Learn about Henry Ford and the Henry Ford Museum
Learn about Henry Ford and the Henry Ford Museum
Overview of the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, from the documentary Riches, Rivals & Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America.
Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
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Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Overview of the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, from the documentary Riches, Rivals & Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America.
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© Civil War Trust (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn about contributions Michiganders made to the Union cause during the American Civil War, including the service of the 102nd Regiment U.S. Colored Troops, raised mainly in Detroit's African American community.
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Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Discussion of the High Line park in New York City and scenes from the groundbreaking ceremony for its third section in September 2012.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Overview of drive-in movies.
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Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, MainzLearn about the German development project known as HafenCity Hamburg, an example of urban planning.
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The automobile became a part of American life in the early decades of the 20th century. After Henry Ford's assembly line production method brought cars within the reach of the middle class, automobile sales climbed steeply, despite the fact that many roads were still unpaved and could be quite punishing on tires and axles. Traffic jams quickly became a part of urban life, especially with cars and horses fighting for right of way.
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Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Overview of Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, from the documentary Riches, Rivals & Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Learn more about the life and career of Henry Ford.
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Checkerboard Film Foundation (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Excerpt from the documentary Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line (2012), in which architect Ricardo Scofidio discusses the inspiration and development of the design for the High Line in New York City.
News •
Ford workers told their CEO 'none of the young people want to work here.' So Jim Farley took a page out of the founder's playbook
• Nov. 28, 2025, 7:49 AM ET (Fortune)
Transcript
[Music in]
NARRATOR: Automobile tycoon Henry Ford was in the business of making history. With the success of the Model T and the assembly line, Ford's signature had turned trademark. He was mobilizing the 20th century, and he knew it.
CHRISTIAN OVERLAND: America's a place of making things. We are known throughout the world as a country that creates innovation.
NARRATOR: The Henry Ford, in Dearborn, Michigan, began as one man's vision to document the genius of ordinary people.
HENRY PREBYS: Ford was very interested in how the average person solved day-to-day-living problems, so he collected things that reflected those issues.
JEANINE HEAD MILLER: Things that were very humble objects that people had used in everyday life—and if he hadn't collected them, they might not still exist.
EDSEL B. FORD II: What I understand of my great-grandfather was this was his personal collection. This was meant to be reflective of what he saw in America at the time.
NARRATOR: By the time he opened his museum in 1929, Henry Ford had amassed tens of thousands of seemingly ordinary objects.
BOB CASEY: All of these things that speak to the broad sweep of American history, the sweep of American society—from ordinary folks to rich folks, ordinary work to Thomas Edison's work—we've got it all.
NARRATOR: Rows of cast-iron stoves, an endless parade of planes, trains, and automobiles, Edgar Allan Poe's desk, the Rosa Parks bus, a silver teapot crafted by Paul Revere, tractors, cotton pickers, and a combine—all are displayed on the planks of the world's largest teakwood floor.
LEO LANDIS: We have this fantastic collection of just different things to—to stimulate different types of people and be inspired in different ways to live your dream.
NARRATOR: Here at the Henry Ford everyday life is elevated to a glorious saga of ingenuity and invention that could only have been made in America.
EDSEL B. FORD II: Where do you go in the world to see a DC-3 hung from the ceiling or a locomotive that's 80 years old that you can actually go and touch and feel and smell—all together in one museum—where you can see a Dymaxion house or see the original Wienermobile or see wonderful automobiles? It's got such a wonderful tactile dimension to it.
LEO LANDIS: It's about never stopping. It's about never giving up. It's about having a dream and trying to realize that dream.
[Music out]
NARRATOR: Automobile tycoon Henry Ford was in the business of making history. With the success of the Model T and the assembly line, Ford's signature had turned trademark. He was mobilizing the 20th century, and he knew it.
CHRISTIAN OVERLAND: America's a place of making things. We are known throughout the world as a country that creates innovation.
NARRATOR: The Henry Ford, in Dearborn, Michigan, began as one man's vision to document the genius of ordinary people.
HENRY PREBYS: Ford was very interested in how the average person solved day-to-day-living problems, so he collected things that reflected those issues.
JEANINE HEAD MILLER: Things that were very humble objects that people had used in everyday life—and if he hadn't collected them, they might not still exist.
EDSEL B. FORD II: What I understand of my great-grandfather was this was his personal collection. This was meant to be reflective of what he saw in America at the time.
NARRATOR: By the time he opened his museum in 1929, Henry Ford had amassed tens of thousands of seemingly ordinary objects.
BOB CASEY: All of these things that speak to the broad sweep of American history, the sweep of American society—from ordinary folks to rich folks, ordinary work to Thomas Edison's work—we've got it all.
NARRATOR: Rows of cast-iron stoves, an endless parade of planes, trains, and automobiles, Edgar Allan Poe's desk, the Rosa Parks bus, a silver teapot crafted by Paul Revere, tractors, cotton pickers, and a combine—all are displayed on the planks of the world's largest teakwood floor.
LEO LANDIS: We have this fantastic collection of just different things to—to stimulate different types of people and be inspired in different ways to live your dream.
NARRATOR: Here at the Henry Ford everyday life is elevated to a glorious saga of ingenuity and invention that could only have been made in America.
EDSEL B. FORD II: Where do you go in the world to see a DC-3 hung from the ceiling or a locomotive that's 80 years old that you can actually go and touch and feel and smell—all together in one museum—where you can see a Dymaxion house or see the original Wienermobile or see wonderful automobiles? It's got such a wonderful tactile dimension to it.
LEO LANDIS: It's about never stopping. It's about never giving up. It's about having a dream and trying to realize that dream.
[Music out]
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