Building Stories: Foundational Materials
16 artifacts in this set
Ford Home
Farmhouse
Henry Ford was born in this farmhouse on July 30, 1863. The house stood near the corner of present-day Ford and Greenfield Roads in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford grew up in the house and moved out at age 16 to find work in Detroit. He restored the farmhouse in 1919 and moved it to Greenfield Village in 1944.
Young Henry Ford, circa 1876, Repairing Watches, by Irving R. Bacon, 1935
Oil painting (Visual work)
Henry Ford had his favorite artist Irving Bacon paint several scenes Henry remembered from his childhood. This painting depicts a young Henry working on watches at a small bench set up in his bedroom.
Aerial View of Ford Home (Henry Ford's Birthplace) at Its Original Location, Dearborn, Michigan, 1931
Photographic print
Henry Ford began restoration of his Dearborn, Michigan, birthplace in 1919. He repaired or replaced the farm buildings and filled the small, white clapboard house with original or similar furnishings he remembered from his boyhood. He dedicated the restoration to the memory of his beloved mother, Mary Litogot Ford, who died in 1876. In 1944, the house and outbuildings were moved to Greenfield Village.
Scotch Settlement School
School (Building)
Henry Ford attended this one-room schoolhouse from age seven to ten. Because of Ford's fondness for his teacher John Chapman, he not only followed Chapman to Miller School but also brought Chapman's house to Greenfield Village. This school, originally built in 1861 in Dearborn Township, was the first classroom of the Greenfield Village school system Henry Ford started in 1929.
Irving Bacon Painting Depicting Scotch Settlement School in Winter, circa 1870
Photographic print
Irving Bacon, the painter of this scene, was Henry Ford's staff artist and illustrator from 1913 until he retired in 1948. Among his assignments were paintings of scenes that interested Ford, including this one depicting the one-room school Ford had attended as a boy.
Bagley Avenue Workshop, Original Site, Detroit, Michigan, 1915-1930
Photographic print
Henry Ford reconstructed the Bagley Avenue Workshop, the shed behind the duplex house at 58 Bagley where he and Clara had lived, in Greenfield Village in 1933. Ford built the 1896 Quadricycle, his first automobile, in the original shed. Photos of the original building and site guided the reconstruction. Bricks from the actual Bagley house reportedly were used in the replica shed.
Henry Ford with 1896 Quadricycle at Bagley Avenue Workshop in Greenfield Village, June 16, 1933
Photographic print
Henry Ford built his first automobile, the Quadricycle, at his Bagley Avenue Workshop in 1896. This photograph shows Ford and his Quadricycle in front of a recreated workshop at Greenfield Village -- Ford's historical outdoor museum -- in Dearborn, Michigan. The image commemorates the 30th anniversary of Ford Motor Company in 1933.
Interior of Bagley Avenue Workshop in Greenfield Village, 1937
Photographic print
Henry Ford constructed the Bagley Avenue Workshop in Greenfield Village in 1933. It replicated the shed behind the house where he and Clara lived at 58 Bagley in Detroit, and where Henry built his Quadricycle in 1896. The original shed was gone by the 1930s, but bricks from the Bagley Avenue house reportedly were used in the replica.
Henry and Clara Ford in 1896 with Quadricycle, by Norman Rockwell, 1951-1952
Oil painting (Visual work)
In this painting Norman Rockwell gives us an idealized view of Henry Ford building his first automobile in 1896. In a small brick shed behind the Fords' rented home on Bagley Avenue in Detroit, Henry fine tunes a part of the car while his wife Clara looks on, darning socks. The reality was somewhat different. Henry built the little car with the aid of several friends, and much of the work was done in a shop near Ford's place of work, an...
Ford Motor Company (Mack Avenue Plant)
Factory (Structure)
Henry Ford's third automobile company, formed in 1903, set up shop in a former wagon factory on Detroit's Mack Avenue. Ford's small crew assembled Model A cars from components made elsewhere. Within 18 months, Ford Motor Company moved to a larger facility on Piquette Avenue. This building is a replica about one-fourth the size of the original Mack Avenue plant.
Ford Motor Company, Mack Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, circa 1904
Photographic print
Henry Ford's third automobile company, formed in 1903, set up shop in a former wagon factory on Detroit's Mack Avenue. Ford's small crew assembled Model As from components made elsewhere. As sales increased, the original building was enlarged to two stories. By 1905, Ford Motor Company had moved to a larger facility on Piquette Avenue.
Ford Motor Company Employees outside Mack Avenue Plant, Detroit, Michigan, 1903-1904
Photographic print
Ford Motor Company's first plant was a rented former wagon factory on Mack Avenue in Detroit. From 1903 until 1905, this crew of workers assembled Ford automobiles from purchased parts, then inspected, tuned, and prepared each car for shipping. Using this system of small assembly operation, the men produced an average of fifteen finished automobiles each day.
Ford English School Classroom at the Highland Park Plant, 1914-1915
Photographic print
Founded in 1914 to address the language needs for Ford's ever-expanding immigrant labor force, the Ford English School used this method of language training to quickly give students a basic and functional vocabulary of English words to help them integrate into American society. In addition to English, the school also taught students, many attending classes before or after their regular shifts, the requirements needed to pass citizenship tests...
Melting Pot Ceremony at Ford English School, July 4, 1917
Photographic print
In 1914 Ford Motor Company established the Ford English School, where the automaker's diverse immigrant employees could learn the English language and take civics lessons in preparation for becoming U.S. citizens. At the graduation ceremony, students wearing clothing from their native countries descended into a large "American Melting Pot" and emerged wearing homogenous suits and waving American flags.
Crowd of Applicants outside Highland Park Plant after Five Dollar Day Announcement, January 1914
Photographic print
Ford workers disliked the new assembly line methods so much that by late 1913, labor turnover was 380 percent. The company's announcement to pay five dollars for an eight-hour day compared to the previous rate of $2.34 for a nine-hour day made many workers willing to submit to the relentless discipline of the line in return for such high wages.
Magneto Assembly at the Ford Highland Park Plant, 1913
Photographic print
The first Ford assembly line at the Highland Park, Michigan, plant was relatively crude. Here, in 1913, workers put V-shaped magnets on Model T flywheels to make one-half of the flywheel magneto. Each worker installed a few parts and simply shoved the flywheel down the line to the next worker.
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