The Henry Ford Museum
A Treasury of Innovation
The first thing that strikes you upon entering the museum is its sheer scale. The building seems to stretch endlessly, housing everything from presidential limousines to massive steam engines. The Rosa Parks Bus sits dignified and powerful, its green and yellow paint telling a story far beyond its metal frame. I spent a quiet moment there, reflecting on how a single act of courage can change the course of history.
Presidential Vehicles Collection
One of the most compelling exhibits is the presidential vehicles collection. The centerpiece is the Lincoln Continental where President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, preserved as a powerful historical artifact. Nearby, you’ll find the car that carried Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan’s presidential limousine. Each vehicle tells its own story of American leadership and the evolution of presidential security.
Driving America
Moving through the museum, the automotive section is naturally a highlight. Beyond just displaying historic vehicles, the exhibit examines how cars transformed American life. You’ll see everything from a 1965 Ford Mustang to a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air, each car positioned within its cultural context. Interactive displays let visitors design their own cars and explore the evolution of automotive technology. There’s also a lot of history on all of the things that developed because of the automobile, like stop lights, gas stations, car seats, and travel games.
Heroes of the Sky
The aviation exhibit features several historic aircraft, including a replica of the Wright Flyer and the iconic Ford Tri-Motor airplane. What makes this section special is how it connects aviation history to broader themes of American innovation and entrepreneurship. The story of the first flight attendants, originally required to be nurses, provides fascinating insight into early commercial aviation and several of the exhibits are interactive. We loved the evolution of commercial flight and were glad to see wicker chairs were pretty quickly replaced!
Made in America
The manufacturing section showcases everything from early manufacturing tools to modern robotics. Plenty of engines, generators, and inventions can be found. Nearby is the Dymaxion House – the Buckminster Fuller’s aluminum dwelling of the future, demonstrates how visionaries imagined tomorrow’s living spaces.
Clockwork and Timepieces
Although a bit hidden within the museum, spending time in this section was really interesting. It is a collection of historical clocks, watches and mechanical innovations related to timepieces. We don’t think about it often, even though we spend our workdays driven by our Google or Outlook calendars, we rely on gps navigation and integrated traffic patterns to estimate that we will arrive early, on-time, or late and we schedule everything from play dates to morning walks. Clocks and watches really do play such a huge roll in modern life.
Like most museums, this one also has some rotating exhibits. While we were there we saw at least two:
Dinosaurs in Motion
This interactive exhibit showcased life-sized metal dinosaur sculptures that visitors manipulate using levers, pulleys and touchscreens to highlight biomechanics and robotics.
Miniature Moments: A Journey Through Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments
This showcased nearly 7,000 holiday ornaments produced between after 1973.
Needles to say, there is a lot to see and do within this 500,000+ sq.ft museum. We were moving pretty quickly through it and it still took us about a day and half!
In addition there are two other things to do that you should schedule time for – 1) The Rogue Ford Factory Tour and 2) Greenfield Village. Both require separate tickets from the Henry Ford Museum and pre-registration for the factory tour is highly recommended.
The Rogue Ford Factory Tour
A bus from the Ford Museum will transport you to the Rogue Factory.
The factory tour starts with a short film on the history of the Rouge Factory and Henry Ford’s impact on the auto industry. Then a high-tech, multisensory experience provides a fun look at modern car production. A guide takes everyone to the observation deck to learn more about Ford and their latest innovations and green initiatives, including a view of the one of the world’s largest living roofs. Then visitors are left on their own to take a self-guided tour of the factory assembly line were we say the Ford F-150 being built. No photos are allowed in the factory.
Greenfield Village
Walking distance from the Ford Museum (next door to it) is what is known as Greenfield Village. This 80-acre parcel was used by Henry Ford as a way to preserve and showcase American history through historic buildings and working exhibits. Ford was passionate about innovation and wanted to educate future generations about the craftsmanship and ingenuity of the past. He collected nearly 100 historic buildings including, but not limited to:
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- The Wright Brother’s Cycle Shop – where Orville and Wilbur Wright built their first airplane. For more on Wright Brother’s information click here.
- Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park Lab – a reconstruction of where he improved the light bulb and developed the phonograph. For more information on visiting the actual lab click here
- The Noah Webster Home – where the first American dictionary was compiled.
- Robert Frost’s Home – where he lived and wrote for a time.
On a normal day there are also engine demonstrations, glassblowing demonstrations, weaving demonstrations, horse drawn carriage rides, Model T rides and steam engine train rides, but serendipitously, we were visiting during their annual Old Car Festival! Lucky us!
If you are a Ford classic car enthusiast, add this to your bucket list as it really brought Ford’s contribution to life!
Ford Old Car Festival
The Ford Old Car Festival, held each September in Greenfield Village is America’s longest running antique car show. They invite pre-1933 cars, trucks, and motorcycles to attend. We even saw bicycles from the era.
Owners drive their cars up and down the streets of Greenfield Village. Owners and participants often dress in 1900s attire. At night there is a gas and electric light parade of cars. There are games, talks on automotive history and vehicle restoration. We even saw a team of people assemble a model T in a matter of minutes! There were bike races, barbershop quartets and ragtime music. It was really fun and I highly recommend attending during this event if you can.
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We definitely gave this stop more than a honk and wave! There is so much to see and do here and even if you aren’t a “car guy”, you’ll enjoy the vast history in both the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. You’ll enjoy learning more about innovation and the museum’s rotating exhibits. You’ll enjoy the scale of the Rogue Ford Factory Tour and being able to watch the build at your own pace and if you’re lucky enough to go in September, you’ll enjoy the longest running antique car show on earth – the Old Car Festival!
For more info and to get tickets go to https://www.thehenryford.org/
(PLEASE NOTE: we do not receive commissions or take payments for anything we post so the link above is just to help you with planning and booking).
