The Henry Ford aka the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation

This indoor portion of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village can best be described as huge with a wide variety of displays ranging from key historical happenings to pop culture.  While we may have seen 50% of Greenfield Village, I doubt that we saw more than 30% of exhibits in the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation…

We walked into “The Ford” and came face to face with this giant H-8 Class steam locomotive.  This heavy duty series of locomotives were named “Alleghenies” and they were built by the Lima Locomotive Works for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway between 1941 and 1948.  A total of 60 of these beasts were built and only 2 survive.  Locomotive #1601 was the 2^nd of the type that was built. 

Laurie stood next to #1601 to illustrate just how big this locomotive is… It is 124 feet long, over 11 feet wide, almost 16.5 feet tall, and it weighs 771,000 lbs., over 385 tons!  These H-8 Class locomotives were designed to haul heavy trains over the steep grades of the Allegheny Mountains.  They could pull 160 coal cars, each with a 60-ton load.

Diesel locomotives began replacing the Alleghenies in 1952 and of them were retired by 1956.  #1601 was donated to The Henry Ford in 1956.  It was pulled to the Detroit area on the rear of a freight train.  It was so large and so heavy that it took 3 attempts to get the locomotive into the museum.

This fancy 2-passenger ‘chariot’ was built between 1792 and 1802 by coach maker William Ross of New York City.  It was purchased by Angelica Bratt Campbell who used it in and around Schenectady New York where her husband had made his fortune as a merchant.  Only the wealthy could afford closed carriages like this one.

Of course, in ancient times the term chariot referred to a 2-wheel vehicle used for war and racing.  Around the mid-1600s the term was applied to elegant half-coaches…cut in two just in front of the door.  The design made the coaches less expensive and they were lighter as well.

FYI…a plethora of different horse drawn vehicles are on exhibit at The Ford.  They include trolleys, a landau carriage, a hansom cab, beer wagon, hearse, farm wagon, hay wagon, a mail wagon and more.

This replica of the DeWitt Clinton was built by the New York Central Railroad for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  This replica traveled to fairs, expositions, and promotional events across the New York Central system into the 1950s.  The replica and its coach cars were given to the Henry Ford in 1935.  Basically, those fancy passenger cars are stagecoaches modified to operate on railroad tracks.

FYI, the original DeWitt Clinton 0-4-0 was built in New York City in 1831 and it operated on the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad.  It’s historically recognized as not only one of the first to operate in the United States, but also as the very first to offer regularly scheduled passenger service.  The locomotive was named after a former governor of New York State. To learn more, go to http://www.uppermadison.org/history/railroad.

This eye-catching steam locomotive was built in 1858 by the Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works in Paterson New Jersey.  This company built more than 6,000 locomotives for railroads all over the world.  Most U.S. railroads owned at least one Rogers-built locomotive.  The company’s most famous one was a locomotive named “The General”, which was one of the principals of the “Great Locomotive Chase” of the Civil War.

This particular Rogers steam locomotive is the only known locomotive remaining that served the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad.  When Henry Ford took possession of it, he named it “Sam Hill” after an engineer he knew, but it was renamed “The President” in 1929 when it brought President Herbert Hoover to the museum for its opening and the 50^th Anniversary of Thomas Edison’s invention of the first practical lightbulb. 

The yellow coach behind the locomotive and coal tender replicates a typical passenger car used on American railroads ca. 1860.  Opening windows offered ventilation in summer and a woodstove provided heat in the winter.  Other amenities included a drinking water dispenser (usually one cup for all to use) and a small restroom, which was basically a seat with a hole in the bottom of the car for disposal.  This replica was built ca. 1928.

The next area we visited included a lot of automobiles and other transportation related objects.  Since I already focused on early autos in my posts about Ye Ole Carriage Shop in Spring Arbor Michigan, my commentary will be shorter than usual.  This beauty is a 1931 Duesenberg Model J Convertible Victoria. 

Fred Duesenberg was determined to build an automotive masterpiece.  Superior engineering included a 265-horsepower engine.  The car could reach 116 mph as its top speed.  No two of these autos are identical because the body styles/specifications were determined by the buyers and independent coachbuilders crafted each auto body.

Much more about Duesenberg automobiles and the company itself will be forthcoming in a month or so…

This sleek beast is a 1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Convertible.  This extremely rare automobile is longer than a Duesenberg and it has double the horsepower of a Rolls-Royce.  Plus, it cost more than the combined cost of both the Duesenberg and a Phantom II Rolls-Royce.  This was the ultimate automobile.  Bugatti only built 6 ‘Royales’ versus Duesenberg with 481 Model J’s and 1,767 Phantom IIs.

Ettore Bugatti was an Italian who manufactured high-performance automobiles in Germany starting in 1909.  These automobiles were known for their design beauty and for many racing wins.  The company shut down operations in 1952.  In the intervening 43 years, Bugatti only built 8,000 cars.  The Bugatti name was purchased by investors and you can still buy a Bugatti today.  You’d better have a fat pocketbook though… Prices range from $1.9 million to $12 million or more.  The Bugatti at the ‘lower’ end of the price range develops 1,001-horsepower and has a top speed of 258 mph.

This is a 1927 LaSalle Roadster.  Back in 1926, Alfred Sloan Jr., then the President of General Motors felt that the company needed a lower-priced companion to the Cadillac line in order to complete the full scope of the company’s product line.  He hired a custom auto designer named Harley Earl to design the LaSalle.  The 1927 LaSalle was the first mass-production automobile to be consciously ‘stylized’.  It was actually built by Cadillac.  The LaSalle line of automobiles was dropped by GM by 1940 but the stylish and more affordable LaSalle marked the beginning of the end for individually designed and truly expensive custom cars.

This unusual looking automobile is a 1948 Tucker 48 Sedan, aka the “Tucker Torpedo”.  It was conceived by Preston Tucker and it was produced in Chicago for one year only…1948.  Including the prototype, only 51 of these cars were ever produced before the company was forced to declare bankruptcy.  Negative publicity initiated by the news media, an SEC investigation and a high-profile stock fraud trial insured the end of the company.  

FYI, the stock fraud allegations were proven to be baseless and the company and Tucker himself were fully exonerated.  Tucker claimed that the Big Three Automakers and a Senator from Michigan helped insure the company’s demise.  A movie was made by Francis Ford Coppola in 1988.  It was all about Tucker, his revolutionary automobile and the demise of the Tucker automobile. (See: “Tucker: A Man and His Dream”.

With swooping fenders and 6 exhaust pipes, Tucker resembled a rocket ship.  But the car featured many practical design concepts.  That center headlight turns with the front wheels to cast light around corners.  The tail lights are visible from the side for safety.  Doors curved into the roof for easier entry and exit.  Those grills on the rear fenders fed cooling air to the rear mounted engine.

This 1903 Packard Model F Runabout was only the second automobile to be driven across the USA from coast-to-coast.  A Packard plant foreman and a journalist made the trip in this car from San Francisco to New York City in 61 days!  The biggest challenge to their accomplishment was that roads were rare west of the Mississippi and many in the eastern part of the country were not much more than dirt paths.

The Model F involved a major change in design from earlier automobiles, venturing away from the ‘buggy’ style and embracing more modern designs.  The Runabout had a base price of about $2,250, and if you wanted a rear ‘tonneau’ cover included, you could add another $250 to the total expense.  This was the most expensive Packard up to this point in time…

To give an idea of the wide variety of offerings at the Henry Ford Museum, this is a 1959 Volkswagen Westfalia Camper.  Volkswagen first introduced the VW Type 2 Bus, nicknamed it’s “box on wheels”, in 1949.  A few years after the VW bus was introduced the company contracted with Westfalia and they introduced the converted camper.  In 1956, VW and Westfalia first exported these post-war recreational lifestyle vehicles to the USA.  Soon thereafter Americans took to the highways and backroads to explore the great outdoors.

James Ward Packard built his first car in Warren, Ohio, in 1899. By 1903 a group of Detroit investors had purchased the company and moved the operation to a new factory in Detroit. One of the first cars built there was the Model L touring car. It was the first four-cylinder Packard and the first with the tombstone-shaped radiator shell that became a Packard trademark. 

Packard, Peerless and Pierce-Arrow were the companies best known for building high-quality luxury automobiles prior to World War II.  Owning any of these cars was a sign of success and prestige. Packard automobiles featured numerous innovations.  These included the modern steering wheel, air-conditioning in a passenger car and one of the first 12-cylinder engines to power an automobile.  The last Packard was built in South Bend Indiana in 1958.

Most people think of Checker as an operator of taxicabs, but from 1922 through 1982 they also manufactured cabs. Checkers featured big back seats and trunks and rugged, durable construction. This Checker's basic design dates to 1956 and was substantially unchanged until production ceased in 1982.  Checker Motors Corporation was based in Kalamazoo Michigan and they manufactured taxicabs used by Checker Taxi and others.  The company was originally established in Chicago…but was moved to Kalamazoo in 1923. 

Checker taxis were the iconic American taxi cab.  They withstood heavy use well, had extra wide rear doors, as well as large rear seats and trunks.  The problems were that they couldn’t compete with larger auto company’s fleet discounts or the economies of scale when it came to purchasing components for Checker automobiles. 

In 1962 – 1963, I drove a taxi whenever I had a break from college classes.  Heck, I needed the money!  I was always happy when I was assigned to drive one of the Checker model taxis…happy fares equaled better tips.  My Checker taxi was powered by a Chevy engine and it was quite a bit ‘boxier’ than the 1981 Checker Marathon shown in the photo.

This streamlined tank truck connected local Texaco service stations to a larger national distribution network. Each of America's competing oil companies had a branded fleet of trucks that took gasoline from refineries to its retail service stations. Even independently operated stations had to buy gasoline from a big oil company's refinery. This truck's tanker capacity is 1175 gallons.

The Dodge Airflow tanker truck was a special request model truck that Dodge introduced in late 1934 and it was available through 1940.  The ‘swept back’ look was inspired by the designs found in the Chrysler Airflow cars and the Divco 1937 Model-B delivery vans.  Most of the 265 trucks produced were fitted with these streamlined tank truck bodies.  They were utilized by such major oil companies at Texaco, Socony-Vacuum Oil Company and Esso.

FYI, Divco was the company who built many of the home-to-home milk/dairy delivery trucks/vans that I remember from my youth…

Another display of interest…and large enough to catch our eye during our rather limited exploration of “The Ford”, involved Presidential vehicles.

So, I’ll start with Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt’s Brougham carriage from 1902.  This handsome carriage was used by President Roosevelt on official occasions.  Even after automobiles began replacing horse-drawn vehicles during the Taft administration, the housekeeping department continued using this brougham to run errands and haul groceries.  In 1928, a Ford Model A was purchased for these tasks and this carriage was retired.

This 1939 Lincoln Limousine was the first car built expressly for use by American Presidents.  It was nicknamed the “Sunshine Special” because President Franklin Delano Roosevelt loved to ride in it with the top down.  After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in 1941, this Lincoln was brought back to the factory where it was refitted with armor plate as well as both bullet-resistant tires and gas tank.  The “Sunshine Special” was retired in 1950.

This was the 1950 Lincoln Presidential limousine that replaced the “Sunshine Special”.  This huge convertible Lincoln was built for President Harry S. Truman in 1950, but it is most associated with President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who succeeded President Truman.  Eisenhower used this car for both of his terms in office…1952 – 1960.  He was responsible for the addition of the limousine’s distinctive ‘bubble top’.  Both Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson used this car as a spare until it was retired in 1967.

This was President John F. Kennedy’s Presidential limousine.  Ford Motor Company built the car at its Lincoln plant in Wixom Michigan in January 1961.  Then, Hess and Eisenhardt of Cincinnati Ohio customized the car so it could function as a presidential parade limousine.  They literally cut it in half, reinforced it and then extended it so that it was 3.5 feet longer than when it was built.  It first debuted at the White House in June of 1961. 

President Kennedy was assassinated in this limousine on November 22, 1963.  The car remained the property of the Ford Motor Company, which had leased it to the Secret Service for the nominal price of $500 a year.  Subsequently, this midnight blue, un-armored convertible was rebuilt with a permanent roof, titanium armor plating and a more somber black paint.  It was then returned to the White House and remained in service until 1977.

This is the 1972 Lincoln Continental Presidential limousine that was used by President Ronald Reagan.  President Reagan was getting into this car when he was shot by John Hinckley on March 30, 1981.  This car subsequently carried President Reagan to the hospital.  FYI, Presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush also used this car.

…and then we were out of both time and energy! 

This last photo is of Douglas DC-3 #N21728, which certainly is an attention getter for visitors to “The Ford Museum”.  This record setting DC-3 had a 36 year career serving Eastern Airlines for 13 years before it was purchased by North Central Airlines.  North Central used this plane in passenger service until 1965, after which the company converted it to a VIP aircraft.  This airplane had flown over 12,000,000 miles and logged 84,875 flying hours when it flew into Dearborn for display at the museum in 1975.

I’ve only flown on a DC-3 on one occasion.  It was on a Lake Central Airlines flight from Detroit Michigan to Erie Pennsylvania and onto Buffalo New York.  I was attending DeVeaux School in Niagara Falls at the time.  I loved the flight…huge windows, lots of leg room, and the plane flew low and slow so you could see everything.

DC-3s continued flying with major second tier or ‘trunk’ airlines well into the 1960s.  My flight happened in 1960 or 1961.  In the 1970s and 1980s, these aircraft continued to fly with smaller carriers and they dominated the commuter airline scene in South Florida.   The first one of these airplanes rolled off the assembly line in 1940.

I must admit that we missed a lot of significant exhibits at The Ford Museum but our time was up!  Key exhibits we missed included: The “Rosa Parks Bus’; a Fokker Trimotor airplane, the first to fly over the North Pole; a selection of rare violins dating from the 1600 and 1700s including a Stradivarius; George Washington’s camp bed, and: Lincoln’s rocking chair, the one he was sitting in when he was assassinated at the Ford Theatre in Washington D.C.  

The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village are not to be missed if you love history and you’re touring Michigan.  It is an amazing place!  To see it properly, it really would take 2 full days.  To learn more about “The Ford”, just go to https://www.thehenryford.org/.  It should be noted that a 3^rd attraction available to visitors is a tour of the Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge factory.  One of my step brothers worked there for more than 40 years.  To learn more about the huge River Rouge complex and its amazing history, you can go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_River_Rouge_complex.

A bit of relief is coming for those who are tired of museums.  The next post will involve family and food!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for staying the course with my wordy and long museum related posts!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave