Letter from Edsel Ford to a Ford Dealer regarding Airmarking a Building in Their City, January 31, 1929
THF288139 / Letter from Edsel Ford to a Ford Dealer regarding Airmarking a Building in Their City, January 31, 1929
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Artifact Overview
Edsel Ford championed the development of commercial aviation in the United States. As an aid to aerial navigation, he wrote letters to Ford dealers encouraging them to paint two things on each dealer's roof: the name of the city and an arrow pointing due north. More than 4,000 communities had aerial markings of some sort by 1929.
Artifact Details
Artifact
Letter (Correspondence)
Date Made
31 January 1929
Creators
Place of Creation
Collection Title
Location
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Object ID
64.167.6.236
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.
Material
Paper (Fiber product)
Technique
Printing (Process)
Typewriting
Handwriting
Color
Black-and-white (Colors)
Dimensions
Height: 11 in
Width: 8.5 in
Keywords |
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Related Artifacts
Artifact"Bulletin on the Marking of Roofs for the Purpose of Aerial Navigation," 1926-1930
Philanthropist Daniel Guggenheim established a Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics in 1926. The fund supported a town identification project encouraging every American community to paint its name and a north-pointing arrow on the roof of a prominent building. Recommended letter height was 12 feet -- to be plainly visible from airplanes 3,000 feet in the sky.