Henry Ford: Youth
19 artifacts in this set
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Aerial View of Ford Home (Henry Ford's Birthplace) at Its Original Location, Dearborn, Michigan, circa 1931
Photographic print
Henry Ford began restoration of his Dearborn, Michigan, birthplace in 1919. He repaired or replaced the farm buildings and filled the small, white clapboard house with original or similar furnishings he remembered from his boyhood. He dedicated the restoration to the memory of his beloved mother, Mary Litogot Ford, who died in 1876. In 1944, the house and outbuildings were moved to Greenfield Village.
Portrait of William Ford, circa 1865
Photographic print
William Ford was born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1826. At age 20, he immigrated to the United States and began operating a farm in Dearborn, Michigan. Around the time this photograph was taken, Ford married Mary Litogot. The couple's first child, Henry, was born in 1863 and went on to found Ford Motor Company.
Henry Ford Examining a Watch at Magill Jewelry Store (now Cohen Millinery), Greenfield Village, circa 1945
Photographic print
Pocket watches were the first mechanical devices to catch Henry Ford's fancy. As a boy, he enjoyed disassembling and repairing watches for friends and acquaintances. The interest stayed with Ford throughout his life. This photo captured him looking at a watch in Magill Jewelry Store (now Cohen Millinery) in Greenfield Village around 1945.
Henry Ford's First Violin, 1880-1900
Violin
Henry Ford loved music-especially the fiddle tunes he enjoyed at the country dances of his youth. As a young man, Ford bought this inexpensive fiddle and learned to play it a bit. Though he was never able to play as well as he would have wished, Ford's love of the fiddle and rural dance music remained with him throughout his life.
Pocket Watch, 1850-1875
Pocket watch
Pocket watches were the first mechanical devices to catch Henry Ford's fancy. He made his first successful repair at the age of 13, when he removed the casing on schoolmate Albert Hutchings's watch and extracted a sliver from the works. Hutchings's family donated this watch, believed to be the original, to the Henry Ford Museum in 1933.
Portrait of Henry Ford as a Child, 1865-1866
Photographic print
Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863, and he was no more than three years old when he posed for his first photographic portrait. His parents, William Ford and Mary Litogot Ford, had lost their first son at birth in January 1862, but Henry arrived safe and sound. He was followed by five siblings: John, Margaret, Jane, William, and Robert.
Portrait of Henry Ford at Age 18, Working for Detroit Dry Dock Company, 1881
Photographic print
Henry Ford struck out on his own, at age 16, in December 1879. In quick succession, he worked for Michigan Car Company, James Flower & Brothers Machine Shop, and -- at nights -- Magill Jewelry where he repaired watches. From 1880 to 1882, he apprenticed at Detroit Dry Dock Company. Each job provided him with new skills and experiences.
Henry Ford's Boyhood Workbench inside Ford Home (Henry Ford's Birthplace), circa 1934
Photographic print
Henry Ford first developed his mechanical skills by repairing watches for friends and neighbors. Young Ford never took a fee; he was content with the experience he gained. When his father insisted that Henry should be charging for his services, the boy instead resorted to making his repairs in secret, toiling late at night at a workbench in his bedroom.
Westinghouse Portable Steam Engine No. 345, Used by Henry Ford
Steam engine (Engine)
Portable steam engines like this powered grain threshers, sawmills, or corn shellers. Horses pulled them from farm to farm. In 1882, 19-year-old Henry Ford was able to make this engine run well when an older man could not; his first accomplishment in the adult world. Thirty years later Ford tracked down the engine, bought it, and returned it to operating condition.
Young Henry Ford, circa 1876, with Waterwheel, by Irving R. Bacon, 1935
Oil painting (Visual work)
Henry Ford had his favorite artist Irving Bacon paint several scenes Henry remembered from his childhood. This painting depicts a dam and a waterwheel Henry and a group of friends installed in a small stream. Behind them is the Miller School building, which a grown up Henry had replicated at Greenfield Village.
Scotch Settlement School
School (Building)
Henry Ford attended this one-room schoolhouse from age seven to ten. Because of Ford's fondness for his teacher John Chapman, he not only followed Chapman to Miller School but also brought Chapman's house to Greenfield Village. This school, originally built in 1861 in Dearborn Township, was the first classroom of the Greenfield Village school system Henry Ford started in 1929.
Miller School
Schoolhouse
Henry Ford attended Miller School at age nine. He followed a favorite teacher, John Chapman, there from the Scotch Settlement School. The small, one-room building was typical of rural schools throughout the United States in the 1800s. Ford had this replica built in Greenfield Village in the early 1940s.
Young Henry Ford, circa 1876, Repairing Watches, by Irving R. Bacon, 1935
Oil painting (Visual work)
Henry Ford had his favorite artist Irving Bacon paint several scenes Henry remembered from his childhood. This painting depicts a young Henry working on watches at a small bench set up in his bedroom.
Portrait of Mary Litogot Ford, circa 1865
Photographic print
William Ford and Mary Litogot married in 1861 and gave birth to a son, Henry, two years later. Henry Ford's mother taught him to read and encouraged many of his lasting characteristics. Mary had a profound effect on her eldest child, who remarked after her death during childbirth in 1876 that their house "was like a watch without a mainspring."
Port Huron Steam Traction Engine Pulling Dump Wagons, circa 1895
Photographic print
Henry Ford kept this photograph in a picture frame where he could see it daily. It reminded him of a pivotal moment in his youth. In July 1876, he had his first encounter with a similar steam traction engine. He never forgot the revelation of what could be done by a machine moving over the road under its own power.
Young Henry Ford and Companions in a Workshop, by Irving Bacon, 1938
Painting (Visual work)
Artist Irving Bacon depicted Henry Ford's first workshop in this 1938 painting. It was one of a series commissioned by Ford to illustrate some of the industrialist's fondest childhood memories. Young Henry cranks the bellows at his forge while a friend experiments with the coffee grinder at left.
Young Henry Ford and John Ford Pulling a Sled with a Boiling Kettle, by Irving Bacon, 1940
Painting (Visual work)
Henry Ford and his younger brother, John, pull a sled holding a kettle of boiling water while their mother, Mary, watches from the doorway. The boys are playing train, pretending that the sled is a thundering steam locomotive. This painting is one of several childhood scenes that Henry Ford commissioned from his favorite artist, Irving Bacon.
Ford Home
Farmhouse
Henry Ford was born in this farmhouse on July 30, 1863. The house stood near the corner of present-day Ford and Greenfield Roads in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford grew up in the house and moved out at age 16 to find work in Detroit. He restored the farmhouse in 1919 and moved it to Greenfield Village in 1944.
Henry Ford as a Small Child Being Shown a Bird's Nest by his Family, by Irving Bacon, 1936
Oil painting (Visual work)
Henry Ford, a four-year-old boy in his mother's arms, looks on as his parents show him and his brother, John, a sparrow's nest in a fallen tree. It was Ford's earliest memory, and he had the scene recreated in this painting by favorite artist Irving Bacon.