John Burroughs Statue, "Summit of the Years," in "Burroughs' Grotto" at Fair Lane, circa 1930

THF241784 / John Burroughs Statue, "Summit of the Years," in "Burroughs' Grotto" at Fair Lane, circa 1930
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Artifact Overview

Henry Ford befriended naturalist John Burroughs in the early 1910s. The two shared a mutual love of birds and nature. In 1916, Ford dedicated a wildlife shrine to Burroughs at Fair Lane, Ford's home in Dearborn, Michigan. The "Burroughs' Grotto" contained a heated bird bath, a stone with Burroughs's signature, and this statue of the famed nature writer.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Photographic print

Subject Date

circa 1930

Location

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

84.1.1660.P.O.2468

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Technique

Gelatin silver process

Color

Black-and-white (Colors)

Dimensions

Height: 10 in
Width: 8.25 in

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    John Burroughs: American Naturalist

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    John Burroughs was a keen observer of the natural world. He hiked the woods around his native Catskills home, fished the streams, listened to birdsongs, and cataloged the world he found there in essays that influenced others to find that same love of nature. While other naturalists celebrated towering mountains, scenic vistas, and the untamed wilderness, Burroughs urged his readers to find grandeur in the local, accessible, and familiar.