Michigan museum exhibits are examples of ingenuity & creativity
By Jason Chiang
Located in Dearborn, Michigan, the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation immerses visitors in the ingenuity, resourcefulness and creativity that helped build America. The museum aims to preserve and restore important moments in American innovation in order to inspire people to shape a better future. From the history of the automobile and pioneering technologies which made aviation possible, to exploring America’s rich cultural history and Thomas Edison’s personal laboratory, the Henry Ford museum tells the stories of the incredible innovations and the people behind them.
At the Henry Ford museum, great innovators have their stories told through interactive exhibits and a massive collection of rare historical artifacts. Here, visitors can pay homage to some of America’s most important thinkers and doers.
“The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation showcases the ideas and innovations, technological and social, that have changed our world and continue to inspire on a daily basis,” says John Neilson, vice president of venues at The Henry Ford. “It’s the only place where visitors can browse through the world’s premier automotive collection, explore the early years of flight, walk past an array of presidential limousines and see an unparalleled collection of artifacts representing powerful change.”
The Henry Ford includes four venues: the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, Greenfield Village, Ford Rouge Factory tour and the Benson Ford Research Center. It is also home to the Henry Ford Academy, a public charter high school. The Henry Ford is among the largest indoor-outdoor museum complexes in the US.
The museum is named after the American industrialist and automobile industry pioneer who founded the Ford Motor Company. Even though he did not invent the automobile or the assembly line, he was instrumental in launching the first automobiles that many middle-class Americans could afford in the early 1900’s.
When the Ford Motor Company introduced the legendary Model T automobile in 1908, it provided an affordable transportation option to the masses and became an iconic symbol of America’s age of modernization.
Ford’s contributions to the automotive industry are on full display in “Driving America,” one of the must-see exhibits at the museum. It features more than 100 historic vehicles and 20 interactive touchscreens with activities, video interviews, images and information about the automobile’s amazing history.
In 2004, the Ford Motor Company launched a new partnership with the museum: The Ford Rouge Factory tour. It features a fully-functioning on-site automobile manufacturing facility for visitors to experience. It is a self-guided, five-part tour that showcases how Ford F-150 trucks are made in real life.
In 2014, The Henry Ford premiered its first-ever national television series, ‘The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation’, in partnership with the museum. The Emmy-winning show highlights present-day innovators, who challenge themselves to think outside the box and create new solutions for a better future. Each episode also highlights the Henry Ford museum’s artifacts, unique experiences and upcoming special exhibits and events.
Another programme is The Henry Ford’s annual National Invention Convention, where the next generation of young inventors and entrepreneurs from across the US get to put their best ideas on display. The event brings together winners of youth invention and entrepreneurship competitions from across the country. (SPAN/TWF)
(Photo courtesy:
Henry Ford Museum of
American Innovation)