Ford Motor Company Advertisement, "Young Henry Ford Went to the Fair," 1939

01

Artifact Overview

In 1893, three years before constructing his first automobile, Henry Ford was inspired by an internal combustion engine at Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition. Within a few decades, Ford Motor Company would become a leading exhibitor in expositions throughout the country. This magazine ad highlights the company's historic relationship with world's fairs and advertises Ford's 1939-40 New York World's Fair building.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Advertisement

Date Made

1939

Subject Date

1939

Location

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

64.167.19.541

Credit

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

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Technique

Printing (Process)

Color

Multicolored

Dimensions

Height: 15 in
Width: 10.625 in

Inscriptions

Partial text under title reads: It was summer, 1893. The Chicago World's Fair was crowded, clamorous, exciting. / But a thirty-two year-old mechanic named Ford forgot everything else as he studied a small / gasoline engine mounted on a fire hosecart. He had been working a long time to develop / just such a power-plant. Here was proof that his plans were sound! He hurried home to / his little shop in Detroit, and by 1896 produced a horseless carriage that would really run. Beginning of paragraph underneath: Out of that early Fair came a Ford / conviction, as well as a Ford car. ... Typed at bottom of proof sheet: One page, four colors New Yorker April 29, 1939
Ford Motor Company Advertisement, "Young Henry Ford Went to the Fair," 1939