Museum of Industrial History

**canuck** · December-18-10, 06:44 PM

I mentioned it would be nice for the Smithsonian to extend its reach to Detroit by buiding a National museum devoted to industrial history. So I looked up the Smithsonian website, and found there was a project to do so but in Bethlehem Pennsylvania, the birthplace of Jesus the ironmonger. No, seriously, Pennsylvania has experienced the decline in its steel industry,and Bethlehem becoming a tourist city apparently.

http://affiliations.si.edu/Affiliate...AffiliateID=58

lilpup · December-18-10, 06:53 PM

The Smithsonian already works in affiliation with some Detroit institutions, particularly the Arab American museum in Dearborn and the DIA [[which also hosts the local mailing address for the Smithsonian).

**Hypestyles** · December-18-10, 06:55 PM

where would the funding come for another museum? where would it be located?

citylover · December-18-10, 07:02 PM

Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. I am often amused by people that have never been to GFV or the museum always they are astounded and had no idea of the magnitude of the place.It is easily comparable to the smithsonian and I have had some tell me they like it better.Please don't bombard me with how I am wrong I said comparable which it is.

**canuck** · December-18-10, 07:36 PM

city lover,

Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village

Excuse my ignorance citylover, and you just whet my appetite for this museum. I will check it out online. I was aware of the GM Heritage Center and the Ford Piquette Plant, and the latter is nice because you really get a nice feel of how simple the technology was, and the environment that produced cars.

**English** · December-18-10, 08:02 PM

Absolutely the Henry Ford. I second the recommendation. The Detroit Historical Museum provides some of this, but on a much smaller scale.

**dtowncitylover** · December-18-10, 08:16 PM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

...where would it be located?

Yeah, because Detroit has NO land in which to build a museum.

LDoolan · December-18-10, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by citylover

Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. I am often amused by people that have never been to GFV or the museum always they are astounded and had no idea of the magnitude of the place.It is easily comparable to the smithsonian and I have had some tell me they like it better.Please don't bombard me with how I am wrong I said comparable which it is.

If you go during the Old Car Festival in September, it's like getting 2 things in one. Pre 1932 cars & trucks only and you see alot of vehicles that you normally won't see anywhere else.

I plan on bringing up one of my old Fords next year for the Festival.

**Gistok** · December-18-10, 08:44 PM

Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

Yeah, because Detroit has NO land in which to build a museum.

Never mind the land... what makes you think that Detroit has NO buildings which could be turned into a museum??

My vote would go to this Albert Kahn beauty on Cass Park in Midtown that already looks like a museum...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kr...ersDetroit.jpg

**mcsdetroitfriend** · December-19-10, 12:17 AM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Never mind the land... what makes you think that Detroit has NO buildings which could be turned into a museum??

My vote would go to this Albert Kahn beauty on Cass Park in Midtown that already looks like a museum...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kr...ersDetroit.jpg

They already passed on MCS

**canuck** · December-19-10, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Never mind the land... what makes you think that Detroit has NO buildings which could be turned into a museum??

My vote would go to this Albert Kahn beauty on Cass Park in Midtown that already looks like a museum...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kr...ersDetroit.jpg

Yes, that looks the part. It is intersting that major museums like the Smithsonian or the Guggenheim have begun to expand or rather extend their collections outside the scope of their home administrations. I am just suggesting that Detroit has great potential to use its buildings to great effect and thereby enhance the commercial and residential development around such schemes.

I am still stuck on my idea for a Botanical Garden City scheme that would run whole swaths of Detroit and provide both ornamental and edible plants for the city. This would make use of existing parks and extend them in a ribbon from one theme park to another, with tour shuttles, plenty of employment opportunities, co-op produce markets etc...

On a smaller scale but still pretty impressive, there is a japanese and a chinese garden at the Montreal Botanical Gardens that pack a punch. The last addition was an aboriginal peoples garden with native plants from our neck of the woods and an interpretation center. I would see more of this on a city-scale in Detroit connected to the Conservatory as the HQ . On top of which citizens could receive plants and compost for free every year from city garden centers. Some of the initial gardens would serve as filtering fields for contaminated soils etc...

**Lowell** · December-19-10, 01:51 PM

The next time you make it to Detroit Canuck, the Henry Ford should be at the top of your list. It is an amazing industrial collection and particularly impressive are the steam engines, from this 1760 Newcomen...

Through these 19th Century beauties...

To the whole damned Model T plant generator housed in this two story area.

bartock · December-19-10, 02:48 PM

I completely agree with the "relative" comparison of Greenfield Village to the Smithsonian .I would also recommend adding another day in Dearborn to do the Rouge tour, Canuck. It is a truly fantastic education on industrial history [[as well as industrial present). http://www.hfmgv.org/rouge/index.aspx.

The Meadow Brook tour also provides wonderful insight into the barons of industrial history. http://www.oakland.edu/?id=3095&sid=87. The Grosse Pointes are too close, even if they weren't back then. The Dodge's may have been the first real "suburban sprawl" family, moving from B-E out to Rochester so many years ago. The mansion is in Rochester Hills [[45 minutes from Dearborn or Detroit during optimal traffic times) on [[or surrounded by, not sure how that works) the beautiful campus of the recently more publicized and nationally underrated Oakland University.

I never had an appropriate appreciation for how truly amazing our backyard is with regards to this subject and the rich history of "Americana" in Detroit until we had kids and bought a membership to The Henry Ford.

**Jimaz** · December-19-10, 03:03 PM

I just love the Henry Ford Museum. The only problem is that just thinking of that place makes my feet hurt. That place is huge.

So I went Googling for a virtual tour of the place. The closest I came was this interactive map.

Is there a better virtual tour of the place?

**canuck** · December-19-10, 08:04 PM

Thanks to all of you for a real eye opener! I will check it out when I do come to Detroit. The size of it is staggering and for industrial history, is probably matchless anywhere. I like the Edison lab and other exhibits on the grounds of Greenfield Village. All of it is pretty intriguing. Yeah, the city of Detroit certainly is something worth celebrating for its contributions to not just american life but world culture. It proves that it has the power to reinvent itself.

**Gistok** · December-19-10, 09:07 PM

Canuck... yes THE HENRY FORD.... as Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village are now called is a vast indoor and outdoor museum that outdoes even the Smithsonian in many areas of history. When it first Opened in the late 1920s it was called the Edison Institute.

Its' opening celebration in 1929 [[on the 50th anniversary of the invention of the incandescent light bulb).... were attended by President Hoover, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, Marie Curie, George Eastman [[Polaroid Camera founder), Will Rogers, Orville Wright and Harvey Firestone.

Although Ford was able to purchase and move Edison's entire Menlo Park NJ group of laboratory buildings [[and world's 1st lighted house... the Sarah Jordan Boarding House), he also got the Wright Brothers house and Bicycle Shop [[Dayton Ohio), the Victorian Firestone farmstead [[including grand house and outbuildings), the Noah Webster House, from England a Cotswold Cottage and windmill, a London jewelry [[John Bennett's Shop), and a hundred other historical buildings.

There is also a historic railroad with tracks and historic stations circling the village, and a paddlewheel riverboat circling the villages waterway.

Ford tried to buy Philadelphia's Old State House [[Independence Hall), but was rebuffed in his attempt, so he built his own version to be the centerpiece of the Henry Ford Museum [[the long facade of the museum is a composite of the separate historic buildings that make up the Independence Hall complex).

The museum has such a vast assortment of history... Lincoln's Ford Theatre assasination chair, Kennedy's assasination limo, Rosa Parks bus, as well as a lot of George Washington's personal memorabilia.

You would probably need at least 2-3 days to see everything without rushing. Doing the museum and village in the same day would be too much of a rush... and it wouldn't do justice to either.

I'm actually surprised that The Henry Ford is not a UNESCO World Heritage Site...

**stinkytofu** · December-19-10, 09:14 PM

I used to work at The Henry Ford and still volunteer down there regulary [[specifically in Greenfield Village). It is just an amazing place - if you like American history at all you will be completely blown away.

**stinkytofu** · December-19-10, 09:15 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Canuck... yes THE HENRY FORD.... as Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village are now called is a vast indoor and outdoor museum that outdoes even the Smithsonian in many areas of history. When it first Opened in the late 1920s it was called the Edison Institute.

It is still technically called the Edison Institute...it's just dba The Henry Ford.

**Mikeg** · December-19-10, 09:51 PM

Its' opening celebration in 1929 [[on the 50th anniversary of the invention of the incandescent light bulb)....

During their 50th anniversary year in 1979, the Village and Museum also prominently recognized and publicized the 100th anniversary of Edison's invention of the first commercially successful incandescent light bulb. While visiting Washington DC in April of that year, I asked an employee at the Smithsonian's Museum of History and Technology why they did not even have a small temporary display in recognition of the anniversary. His response basically was "has it been a century already?"

LDoolan · December-19-10, 10:23 PM

For those interested I put up a few scans from a 1934 Edison Institute/Henry Ford Museum Brochure that I have.
http://vintagefordfacts.blogspot.com...rd-museum.html

**Downrivergal** · December-19-10, 11:35 PM

I worked at Greenfield Village for a few years before I moved to AZ, and I plan om volunteering there after we move back next year. I recommend it to EVERYONE that visits from out of town and still have many friends that work there

**Gistok** · December-20-10, 01:28 AM

Originally Posted by LDoolan

For those interested I put up a few scans from a 1934 Edison Institute/Henry Ford Museum Brochure that I have.
http://vintagefordfacts.blogspot.com...rd-museum.html

Thanks for the cool brochure!

It shows an interesting aerial view [[artwork) that gives us an idea of its' size. I don't ever remember being in the 2 courtyards??

Also of interest is the comment [[of 1934) saying that the museum is not quite complete yet. They had the opening celebration back in Oct. 1929, but it took a few more years to finish the museum. I also know that the village is a "work in progress"... still occasionally getting additional buildings for the village green.

**leady106** · December-20-10, 08:23 AM

I always thought that the Smithsoian should use the old Pacard Plant complex as as the premeir American Car Museum with the archives of defunct auto manufacturers anlong with a display on the history of motoring. It could also house the big three's concept cars, have space for private colletions on display and be a clearing house for vintage era cars and trucks leased out for movie and tv filming. They can use the surrounding vacant land to relocate/display pre-war and post war gas stations, diners , drive-thru,etc.

**canuck** · December-20-10, 07:08 PM

Okay, my question is this; Is Ford Motor Company and the Ford family heirs more respected than GM and Chrysler for contributions made to Detroit and even to the United States at large? I know all major corporations have foundations and collections and so forth but I noticed there seems to be more implication on Ford's behalf than others. What with the Henry Ford Hospital, the Ford Foundation and of course The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village and countless other stuff...

I noticed a number of posts that held Chrysler at arm's length and GM as a sort of a Big Brother figure looming. That's just from hanging around this forum. Are there generalized opinions about one corporation over another in regard to social contributions?

**Gistok** · December-20-10, 08:09 PM

Canuck.... generally Ford is seen as more beneficial to Detroit in many ways... but GM in other ways....

GM has their HQ in Detroit.... and in the 90 years between 1920 and 2010 they have had 2 HQ buildings... the massive former HQ [[now the State of Michigan Building... called Cadillac Centre) in New Center.... and for about 14 years now has its' HQ in the Renaissance Center downtown.

On the other hand Ford has had its' HQ in the suburb of Dearborn [[surrounded on several sides by Detroit) since the corporation was founded. The old Henry Ford estate consisted of thousands of acres of Dearborn land that today is the nucleus of the Ford HQ, as well as thousands of acres of office, commercial and industrial space. Sadly Ford no longer has any [[significant) employee presence in Detroit.

But from a philanthropic point of view, Ford wins hands down. The Ford family and charites have contributed the founding of Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village, Henry Ford Hospital Corp... with their main campus just west of New Center. Ford family members have also been responsible for massive expansions to the College of Creative Studies [[CCS) in Midtown and now also in New Center. They have contributed to the Detroit Tricentennial, the Riverfront Conservacy, and the building of Campus Martius Park. They also donated to Ford Auditorium, which is no longer considered a suitable performance venue, and has a tentative date with the wrecking ball. There's also Ford Field.... a unique 65,000 seat stadium built into the fabric of a huge department store [[Hudsons) warehouse. There are many other areas that the Ford family/charities have contributed... perhaps some other forumers will add to the list...

One last thing.... the late Henry Ford II [[oldest grandson of the founder) arm twisted 50 other corporations to contribute to the building of the massive 7 tower Renaissance Center... which ironically is the GM HQ today.