Henry Ford: Founding of the Edison Institute

On October 21, 1929, Henry Ford hosted an elaborate celebration in Dearborn, Michigan, to honor his friend Thomas A. Edison. Known as Light's Golden Jubilee, the date marked the 50th anniversary of Edison's invention of a practical incandescent lamp. The day's festivities began with Edison's arrival -- escorted by Ford and President Hoover -- at Smiths Creek Station in Ford's Greenfield Village.

Scotch Settlement School was where Henry Ford spent his first two years of schooling from 1871 to 1873. In later life, with only a sixth grade education, Ford became known as an educational pioneer with his early Greenfield Village school system. This picture depicts the new class of 1930 at the start of the school year.

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.

The first practical incandescent electric lamp was successfully tested at Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory in 1879. Fifty years later, Edison re-enacted this event at the Menlo Park complex Henry Ford had reconstructed in Greenfield Village. Edison presented this recreated bulb to his friend during the official dedication of the Edison Institute of Technology, Ford's village and museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

Henry Ford commissioned architect Robert O. Derrick to design the museum building for his Edison Institute. By late October 1929 the front portion of the building, inspired by Philadelphia's Independence Hall, was sufficiently completed to host the institute's Light's Golden Jubilee dedication banquet. Construction wasn't fully finished until the mid-1930s.

Henry Ford and Thomas Edison posed with a pair of light bulbs at the dedication of the Menlo Park Glass House, newly relocated to Greenfield Village, on June 6, 1929. The building was a surviving structure from Edison's Menlo Park laboratory complex. It was given to Ford by General Electric -- the corporate descendant of Edison's electricity-related companies -- in 1928.

Henry Ford's Edison Institute was ten years old when this aerial photograph was taken in 1939. Greenfield Village grew considerably in its first decade. Notable additions included the Sir John Bennett store, added in 1931, and the Wright Cycle Shop and Wright Home, completed in 1938. All three buildings are visible near the center of the photo.

In 1928, Henry Ford commissioned a painstaking reconstruction of Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory for Greenfield Village. Researchers referenced photographs and reminiscences from Edison's early employees, and crews incorporated salvaged materials and original structures from the laboratory's long-abandoned New Jersey site. Construction was completed by October 1929, when Ford dedicated his museum and village as the Edison Institute of Technology.

In 1928, Henry Ford commissioned a painstaking reconstruction of Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory for Greenfield Village. Researchers referenced photographs and reminiscences from Edison's early employees, and crews incorporated salvaged materials and original structures from the laboratory's long-abandoned New Jersey site. Construction was completed by October 1929, when Ford dedicated his museum and village as the Edison Institute of Technology.

This 1934 map illustrated Greenfield Village's layout five years after the Edison Institute's dedication and one year after the village opened to the public. Many buildings had already been added, and streets had been named. The steamboat Suwanee was shown at the top center, but the circular Suwanee Lagoon would not be dredged until 1937.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the incandescent electric lamp, Henry Ford hosted the Light's Golden Jubilee in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford chose the occasion to dedicate Greenfield Village to his friend, Thomas Edison. During the festivities, Edison and former assistant Francis Jehl re-enacted the first successful light bulb test (1879) in Greenfield Village's detailed reproduction of Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory.

Henry Ford attended this one-room school from age seven to ten. It became the first classroom of Ford's Greenfield Village school system after the building was moved there in 1929. Henry Ford is shown here greeting schoolchildren at the formal dedication. Thirty-two children were accepted into the first class, spanning ages four through seven and covering grades one through four.

Henry Ford planned the dedication of his museum complex to coincide with the 50th anniversary in October 1929 of Thomas Edison's invention of the incandescent lamp. Surprisingly, there were no photographs taken of the Light's Golden Jubilee banquet so, in the mid-1930s, Ford asked his staff artist, Irving Bacon, to capture the event in this panoramic painting, which took over a decade to complete.

September 27th, 1928, on the future site of Henry Ford's new museum, famed inventor Thomas Edison placed a spade once used by legendary horticulturist Luther Burbank into a block of freshly poured Portland cement. Ford looked on as his friend and personal hero wrote his name in the wet cement, officially dedicating Henry Ford Museum--where this "cornerstone" is now displayed.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the incandescent electric lamp, Henry Ford hosted the Light's Golden Jubilee in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford chose the occasion to dedicate Greenfield Village to his friend, Thomas Edison. During the festivities, Edison re-enacted the first successful testing of the light bulb (1879) in Greenfield Village's detailed reproduction of his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

A series of dark roofs in this 1934 photograph reveals the sheer size and open plan of Henry Ford's Dearborn, Michigan, museum. Ford commissioned Detroit architect Robert O. Derrick to design his museum, which included multiple references to colonial buildings. The most prominent facade was Derrick's detailed replica of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

When Henry Ford sued the Chicago Tribune for libel, the million-dollar lawsuit made national headlines. Ford's shaky court testimony, in which he mangled basic American history facts, shocked lawyers but further endeared him to working people. The trial took place in 1919 at Mount Clemens, Michigan, 25 miles northeast of Detroit. The jury found for Ford but awarded him just six cents.

The cornerstone commemorates the dedication of The Henry Ford. It suggests a union of nature (Luther Burbank's spade) and technology (Edison's signature and footprints). That unity is borne out by the block itself, made from Portland cement refined from blast furnace slag at the Ford's Rouge plant--a great example of Henry Ford approaching industry like a good farmer, denying the concept of waste.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the incandescent electric lamp, Henry Ford hosted the Light's Golden Jubilee in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford chose the occasion to dedicate the Edison Institute of Technology to his dear friend, Thomas Edison. Many celebrities accepted invitations to the gala, including President and Mrs. Herbert Hoover, Orville Wright, George Eastman, Marie Curie, and Will Rogers.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the incandescent electric lamp, Henry Ford hosted the Light's Golden Jubilee in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford chose the occasion to dedicate Greenfield Village to his friend, Thomas Edison. During the festivities, Edison and former assistant Francis Jehl re-enacted the first successful light bulb test (1879) in Greenfield Village's detailed reproduction of Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory.