Greenfield Village with Randomland

Sarah and Henry Ford Statue

Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford museum is an incredible site for social history. I just love it and even though I’ve only made it once, I hope to go back again. I’ve always been sorry it doesn’t get as much press as Colonial Williamsburg, but as time goes on from when I was a kid you don’t hear nearly as much about Colonial Williamsburg either. (2026 will be the 250th anniversary of 1776 come on people, we were much readier than this for the 200th.)

Henry Ford put together a collection of famous homes and businesses connected with famous people. Mostly people associated with the Midwest and the 19th century, but some other pieces of history from farther afield. I was thinking about it the other day and I thought, “hey, I’d like to see a trip video like people do for Disney for the Henry Ford. I wonder if anyone has done that?” Turns out they have. In fact I’ve watched Randomland for Disney related content before so I was glad when a search brought up a video from a trip he took there. It’s 37 minutes and still only the highlights, but it will give you the basic idea.

Either he didn’t do as much prep for this trip or I don’t know enough about the other places he visits to catch things he misses because he definitely missed stuff here.

• That Bubble Top car? That was the car Kennedy was shot it though he mentioned it was Kennedy’s car briefly in passing this is THE car from the assassination.
• Did Ford ask for the Presidential Limos back? Yes, that was one of Henry Ford’s plans. The Ford Motor Company provided the White House with cars for free on the condition that they come back to the company to be displayed in Ford’s museum. Ford’s ideas were either brilliant or kind of evil. This was definitely one of the brilliant ones. They only have them up as far as Reagan’s car. After that the secret service didn’t want them on display so the public could see the security features. I saw the thickness of the windows in Reagan’s car and some of the secret hand hold stuff, pretty impressive.
• That Wright Model Flyer diorama? That’s a real life size recreation of the famous first flight photograph of the Wright brothers. It was not only famous it was on display right there by it.
• The Thomas Edison complex? It wasn’t just built from some remnants. They moved not only buildings, but train car loads of dirt from where they originally stood to make sure they were also standing on the same ground as Edison used them. During Edison’s first tour of the completed recreation he got tired and needed to sit down. They brought him a chair and afterwards Ford had it nailed to the floor what a great story is that?

I also think he missed some major themes that reflected what Ford’s plan was for the village. He was telling a sweeping story starting with his own family and the Firestones and go on from there. (The Firestone company was owned by his in-laws and exclusively provided the tires for Ford cars until a series of blow-outs caused extreme liabilities on Firestone so Ford cut them loose in 2001 ending an almost century long partnership.) It includes where Ford first worked on technology, the lunch wagon he ate at, the original Ford Motor Company (recreation), and the chance to ride a real Model T around the grounds.

Another thread was the story of technology with a heavy emphasis on Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers and the agricultural leader Luther Burbank. He also had a thread on the arts including Robert Frost and Noah Webster. Then there are things that are majorly historic like the Abraham Lincoln things including one of the courthouses were Lincoln practiced law. Then the focus on everyday things like McGuffey’s one-room school.

He did mention the Disney connection, but he didn’t explain how similar the layout of both sites are including the steamboat that used to (and sadly doesn’t anymore) drive around a loop river. They really drove theirs though. We got a double ride because our captain was just being trained and she missed the stop.

There are a couple of more connections to add. Be sure to check out the touring plan podcast episode for the Henry Ford museum. Check out this post from when I talked about the Henry Ford museum and its Laura Ingalls Wilder connection. In this post scroll down to the part about the Mold-a-Rama.

Suwanee River Boat

Sarah S. Uthoff is a nationally known Laura Ingalls Wilder authority and has presented at five of the Wilder homesites, many times at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, many conferences and numerous libraries, museums, and events around the Midwest. She is the main force behind Trundlebed Tales fighting to bring the History, Mystery, Magic, and Imagination of Laura Ingalls Wilder and other greats of children’s literature and history to life for a new generation. How can you help?  Attend one of her programs,  schedule one  yourself,  watch her videos,  listen to her podcast,   look at  her photos, and find her  on   Facebook ,   Twitter ,     LinkedIn ,     SlideShare,   and  Academia.edu . Professionally she is a reference librarian at Kirkwood Community College and former director of the Oxford (Iowa) Public Library.