Past Forward

Activating The Henry Ford Archive of Innovation

Sunday is – at long last - the day we head to Hallowe’en in Greenfield Village. I say “at long last” because the countdown to the next Halloween pretty much starts while our kids are inspecting their candy haul from making the neighborhood rounds.

Our littlest goblin can’t wait to see the “gary gelletons.” Those glowing and dancing skeletons in the gazebo near the covered bridge made a quite a lasting impression during last year’s visit. I recorded a bit of their performance on my phone, and hands-down that clip is the most revisited video in my mobile library. Clifford, now three, has watched it countless times. Whenever he sees it, he feigns frightful shivers, and as much as he enjoyed the video, we enjoyed his reaction. (So thanks to The Henry Ford for that little gift that just kept on giving.) Whenever we pass that gazebo during summer visits to the village, he reminds me of those bony, xylophone-playing dancers.

Dancing skeletons - Halloween in Greenfield Village

I took my son Henry to the village Saturday to watch the plowing with the 1904 Port Huron Steam Engine and Percheron horses at Firestone. It was chilly, so we decided to head to Eagle Tavern to get warm and have lunch. (I’m always ready for an excuse to stop in for Squash Soup and an order of Bubble and Squeak.) Henry pointed out some of the decorations already in place for Hallowe’en in Greenfield Village.

The Raven - Halloween in Greenfield Village

“These look different in the daytime,” he said looking at the headstones arranged on the Village Green. Then he noted that the coffin looked “too new.” He said he thought it should look more worn. When I explained to him that a fresh pine coffin meant a fresh body, I learned that even in broad daylight a fake cemetery can move a shudder through the shoulders of a 10-year-old boy.

With each year, even as the older kids know some of what to expect, they seem to anticipate it with excitement and a little nervousness.

Fun costumes at Halloween in Greenfield Village

Pumpkin Gladiator - Costumes at Halloween in Greenfield Village

We have so many fond memories. Our 20-year-old still tells the story of when she was little and was so mesmerized by the huge bonfire that she completely missed the silent Grim Reaper - until he was right in front of her. Her ridiculous reaction was anything but silent, and we still laugh about it.

Jack-o-Lanterns - Halloween in Greenfield Village

We also look forward to being inspired by some of the more 900 jack-o-lanterns that light the village since we’ve yet to carve ours.

Halloween at Greenfield Village

Our kids are good historians of our visits over the years. They always keenly look for their favorite things, seeing what’s replaced what, what costumes are new, what vignettes are different or have been moved, etc. It seems someone always misses something, since there is so much to see. I look forward to the discussion on the ride home.

Seeing the Headless Horseman - Halloween in Greenfield Village

I know, my daughter looks slightly petrified in this photo – but have no fear – she can’t wait to see the Headless Horseman again this year. She’s determined she won’t be the slightest bit frightened.

A few weeks back, I had the opportunity sit down with Jim Johnson, senior manager of creative programs at The Henry Ford, and learn about a few changes in which I’m sure my kids and others will delight. I can’t wait to see what he described and see my children’s reactions.

But until then, mum’s the word. Or maybe even Dracula is the word. Who knows? Should be exciting with just the right amount of spooky and not-too-scary fun.

childhood, Michigan, Dearborn, 21st century, 2010s, holidays, Hallowe'en in Greenfield Village, Halloween, Greenfield Village, events

Conservators at The Henry Ford have begun to work on the second group of figurines belonging to Polish Mission in Orchard Lake, Mich.

The figurines, which are part of a Panorama created by architect Zbigniew Baran, have educated and entertained audiences, both young and old, for more than 30 years. It’s the only historical Polish Panorama in North America. The 106 characters of the panorama, which dramatizes the history of Poland, are drawn from the struggles of writers, peasants, saints, statesman, soldiers, and artists to remain faithful to the ideals of Christianity and the Polish nation.

Baran, together with THF Head Conservator Mary Fahey and her staff, are working to clean, conserve and restore missing elements of the figures in addition to developing a plan for their long-term care and preservation.

Textile Conservator Fran Faile cleans a figurine using a small vacuum attachment.

Missing elements such as the sword and crucifix for the Mieszkol I (the first king of Poland) figurine were fabricated using historical images as references. Check out the images (below) of the figurine before and after conservation.

Polish Panorama Conservation

Polish Panorama Conservation

To see the panorama in action, take a look at this video from WDIV Detroit in 2011. To learn more about the efforts to continue the conservation work of the figures, take a look at this site.

Report by Mary Fahey

20th century, 1980s, 21st century, 2010s, Michigan, conservation, collections care, by Mary Fahey

Laser artist and maker Mike Gould these past weeks has set up shop in the lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel in Grand Rapids, Mich., as part of the city’s three-week ArtPrize 2012 event. Mike received one of MAKE magazine’s editor’s choice awards during Maker Faire Detroit in July.

Mike Gould and his laser lights during set up at Maker Faire Detroit.

He exhibited his work in the Plaza in Henry Ford Museum. He brought with him and displayed some of the equipment he’s made and collected throughout his exploration of creating art with light. He also very generously shared with visitors his journey and love of the craft.

Visitors to Maker Faire Detroit were able to get their hands on some of Mike’s early DIY laser light equipment.

Henry is checking out Wayne Gillis' Interociter, made with some box-building help from Mike Gould , circa 1974.

Asha gets intense as she checks out Mike’s Willy Maize, built in 2010.

At ArtPrize 2012, Mike talks to daytime visitors to the JW Marriot Hotel, but starts his Stratus 10 exhibit – for obvious reasons - after sundown. The display is very visible from the outside, Mike said. “You can see it from across the river, from the walk bridge and when you’re driving by on the highway.”

Mike has a link to a live photo stream of his display, and his display is featured in a recent Mlive.com compilation video called ArtPrize 2012 in Motion.

Check out Mike’s website for more cool images as well as the ArtPrize 2012 page profiling him and his work.

Michigan, art, lighting, making, Maker Faire Detroit

I always enjoy the unique scent of Greenfield Village: the Model Ts, the trains, the farms, flowers and horses. But I especially delight in the aromas that seem to lead me through the village during Fall Flavor Weekends. As activities in the village celebrate food and flavors – there’s the extra-added bonus of some really wonderful smells, too.

I followed my nose to the cooking demonstrations at seven of the historic homes. During the weekends, the homes display many prepared period dishes, and each has one featured recipe printed on a card for visitors to take home.

Stuffed Squash Recipe at Firestone Farm Fall Flavor Weekends

This recipe card at Firestone Farmhouse calls for smaller squash – but the ladies at the farm supersized it with a beautiful Hubbard squash. The farm kitchen feeds all the workers throughout the farming seasons – not just during the Fall Flavor Weekends, so the women who cook there are accustomed to making large meals.

Stuffed Squash at Firestone Farm Fall Flavor Weekends

My next stop was the Fall Farmers Market situated in the Pavilion. Plants, produce, dairy items, meat, soaps, syrups, candy, kettle corn, fibers, herbs, pies and much, much more filled the open-air building.Spinning at Fall Flavor Weekends

Above, Laura Cuthbertson from Aunt Bea’s Place demonstrates spinning natural yarn at the Fall Farmers Market. It is the sheep farm’s first time participating in the event.

Fall Flavor Jars

Doodle’s Sugarbush’s display had samples, samples and more samples. The Blanchard, Mich., maple syrup and confections’ company drew quite a crowd.

Fall Flavor Vendor

I didn’t know that a sugary tuberous root could be featured in so many delectable recipes until I read the product list for Detroit-based Sweet Potato Sensations.

Fall Flavor Festival

There were handmade brooms, lovely and fragrant soaps, some charming little sculpted mushrooms and so many other curiosities and niceties to treat the senses.

After the market, I made my way around the village to see what else was cooking in the historic homes.

Fall Flavor Weekends

The presenters in small kitchen in the Adams Family Home were busy preparing the featured recipe for apple cake – following the same recipe card that visitors take home.

The 1800s recipe for the cake was published in a 1990 compilation: a reminder that good recipes stand the test of time.

Smothered Porkchops at Mattox Family Home Fall Flavor Weekends

Smothered pork was the featured fare at the Mattox Family Home. That recipe and the peach cobbler looked (and – no surprise - smelled) fantastic.

Next up was a walk to the Edison Homestead. The presenter there shared with guests the wonders of that (then) new kitchen staple: Crisco.

Fall Flavor Weekends

The featured recipe there is a bean soup. The presenter explained how the recipe would have been made in an 1800s kitchen, but also how the soup could easily be adapted using some of today’s convenience products – such as canned beans and tomatoes.

The Daggett Farmhouse is one of my favorite buildings in Greenfield Village. I love the simplicity of the 1750s house and the large fireplace in the center of the home.

Fall Flavor Weekends

This year’s featured recipe at the Daggett Farmhouse is a potato pudding. The rich but simple recipe is from The First American Cookbook, 1796.

Fall Flavor Weekends

After leaving the Daggett Farmhouse, I stopped by the Susquehanna Plantation to see what was cooking there.

Fall Flavor Weekends

The featured recipe is a baked shrimp dish, but when I was there, the ladies in the kitchen were working on dark baked biscuit, sharing with guests some of the challenges of baking over a fire.

I made my way back up to the Ford Home to see what was cooking and found a nice pumpkin fritter.

Fall Flavor Weekends

My last stop of the day was to get a closer look at the 1904 threshing machine in action. Ryan Spencer – the manager of Firestone Farm – shared some great details on the machine in a post last week.

Thresher at Fall Flavor Weekends

A crowd gathered to see it in action. Next Saturday, visitors will get a chance to see some plowing with steam and horses.

The good news is that Fall Flavor Weekends is plural. Meaning, if you missed it last weekend, you’ll have another opportunity this weekend. Check out The Henry Ford website on the event to get the details.

Fall Flavor Weekends

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Greenfield Village buildings, shopping, making, recipes, food, events, Greenfield Village

I have a long-standing fascination with large advertising posters. The collections of The Henry Ford include hundreds of these colorful graphics. As I study them I always wonder about their original purpose.

It starts in the nineteenth century when printers developed a lithograph method that produced brightly colored posters. Lithography, invented around 1798, is a process of printing from a flat surface with a greasy image holding the ink and a wet blank area resisting the ink. It originally produced a monochrome print of a dark image on light paper. In the 1840s printers experimented with using different ink colors and multiple printing surfaces to make chromatic images on one sheet of paper.

Manufacturers and companies quickly adopted the colorful new poster style to promote their goods and services. The posters were glued to building walls and fences, and hung in store displays where they readily attracted the attention of passersby. Companies hired printers who worked with artists to create designs to advertise the products.

This early poster's design, above, is in the style of American romantic landscape paintings of the time. Advertising the Buckeye brand of agricultural equipment manufactured by Aultman, Miller & Company of Akron, Ohio, it exemplifies an American ideal of the machine in the garden. The artist, F. Crow, made this image for the printer, White & Brayley of Buffalo, New York, about 1875. It probably hung in the office of a local equipment distributor where it offered visitors the pleasure of an appealing rural scene.

(THF96683 / 92.157.1) Color Lithograph Poster of Dauntless Sewing Machine, about 1885

This next poster promotes sewing machines made by the Dauntless Manufacturing Company of Norwalk, Ohio, about 1885. The figure is Columbia, a feminine personification of the United States. A complex and detailed image, it surely captured observers' attention and deserved a pause for a long look.

(THF96678 / 84.15.2.1) Color Lithograph Poster of D.M. Ferry & Co.’s Standard Seeds, 1898

This delightful image of four boys eating watermelon epitomizes a summer’s harvest. The attention-grabbing subject matter likely helped to sell the seeds grown by D.M. Ferry & Company of Detroit, Mich. Distributed nationally, the J. Ottmann Lithographing Company of New York, NY, printed the poster in 1898.

(THF96676 / 33.388.34) Color Lithograph Poster for Dr. Price’s Food, about 1910

A complex scene including a seemingly ordinary dining table includes symbolic personalities to gain attention for this unusual food combination of wheat and celery. Columbia, appearing again, serves Uncle Sam and a robust young woman in this poster for Dr. Price’s healthy food products. The U.S. Lithograph Company of Cincinnati, Ohio and New York, NY, made this “Russell-Morgan Print” about 1900-1905.

Over a century ago, changes were taking place in America that made national selling of products advantageous, and manufacturers sought to capture attention with catchy brands and appealing images. Changes in milling of grain lengthened the shelf life so storekeepers far from the original mill were sure to have a good product to sell, and the extensive railroad system allowed rapid and consistent delivery.

(THF96675 / 33.388.5) Color Lithograph Poster for Ben-Hur Flour, about 1900-1905

The team of racing horses coming toward the viewer in the Ben-Hur poster certainly gives a sense of drama. It may be hard to connect the image to the wheat flour product, but the arresting image was meant to attract the attention of potential buyers walking along a town’s street. The Royal Milling Company of Minneapolis, Minn., and Great Falls, Mont., had this colorful poster printed in the early 1900s. At this time, Ben-Hur was a popular motif because the theatrical producers Klaw & Erlanger had made a play in 1899 based on the best-selling American novel written by Lew Wallace in 1880.

(THF96677 / 33.388.54) Color Lithograph Poster for Scotch Oats, 1899.

Like the Ben-Hur poster of the same era, this view of a Scotsman in his Highland kilt gives a sense of adventure and surely attracted the attention of potential buyers on foot. This colorful poster was printed in 1899 with the catchy slogan "Scotch Oats for Brain and Brawn." At this time, stories about the medieval Scottish fight for independence, like Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter, were popular in the United States.

(THF96681 / 89.0.542.5) Color Lithograph Poster for Patterson Aviator of Detroit, about 1911-1916.

This poster of the Wright brothers' Model B biplane has instant appeal. It happens to advertise the aerial entertainment services of the Patterson Aviators of Detroit in the 1910s. I am particularly struck by the fact that in less than ten years, entrepreneurs were using the fruit of Wilbur and Orville Wright's invention begun with their first successful flight in 1903. It grew from an impossible dream to a part of our everyday life. Daredevil fliers in the 1910s and 1920s, also called barnstormers, showed people the possibility of flight by creating high-risk, exciting spectacles soaring through the sky. Crowds flocked to numerous public events like circuses, county fairs, and air shows, eagerly shelling out their hard-earned money simply for the privilege of watching these high-flying acrobatics.

(THF96682 / 91.0.93.24) Color Lithograph Poster for The Spirit of ’18, 1918.

During the First World War, artists widely used an innovative advertising technique for posters that moved away from a factual depiction of a product’s material or event’s subject to an emphasis on appealing to the viewer’s emotions. On the surface, this poster promotes American citizens growing food in their home garden so the farmers’ produce could feed U.S. soldiers training and fighting the war in Europe. The emotional appeal is connecting the effort of home food gardening to patriotic sacrifices akin to those of the American Revolutionary War soldiers. The artist, William McKee, used the familiar motif from the painting The Spirit of ’76, made in 1876 by Archibald M. Willard for the Centennial of the American Revolution. The poster’s title, The Spirit of ’18, reinforced this popular patriotic theme. This poster was made for the U.S. Food Administration in 1918.

(THF96680 / 86.185.38.2) Color Lithograph Poster for Have Fun with a Ford, about 1925

This poster advertises the R& L Time Payment Plan to buy a Ford Model T Tudor Coupe. The National Bond & Investment Company probably offered this payment plan, still a novel concept, through independent Ford dealerships. This double-sided poster was designed to hang in a window and be seen from indoors and outside. Although we do not know the printer for this poster created about 1925, the artist's signature prominently appears in the lower right corner: J.W. Pondelicek.

(THF96679 / 86.15.5.2) Color Lithograph of For Your Summer Vacation, New York World’s Fair, 1939

The artist of this poster, Bob Smith, combined modern and patriotic themes of this world’s fair held near the end of the Great Depression and at the beginning of the Second World War. Promoting the New York World’s Fair theme, "The World of Tomorrow," the Grand Opening on April 30, 1939, harkened back to the country’s beginnings by celebrating the 150th anniversary of George Washington's first presidential inauguration held in New York City in 1789. The beautiful young woman portrayed in front of the world fair’s modern Trylon and Perisphere buildings wears fashionable clothes in the American patriotic colors of red, white and blue.

These posters and many more are part of our museum's online collections. We also offer quality reproductions for a selection of posters on The Henry Ford ArteHouse and The Henry Ford SM/ART Editions. These posters, eye-catching time capsules of popular design, delight and instruct us today. What are your favorites?

Cynthia Read Miller, Curator of Photographs and Prints, is continually fascinated with the museum’s more than 1 million historical graphics.

by Cynthia Read Miller, posters, advertising

We get questions from young and old alike regarding our national treasures. Everything from such topics as historic figures: Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and the Wright Brothers, to our historic objects: the Rosa Parks Bus, George Washington’s camping equipment, or the John F. Kennedy Limo, just to name a few. As Research Specialist in the Benson Ford Research Center, it's my job to respond to these requests.

Student Exhibit

Some of my favorite requests come from elementary students, kindergarten to sixth grade. I personally love working on these inquiries and absolutely love seeing how the information we have is used for so many different projects.

George Washington Camp bed and gear

Typically museums can display only a small portion of their collections at a given time, so I am grateful for these amazing questions that lead me to explore objects I have never seen, such as the "Monkey Bar" Diorama (Object ID 15.1.1/THF49084) or Circus Poster, Barnum and Bailey Present "Marvelous Performances of the Troupe of Trained Cats and Pigs," (Object ID 35.784.119/THF81700).

"Monkey Bar" Diorama (Object ID 15.1.1/THF49084)

Circus Poster, Barnum and Bailey Present "Marvelous Performances of the Troupe of Trained Cats and Pigs," (Object ID 35.784.119/THF81700)

One of our library books is actually among these gems. It’s called Talleyrand Meets the Car Makers. In this circa-1960s book by Ford of Britain, Talleyrand (a very cute toy dog similar to today’s Flat Stanley) goes on tour of a Ford plant to entertain and educate.

Talleyrand meets the car makers

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#Behind The Scenes @ The Henry Ford, educational resources, education, childhood, research, by Stephanie Lucas

I spent this summer interning at the Benson Ford Research Center helping the effort to digitize the museum’s enormous collection. When I started working here, I told a friend our collection has more 20 million 2-D objects. They replied, “Wow, that’s a lot of stuff about cars.” Well, we do have a lot of stuff about cars—everything from old concept car drawings to bumper stickers through the ages. But The Henry Ford collection also includes many other objects.The Henry Ford Museum was established in order to collect and preserve pieces of everyday life that would tell the story of America to later generations. In my time as a scanner, I helped to digitize many objects that we are not exhibiting — I helped to prepare these objects for digital exhibition on our website so we could continue to tell stories about the history of America, and not only that, but reach an even wider audience for those stories.

It’s amazing how advertising has changed in the past 100 years

The Henry Ford online collection is a 24/7 digital exhibition of various artifacts from American history that the museum has collected over the years, an exhibit that keeps growing, an exhibit that you can visit any time, anywhere, for free — if you have Wi-Fi. Before working here, I knew the museum’s collection was impressive, but I never understood how big the collection really was. If I were to keep scanning images, adding about 60 new artifacts to the website every day, it would take me over 50 years to finish updating the website — and I’d be old enough to retire.

The collection is not only enormous, it is also incredibly diverse. I have scanned old trade cards, original baseball handbooks, and pictures from events at the Chicago and New York World’s Fairs. This was an awesome opportunity because many of these objects have never been on exhibit in either Greenfield Village or the museum. Working here, I learned more about the museum’s impressive collection, and in the process, more about American history, facts that we often ignore in history courses, the experience of everyday life.

Letter from The International Chili Society

For example, I spent some time scanning albums of the Unser family. I did know about Bobby Unser’s career in NASCAR, but I learned more about his day-to-day life and his relationship with his family — I saw him as a person I could relate to instead of a distant historical figure. I learned about his love of travel, his fondness for deer, and his passion for cooking chili.

Perusing the archives changed the way I think about history — I understand how events and people from the past are similar to my own life. Drawing these parallels makes the past more familiar and helps to explain how and why things have changed. I enjoyed my time working at the museum very much, and I encourage readers to spend some time looking at the online collection, a fun and enriching historical resource.

Keshav Prasad is a sophomore at University of Michigan, and spent the summer interning for The Henry Ford Digitization Project.

#Behind The Scenes @ The Henry Ford, archives, digital collections, digitization, by Keshav Prasad

Some followers of The Henry Ford’s blog may remember that back in January we told you about our 2012 project to digitize the most “significant” artifacts in our collections. We have been working furiously on getting these artifacts identified and digitized, and while we’re not finished yet, we’ve gotten a lot done, and wanted to share some interesting tidbits about our work thus far.

The basic assignment we set ourselves was to divide the collection into categories, and ask our curators to select the 25 most significant items at The Henry Ford in each of the categories. Though there are many ways one can group items in our collections, for the purposes of this exercise, we chose these groupings:

  • Home and Community Life
  • Information Technology and Communications
  • Transportation
  • American Democracy and Civil Rights
  • Agriculture and the Environment
  • America’s Industrial Revolution
  • Henry Ford (Since Henry Ford is such a significant personage around here, we decided he gets 50 objects instead of 25.)
  • The curators established lists for each grouping, which was no easy task. Criteria of national significance, uniqueness to our institution, and resonance to museum visitors helped guide selections, but there was still a laborious and sometimes painful process of culling to get down to 25 (or 26 or 27 — a few extras snuck through!) objects in each category.

    We also considered the issue of overlap. In the end, less than 10 objects ended up on lists in multiple categories, and where they did, the rationale was very clear. These include the limousine in which John F. Kennedy was shot (which relates to both Transportation and American Democracy and Civil Rights), the Fordson tractor Henry Ford gave to Luther Burbank (which relates to both Henry Ford and Agriculture and the Environment), and a Westinghouse steam engine, pictured below (which relates to both Henry Ford and America’s Industrial Revolution). Most of the overlaps involve Henry Ford, which is not surprising when you consider the origins of this institution.

    Westinghouse Portable Steam Engine No. 345, made circa 1881, used by Henry Ford

    Another really interesting thing about the lists is that though these are some of our most significant artifacts, not all of the items are currently on public display. The majority of the objects the curators selected are indeed located in the Henry Ford Museum: from George Washington Carver’s microscope, located in our Agriculture exhibit; to the Noyes piano box buggy located in Driving America; to the Jazz Bowl, located in Your Place in Time. A few objects are located in Greenfield Village, including the Edison electric pen, which you can view in Menlo Park Laboratory; and Firestone Barn, which is a building, a working barn, and a significant artifact, all rolled into one!

    Firestone Barn. Photograph by Michelle Andonian

    A number of objects selected live in our archival collections, which may be viewed via a visit to the Benson Ford Research Center. These include two-dimensional objects such as a photograph of the first Highland Park Ford assembly line and Ford Motor Company’s first checkbook.

    Ford Motor Company Checkbook, 1903

    Other objects are just too fragile to be on permanent display or don’t have a spot in our current exhibits, so The Henry Ford’s collections site is the only place you’ll be able to view them. These include an embroidery sampler from 1799, a gold bugle, and a Moog synthesizer.

    Moog Synthesizer, 1964-1965

    One object that made the list, the kinetoscope that Thomas Edison invented to play moving images, is not even in Dearborn at the moment—it is on display at the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World in Florida. If you have upcoming travel plans that include Epcot, stop by the American Heritage Gallery and say hi to one of our most significant objects!

    Edison Kinetoscope with Kinetophone, 1912-1913

    So what’s next for this project? Well, we still have about 20 percent of these significant objects left to digitize and make available online, and there are a number for which curators are still writing brief descriptions. Once all the objects are online and well-described, we’ll create sets for each category, so you can browse these gems from our collection by the topic they relate to. Watch for a future blog post when this is complete! 

    Ellice Engdahl, Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford, would definitely include on her personal list of significant collections objects everything from the Rosa Parks bus to the Monkey Bar.

    #Behind The Scenes @ The Henry Ford, by Ellice Engdahl, digitization, digital collections

    The Goodwood Revival is world renowned for celebrating the living history of motor sports. One of the great stories of this year's Revival is the 45th anniversary of the Ford Mk IV win at Le Mans. Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt were the first American drive team and all-American car to win the 24 hours of Le Mans race. This incredible win was supported by the best team in the business, led by Carroll Shelby.

    Many obstacles were overcome to win the race, including the failed windshields of the Ford cars, which were cracking just days before the race was about to start. The millions of dollars that Ford had spent to win Le Mans and beat Ferrari were at risk, because the cars could not be allowed to run with damaged windshields. Ford immediately had a new set of windshields made in the United States and flew them all in first-class seats on a commercial airliner to France. Ford then flew in Terje Johansen, a Norwegian glass engineer living in Brussels, to install the windshields to ensure they would not crack again. Terje worked from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. installing the windshields just hours before the start of the race.

    The rest was, of course, history.

    Today Terje Johansen, pictured on the left and Dan Gurney, pictured on the right met for the first time - 45 years later after the famous win at Le Mans. Terje Johansen brought a set of photographs taken while he was installing the windshields at Le Mans and gave them to Matt Anderson, our Curator of Transportation for the Racing in America archives as part of our Collections to further document the process of innovation in racing.

    Christian Overland
    Executive Vice President

    race car drivers, Henry Ford Museum, Driven to Win, Mark IV, car shows, cars, events, engineering, Goodwood Revival, by Christian W. Øverland, racing, race cars

    Here at The Henry Ford, we participate in a lot of car shows. From the events we host here, like Motor Muster and Old Car Festival, to those organized by members of the car enthusiast community, we love to show off the cars in our collection. While our presenters dress the part for events held in Greenfield Village, it’s not everyday that our team dresses the part of a 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans pit crew just to be able to gain access to a car show.

    This week our Executive Vice President Christian Overland, Curator of Transportation Matt Anderson, and Conservation Specialist Robert Coyle took a step back to the 1960s and left Dearborn for West Sussex, England, to take part in the Goodwood Revival, a car festival celebrating post-World War II (1948 to 1966) road racing automobiles and motorcycles.

    The Revival started in 1995 as a throwback to the original days of racing on the Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit. Races stopped at the track in 1966. Today vintage clothing is a must and you won’t see a modern day car anywhere on site.

    Our THF team accompanied our 1967 Ford Mark IV in tribute to racing legend Dan Gurney, who’s being honored at this year’s revival. Dan and his co-driver A.J. Foyt wheeled the Mark IV to victory in the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans. While the Revival allows cars only from 1948 to 1966, our 1967 Ford was considered very important in the celebration of Dan’s achievements and was allowed to be displayed.

    A big part of the preparation for the Revival was making sure our team had period-correct clothing to wear on site. Robert and Matt are dressed as 1967 Mark IV pit crew members. Our research team, led by Jeanine Miller, Curator of Domestic Life, used photos from the race to make sure every piece of the outfits was correct. In addition to the photos, our Senior Curator of Transportation Bob Casey spent time talking with Charles Agapiou, a Ford mechanic at LeMans in 1967 to insure the accuracy of the clothing.

    Period accurate clothing at Goodwood Revival

    What exactly do their outfits look like?

    • Burgundy short-sleeve shirt with orange buttons: Matt and Robert’s shirts were purchased from Lands End. But our period clothing department expertly tailored the shirts to recreate the more fitted look of the mid-1960s.
    • Blue on a white background Ford oval patch: We had these custom made locally for the work shirts to match the special patches worn at LeMans in 1967.
    • White pants: Lands End jeans were tailored to be shorter for a decade-appropriate look.
    • Chukka boots: The mechanics often wore these to provide some ankle support.


    Christian is dressed as an American businessman traveling with the racing team. Jeanine outfitted Christian in a vintage 60s-era sport coat; new, but decade-appropriate slacks; and a fedora from our period clothing shop. His ensemble is topped off by the classic 60s skinny tie.

    For the visitors to the Goodwood Revival, the three-day event is a celebration of an era gone by. We’re proud to be a part of it – hopefully we’ve played the part as authentically as possible!

    To see what this weekend's action was like, take a look at their streaming feed.

    Henry Ford Museum, Driven to Win, Mark IV, events, race cars, Goodwood Revival, racing, fashion, cars, car shows