Expert Sets

The experts at The Henry Ford have carefully created these sets. Explore a specific topic or use these as a foundation for building your own collection.

Bicycles

Created 05.06.2025 | 25 artifacts

In the 19th century, bicycles introduced Americans to the power of personal transportation. Early two-wheel vehicles set the pattern. High-wheelers carried riders faster and farther. Chain-driven safety bikes fueled a late-century bicycle boom. When that boom went bust, children kept riding until adults rediscovered biking's benefits in the late 20th century. This set features highlights from The Henry Ford's collection of bicycles.

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Doris Lee

Created 03.13.2025 | 6 artifacts

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Selections from the Stewart Collection

Created 02.07.2025 | 12 artifacts

In August 2024, The Henry Ford welcomed the donation of hundreds of objects, an archive, and library from the Stewart Program for Modern Design in Montreal, Canada. Acquired over decades through the careful selections of founder Liliane Stewart and her staff, the Stewart Collection spans over 140 years of design history and represents the work of hundreds of designers. The following selection offers a glimpse into this seminal collection.

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Sheep

Created 02.07.2025 | 12 artifacts

Sheep supply two items essential for human survival, wool for clothing and meat for food. This makes them a farm asset, but protecting sheep requires vigilance. Sheep are social animals with an instinct to move together as a flock. Shepherds use dogs to help protect their flock and herd animals from pens to pasture and back. The close bond conjures visions of a bucolic rural past, emphasizing human-animal relationships.

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Pennsylvania German Aesthetics

Created 11.04.2024 | 12 artifacts

The Pennsylvania Germans, popularly known as the Pennsylvania "Dutch," were a vibrant immigrant community active in southeastern Pennsylvania in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Henry Ford has a rich collection of objects that show the Pennsylvania Germans' flamboyant, whimsical, playful, and highly imaginative artistic style. These pieces are a few of the highlights.

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Illustrating the Holidays

Created 11.04.2024 | 15 artifacts

Artists have illustrated holiday cards since Henry Cole sent the first modern-day Christmas card in 1843. Over the next century, card publishers hired artists to design festive holiday works--many artists went unrecognized. However, by the mid-twentieth century, American greeting card companies actively promoted cards designed by well-known artists. This sampling showcases the stylistic range of notable twentieth-century artists and illustrators.

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Robert Frost Home

Created 10.09.2024 | 12 artifacts

No former residents of this house were as famous or as internationally renowned as American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963). This house, discovered by Henry Ford on a drive through Ann Arbor, Michigan, became a stellar example of Greek Revival architecture in Ford's Greenfield Village, and it still exhibits furnishings from the period. Only within this century has its most celebrated resident reclaimed his rightful place.

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Dinosaurs in the Collections of The Henry Ford

Created 05.29.2024 | 10 artifacts

What is a dinosaur? A "terrible lizard" -- the name given to a large group of reptiles, which died out approximately 65 million ago (though today's scientific community indicates modern birds are evolutionary relatives)? Or is a dinosaur something that is impractically large, old-fashioned, out-of-date, or obsolete? In 2024, curators at The Henry Ford found some fascinating "dinosaurs" lurking in our collections.

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Women's Equality

Created 03.13.2024 | 22 artifacts

These artifacts provide a small look at the many forms women’s struggles for equal treatment – under the law, at work, and in their private lives – have taken over the years.

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