advances in America is all the hype at The Henry Ford Museum of Innovation in Dearborn, Michigan, just outside Detroit. The museum serves visitors and the surrounding community with educational experiences and exhibits based on and featuring real objects, stories, and lives from American history. You may recognize the name Henry Ford from the famous Ford Motor Company and his accomplishments of creating the first affordable cars for middle class Americans. Aside from his history as an industrialist and businessman, Ford found a love for collecting everyday items of Americana innovation.
Ford began collecting in 1914 with simple items like watches and clocks. Before long, he was accumulating the objects of everyday people; items that were connected to some of his heroes, from his childhood, and items representative of industrial progress. As his collection grew, Ford hired assistants to help him acquire all of his most sought after objects. By the late 1920s, Ford became the primary collector of Americana in the world. He moved his collection into a vacant tractor assembly building, officially creating his very own museum.
The museum was amazing. They currently have an exhibit titled With Liberty and Justice For All. Items in the collection are from historically important eras like the Revolutionary Era, the Antislavery Movement and Civil War Era, the Woman’s Suffrage Movement, and the Civil Rights Movement. Notable historical items in this section of the museum are the rocking chair that President Lincoln was assassinated in and the very bus that Rosa Parks sat in when she was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama.
Another section of the museum focuses on the history of automobiles, going all the way back to the original Model T. Different cars are on display including presidential cars belonging to Roosevelt, Truman, Reagan, Carter, and even the Lincoln Limousine in which John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In the Made in America: Power exhibit, various steam engines and generators are viewable. One of the most prized possessions of this exhibit is a test tube containing longtime friend, Thomas Edison’s last breath — a sealed test tube that was in the bedroom he died in.
There’s absolutely no way to tell you about all the amazing items and stories we experienced in the museum, so you’ll just have to go see for yourself! The Henry Ford Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. General admission is $36.00 for adults over the age of 12, $30.60 for seniors 62+, $25.50 for youth 9-11 years old, and free for children under 4. Guests find that their visit took between 2 to 4 hours, so plan accordingly if you are interested in checking out this piece of history. Tickets can be purchased ahead of time online to ensure your desired day and time of visitation.