Lesson: Innovation

This 1914 touring car is one of several Model T automobiles given to naturalist John Burroughs by his friend Henry Ford. Ford Motor Company experienced a milestone year in 1914. The automaker fully implemented the moving assembly line at its Highland Park plant, and it introduced the Five Dollar Day profit-sharing plan for its employees.

In his letter to Edsel Ford, James H. Bear praised Henry Ford and wrote of the freedom that the Model T provided, especially to rural families. Bear, like many people, saw Henry Ford as a visionary and leader with ideal characteristics needed to be successful in future generations.

Henry Ford sat for the official Ford Motor Company portrait in 1904. The company was his third. Ford had success in building cars, but his first company failed and he was forced out of the second. By the time this portrait was taken, Ford Motor Company had survived its first year and was selling its first cars, the Model A.