Election Day inspiration – With Liberty And Justice For All

Since today’s Election Day, I figured today was a good day to stroll through our With Liberty And Justice For All exhibit in Henry Ford Museum.

With Liberty And Justice For All in Henry Ford Museum is a great way to learn about America's enduring struggle for freedom, in all of its forms.

As I walked past original copies of Thomas Payne’s “Common Sense” pamphlet and a timeline of momentous events in our country’s history, I was really excited to see so many other people – including groups of high schoolers on field trips and families with the day off from work and school – exploring and, hopefully, learning about all the different ways the United States of America has fought for freedom and this right to vote.

Families were learning more about the original 13 colonies, and where the idea for our country was born.

One of the most important artifacts in With Liberty And Justice For All is one of the original 200 copies of the Declaration of Independence, which Congress authorized in 1823 - only about 30 of these survive today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And being a woman, of course I am intrigued by the “Votes for Women” section of the exhibit – particularly the map that shows, by state, when women were legally granted the right to vote. The struggle by these pioneering suffragists is a fascinating chapter in our country’s history; if you haven’t explored this section of the exhibit, be sure to take a look next time.

It may be hard to believe, but some states didn't ratify the 19th Amendment until 1984.

I hope you’ll have a chance to explore With Liberty And Justice For All the next time you’re in Henry Ford Museum – and I hope it will inspire you as much as it did me, whether it’s Election Day or not.

What other artifacts of With Liberty And Justice For All intrigue you? Any you’d like to learn more about?

Abraham Lincoln in Photographs

Every month our curators spotlight an item from our collections in our Pic of the Month feature.

This month, in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday, curator Cynthia Read Miller looks at images from The Henry Ford’s wonderful, eclectic collection of Lincoln-related photographs. These images span the years from Lincoln’s career as an Illinois legislator during the 1840s to his tragic death in 1865.  Visit November’s Pic of the Month.

Inside the photobooth

We’re excited to announce our newest collection on Flickr:  photobooth portraits, which joins our other historic photos on Flickr in giving new access to our deep photographic collections.   These photobooth shots  give insight into the use of photography in everyday life in the twentieth century, from the 1930s to the 1970s.  The collection includes shots of Harvey Firestone, Jr. and Elizabeth Parke Firestone.*

We’re excited about these photos:  look for a post on the cultural history of the photobooth portrait, coming soon from Cynthia R. Miller, our Curator of Prints and Photographs–and the next time you’re at Henry Ford Museum, take a picture of your own in our photobooth near the IMAX entrance.

 

 

*The Henry Ford holds a great deal of Mrs. Firestone’s couture clothing, as well as the Columbiana, Ohio, farm where Harvey Firestone, Sr. was born, among other Firestone artifacts.

Project Real

Independent museum scholar Kiersten Latham is conducting a study on what it means to experience “the real thing” in a museum.  Contact her if you’re interested in participating!

Can you think of a time when you visited a museum to see something real? How did it feel? What does it mean to you when a museum object is real? How do you know it is real? Does it make a difference in your experience if it is not? Join me in a research study about the meaning of real things in museums.

In previous investigations on museum objects and visitor experience, I have found that a common explanation for a strong reaction to a museum object is that it is “Real.” It left me curious as to what people mean by this. What is it like to experience something real? The issue about “the real thing” is especially pertinent in today’s digital age where the majority of Americans have joined in a lifestyle that involves a large amount of time in virtual and electronic worlds. With technology supplanting many physical things in our lives, how important is it to see the real thing? If you can think of specific encounters with real things and would like to describe these encounters to me, please contact me, Kiersten Latham, at kierator@yahoo.com to learn more about participating in this study.

W. A. Floyd, Union Scout

Tintype Portrait of W. A. Floyd, aged 17, circa 1859 (29.3170.3)

In 1929, Henry Ford sent a questionnaire across the country to men and women aged 75 years or older that asked about their childhoods in the early 19th century. Over 100 people responded with detailed accounts of their lives and so collectively created a wealth of memories of one of the most transformative periods of American history.

Historical Resources intern Christine Driscoll has written a series of guest posts on the 1929 questionnaire.

The last two years I was in the army there was a price placed on my head.

This statement came from W. A. Floyd, one of the respondents to the questionnaire Henry Ford sent across the country to men and women over seventy-five in 1929. The men and women who wrote back were all born before the Civil War, but few were old enough to serve in the army at the time. Floyd was one of the few men who did and his stories of his time as a scout for the Union Army in Georgia are the sort of war – adventure tales that have provided material for books and movies for nearly a century.

The duty of a scout is to survey the enemy’s location, strength, and size. Any information that could be attained to ensure victory was worthwhile. In this case, Floyd rode around Northern Georgia to gather information about the Confederate Army’s status. At other times, he searched for train robbers and other Confederate spies.

After enlisting in the Union Army, Floyd arrived in Dalton, Georgia and partnered with another scout called Woody. Of Woody Floyd said:

I rode many a day with Woody when he had a man’s ear in his pocket. He was the worst man I ever saw – he would kill a man but if he took him prisoner he would treat him like a brother, but he took very few prisoners.

It was with Woody that Floyd went to capture a band of Confederate men camped in Ellijay, Georgia.

Number please

54!  That’s how many telephones are now on exhibit in the Henry Ford Museum.  The exhibit is one of our new “collections platforms,”  a new way to spotlight some of our under-the radar-collections.

The telephones span from one of Thomas Edison’s experimental phones (a “loud-speaking” chalk phone) to a first-generation iPhone, showing the different ways people have communicated by voice in the last hundred years.

Many of our telephones are from the turn of the twentieth century, an exciting time in phone development.  Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated a working telephone in 1876, and a number of key patents and discoveries were in place by 1900, so that the wall phone was a reliable but still rare and fascinating instrument.

Around 1900, the Bell Telephone system and their manufacturing company Western Electric were market leaders, but they served mostly urban areas on the East Coast.  Independent telephone systems sprang up to provide service to rural customers and customers in the Midwest.  C.J. Moore, who I’ve written about elsewhere, was a Michigan entrepreneur who both ran an independent phone company and manufactured his own phones.  Most independent phone service providers used phones from independent telephone manufacturers, like Stromberg-Carlson, a Chicago company whose “farmers’ phone” was the introduction for many rural Americans to the way telephones could shrink long distances.  Other independents used phones imported from Europe, like this Siemens-Halske phone from Germany.

Early phones included a battery, a magneto for signaling (powered by a crank), and a ringer, so though the candlestick desk phones on exhibit might look small, each would have a companion ringer box hanging on the wall, or discreetly tucked under a desk.

We have rotary phones, touch tone phones, pay phones, business phones, car phones and cell phones.  Come by the exhibit, located in the front of the museum between With Liberty and Justice for all and Made in America, and see the diversity of telephone history.

19th Century Celebrity Sightings

In 1929, Henry Ford sent a questionnaire across the country to men and women aged 75 years or older that asked about their childhoods in the early 19th century. Over 100 people responded with detailed accounts of their lives and so collectively created a wealth of memories of one of the most transformative periods of American history.

Historical Resources intern Christine Driscoll has written a series of guest posts on the 1929 questionnaire.

In the 19^th century celebrity sightings were just as exciting as they are today. So much so that in responses to the questionnaire that asked them to look back on their lives and memories, many men and women told of themselves or their family members meeting a famous person. The list of people ranges from those whose fame lasted into our own century – men like Jesse James and Abraham Lincoln, to more obscure persons like an opera singer named Lillian Nordica.

Who the respondents name-drop is more illuminating about the person writing than it is about the famous person. Although these men and women wrote about their lives, facts about their status were left out of the responses because it was irrelevant to the questions the Henry Ford sent to them. The question “Are, or were, you a famous person?” unfortunately wasn’t included on the questionnaire.

Through reports of celebrity sightings, we can gather an idea of who respondents were and what they valued. Which famous people were worth mentioning in an account of their lives? Regularly, it was famous people who had something to do with the respondents’ careers. Of course, some tailored their response to the audience and so a few men wrote of meeting a young Thomas Edison.

The most illuminating case of connection through a celebrity came from two women from New England.

From the Research Request Inbox

Fedora, 1920-1940 (00.1510.86).  From The Henry Ford Historic Costume Collection, and one of many items viewable in The Henry Ford’s and Wayne State University’s “Digital Dress” database.

While work in the archives may not provide the same thrill level as underwater exploring or storm chasing, we archivists usually love what we do. Besides whipping archival collections into research-ready shape and providing means of access for said collections, some or our work at the research center involves answering external research questions, both written and in-person, about Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company, and Henry Ford’s other interests and activities (of which he had a lot!—including the founding and running of our own institution), the buildings and artifacts housed at Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum, as well as more general topics in American history. Some of these questions are oft-repeated, others more obscure, a few of them quite perplexing, but all of them fascinating in some way, if only to show research trends and public interest in American history. Here’s a sampling of queries that have come into the inbox or across the reference desk lately:

1. I am curious as to whether the “Ford Psalm” was written by my mother and her friends or copied from a publication.
2. Period resources illustrating men’s fashions from the late 1920s to early 1930s, to be used for a Model A restorers’ club judging standards.
3. Do you have any information on the 1928 Flying Quail radiator ornament? Do any drawings or clay or plastic models still exist?
4. What was the impact of machine shops on communities in the 19^th century?
5. What was the occupation of a “Diamond Man” that would have worked for Ford around the 1920s?
6. Could you verify whether a 5-ton truck was custom built for a Mrs. ___ in the late 1930s? She would have used it to travel across Europe and Africa.
7. Regarding the Henry Ford “Help the Other Fellow” penny: Do the pennies tie in to Ford’s Senate race in any way? Were Henry’s pennies copper?
8. Can you shed light on a 1925 Lincoln Limousine which was supposed to have been owned by Greta Garbo?
9. Looking at images of the Wright Brothers Home and Cycle Shop as the basis for children’s book illustrations.
10. Background research on the painter Irving R. Bacon for an art gallery organizing an exhibition.

Historic photos on Flickr

Girls reading outside a bookstore, New York or New Jersey, 1890-1910, by Jenny Chandler

The Henry Ford has an extensive collection of historic photos, and we’re excited to make them more accessible on the web.  We are hoping to join the Flickr Commons, but we couldn’t wait to share these pictures with you!  For starters, we’ve put up on our Flickr page a collection of the photos of Jenny Chandler, an early twentieth century woman photojournalist from Brooklyn.  We’d love to know more about the photos and their subjects:  can you help?  Take a look at the collection.

We’ve also posted a set of Ford Model T advertisements on Flickr, and we have a collection of photographs called Image Source up on our own website too.

Please check out our photos on Flickr and tell us what you think, or if you see your great-great grandmother!  What other images would you like to see The Henry Ford share on the web?