June’s post comes to you as a rubric without a body of text:
“Henry Ford’s Complicated Relationship with Agriculture (and agrarian life).”
Exhibit A: Progress Through Industrialization!
Exhibit B: Down on Ye Olde Farme.
Discuss.
May is on its way out, and spring has finally established itself in this neck of the woods. Let’s close out the month with a May Festival held at Greenfield Village back in 1930.
In this celebration at Greenfield Village, approximately 250 children participate in versions of traditional May Day festivities. Some children carry arches of flowers, some are in costume, some are part of the queen’s court. We witness the crowning of the Queen of the May. Various old-fashioned dances are performed for the queen and her court, as taught by dance instructor and head of Greenfield Village Schools, Benjamin Lovett. (My favorite is the Jockey Dance!) Dances are also performed around a Maypole, and all participants take part in dancing the quadrille. The film closes with older children dancing in the Lovett Hall ballroom and an aerial view of Greenfield Village.
Noting that the festival was May 24, this archivist was somewhat surprised at finding it not uncommon for May Festivals to be held later in May, rather than on May Day, May 1 (having nothing more to go on than vague memories of elementary school Maypole dances–not to mention different connotations of the day, such as observances for the Labor movement and disaster preparedness for libraries, archives, and museums). Presumably this timeframe was built around when the weather got nicer in northern climes? Or perhaps it was the influence of the Dutch and later African American observances of Pinkster celebrated in late May or early June, some of which included Maypoles, and which, though tied linguistically to the church year–Pinkster deriving from the Dutch for “Pentecost”–were quite obviously also linked to the seasons and growing conditions. On the other hand, May Day and May Festival observances in Europe seem not to have been rigidly fixed to May 1. Did they party the whole month long? Sometimes they did, it would seem (with a translation into modern English courtesy of Wikipedia), or perhaps mixed and merged practices with other similar festivals.
Although the upcoming Memorial Day is a time of reverent, even somber, remembrance for many, let us also look to the joys of spring and warmer weather.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (as so many old newsreels began), the eyes of the world were turned towards the future. The 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair opened April 30, 1939, and ran for two seasons. Its theme was the “World of Tomorrow.” On the heels of the Great Depression and the eve of world war, the fair’s exhibits looked with optimism to the future: What would be in store in technology, commerce, politics, culture—indeed, in all spheres of life and society? And how could technology and design be applied to build a better future? The many exhibits, grouped by themed zones (Transportation, Communication, Food, etc.), showcased existing streamlined and futurist styles and ideas and in turn influenced their continuation and development. Along with the dreaming and high concepts, though, there was a lot of good old-fashioned fun—located in the popular Amusements Area.
The Ford Motor Company pavilion was designed by two powerhouses of industrial design and architecture, Walter Dorwin Teague and Albert Kahn. Ford’s contribution to the fair included as its centerpieces the Road of Tomorrow and the Ford Cycle of Production, both seen here.
But this film offers a wider view of the fair, not just a peek at Ford’s offerings. It opens with footage of Manhattan, the George Washington Bridge, and aerial views of New York City and the New York World’s Fair grounds at Flushing Meadows, Queens. Then it moves on to views of the U.S. Government Building and various state buildings and pavilions representing industry and trade including AT&T, U.S. Steel, Westinghouse, Goodrich, Chrysler, and General Motors (which, with its Futurama exhibit designed by Norman Bel Geddes, is generally considered to have outshone Ford’s exposition that season). Next we see the Ford Exposition Building, including the large mobile mural by Henry Billings, the “Ford Cycle of Production,” the theater, gardens, fountains, and exhibits and demonstrations including the processing of soybeans and the casting of molten iron. People get into Ford automobiles for the “Road of Tomorrow” ride on spiral ramps in and around the building. Views of the amusement section of the fair include dancing, ice-skating, a parachute jump, souvenir stand, and food venues. The film closes showing the fair at night, the effects of lighting (the first practical fluorescent light debuted at this fair), and fireworks.
For more about the 1939 New York World’s Fair, you could start with an article and photo gallery at Wired, and then, for even more information on all the World’s Fairs, head over to the “World’s Fair Community” forum (which will take you to the 1939 NY pages) and “Welcome to Tomorrow” maintained by the University of Virginia’s American Studies department.
In just a little over two weeks, Greenfield Village opens for the season. In celebratory anticipation, let’s look at a film featuring the Village.
In this film from 1937, we see Henry Ford visiting with people in various historic buildings in Greenfield Village. He is shown passing by Cotswold Cottage–my personal favorite among the Village buildings ever since my childhood visits–which was then called Rose Cottage, and visiting Cotswold Forge to watch blacksmiths at work.
Next we see Ford discussing a circle of stones on the grounds with Edward Cutler, chief architect of the village, and examining a rare book (careful with that binding, please, Henry!) with two young women, probably Edison Institute students.
Also shown are Henry Ford and Robert Boyer in the Dearborn Engineering Laboratory, located in the Engine and Electrical Engineering Building (or “EEE Building”), adjacent to The Henry Ford, with a wooden pattern of a machine. The machine, unidentified, was probably related to soybean research. Boyer spent many years working on soybean-related products for Henry Ford.
When you arrive at Greenfield Village (since this clip has surely gotten you ready to visit as soon as it opens on April 15!), you’ll see, to the left of the fountain in the Josephine Ford Plaza, the Benson Ford Research Center (BFRC). Housed at the BFRC is the Greenfield Village Building records collection. Commonly known as the “Building Box” collection, it contains archival information, including text and photographs, about Cotswold Cottage and the other Greenfield Village buildings. In addition, the BFRC holds Ford Motor Company’s historic records, including other archival collections having to do with Henry Ford’s interest in and experimentation with uses for soybeans.
Clara Bryant Ford is famously known as “The Believer” for her devotion to her husband, Henry Ford. In fact, it was Henry who gave her this nickname. Throughout their fifty-nine years of marriage, she was Henry’s supporter, confidante, and advisor. The name was bestowed during their early years together, when Clara ran their household on a shoestring budget and endured frequent moves, while Henry tinkered and toiled perfecting his vehicles and pouring their money into attempts to establish a profitable business.
Backing up just a bit, here are a few lines of romantic verse that Henry penned to Clara on the Valentine’s Day before their engagement in 1886:
May Floweretts of love around you bee twined.
And the Sunshine
of peace Shed its joys o’e your Minde
From one tht Dearly loves you
After Ford Motor Company became a success, they lived more comfortably, finally putting down roots in their estate, Fair Lane, that they had built along the Rouge River in Dearborn.
Clara always enjoyed gardening, especially flowers. At Fair Lane, she installed a five-acre rose garden. Here, she and Henry are strolling together on their grounds near the riverbank.
The two were also fond of old-fashioned dancing, having gone to many dances together during their courting days. Later on, they held frequent ballroom dances around Dearborn. Here, Henry and Clara can be seen kicking up their heels in the barn at Henry Ford’s birthplace.
Two excellent sources for learning more about Clara Ford and Henry and Clara’s life together are the book Clara: Mrs. Henry Ford by Ford R. Bryan (Dearborn: Ford Books, 2001) and sections of the book The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century by Steven Watts (New York: Vintage Books, 2006)
We close out January looking at another video showing Ford Motor Company’s assembly line processes—plus a whole lot of Model T. “Ford Automobiles, 1903-1917″ shows Model Ts—and more Model Ts—being driven everywhere under a variety of conditions: in the United States, at other spots around the globe, in cities, on winding country roads, in the desert, up in the mountains, in races and on parade (well, it’s Ford tractors here), off-road in the mud, and in the snow—including being pulled like a sleigh by a team of horses. We also see the different body styles available plus changes to the car over about half of its long production run (along with views of its predecessors, including the Quadricycle—Henry Ford’s first car, the 1903 Model A, and possibly the Model N).
Even though it wasn’t the main theme of the film, what jumped out at me—besides the ubiquity and versatility of this car, which I presume was the theme here—was the ‘hacking’ of the Model T, as seen in its conversion to a camper, riding on train rails, and to a certain extent the aforementioned sleigh ride. Indeed, it was not just the garage tinkerers at work here; a whole industry sprang up around the “Universal Car,” offering various modifications to, and in a related vein, aftermarket accessory components for the Model T, in both areas using the Tin Lizzy’s barebones state as a canvas for welcome and often creative customizations. Today, as we see a reemergence of the DIY movement, it’s interesting to look back at earlier generations doing similar things. One subset of DIY includes ‘modding’ or ‘hacking’ readily available mass-produced objects. Today, that near-universal brand, IKEA, is a popular target. As we’ve seen in this trip down Memory Lane, the Model T was a favorite of yesteryear. (Our Video of the Month isn’t even the best example of Model T or other Ford vehicle hacks. I’ll leave it to the viewers to discover some of the others!) This very particular form of engagement with a product speaks to that product’s popularity, utility, and versatility—and to human ingenuity.
On the shortest day of the year, we’ll keep things short and sweet, and celebrate the first day of winter by showing Henry and Clara Ford having some cold-weather fun.
Here’s to a happy winter for everyone!
In honor of Thanksgiving, this month’s video is a portion of “Harvest of the Years,” produced circa 1938. One of the longer clips in our collection, and one of the few produced with sound, it showcases the spectrum of automobile production, from raw materials to finished product and testing, with a focus on activities of the Rouge River Plant, from the production of raw materials such as steel and glass through to assembly. Design and testing are also given a look. Pervading the film is an emphasis on looking ahead to a better future aided by ever-advancing scientific and industrial progress—a dominant attitude of the time, and indeed one which sometimes lends itself to parody today. On a more serious note, perhaps striking for today’s viewers is the degree of recovery and reuse of waste materials in practice—something not so common in that era, but implemented at Ford primarily due to Henry Ford’s abhorrence of waste (which Ford Bryan discusses at various points in his book Beyond the Model T: The Other Ventures of Henry Ford). One famous example of by-product reuse, although not mentioned in the film, is Ford’s charcoal briquettes, originally produced from wood waste generated at its Kingsford plant in Northern Michigan. Also noteworthy, despite its ad-copy hyperbole, is the mention of the accumulation and sharing of knowledge for the betterment all of humankind–an ideal we see mirrored in the nobler of our online aspirations today. No matter what their origins, these ideas and practices of efficiency, quality, waste reduction, and reuse can certainly continue to inspire.
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