The current What We Wore exhibit in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, on display until December 12, features costumes worn for Halloween and masquerade parties.
There is something compelling about wearing costumes — they can both reveal and disguise.
Costumes reflect our personality and interests. Show off our creativity. And let us take on another identity — transforming into someone or something else as we step out of our daily routines.
18th-century-style costume made by the Eaves Costume Company for Henry Ford, 1929. / THF154824, THF154830. Gift of the Clara Ford Estate.
18th-Century Style
In early 1929, Henry Ford asked a New York theatrical costume company to create this colonial-era costume for him. He said he wouldn’t need it until fall.
Ford was planning a celebration for October 21 of that year — one commemorating the 50th anniversary of Edison’s invention of the incandescent light. (The museum and village were formally dedicated that same day.) Did Ford intend to greet his guests at the evening banquet wearing 18th-century-style clothing? After all, they would be entering the museum through a replica of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall.
We’ll never know. Ford’s intentions remain a mystery — he hosted the event wearing contemporary formal dress. Whatever Ford’s plans had been, we do know that he felt the completed garments were too elaborate — even suggesting that some of the embroidery and bead trimmings be removed!
Henry Ford enjoyed wearing costumes from time to time. Dressed in 19th-century clothing, Henry, his wife, Clara, and their guests danced to the quadrilles, schottisches and polkas of Ford’s youth in the ballroom of the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 1926. | THF148956. Gift of the Ford Motor Company.
Rabbit costume worn by a member of the Firestone family, 1956. | THF196404. Gift of Mrs. William Clay Ford, Mrs. John F. Ball and Mrs. William Leatherman.
Masquerading as Rabbits
When Harvey and Elizabeth Firestone purchased an oceanfront summer home in Newport, Rhode Island, in the early 1950s, they joined other wealthy, prominent people in Newport’s exclusive social scene. The White Elephant Ball, a masquerade party held at summer’s end, was one of Newport’s most sought-after soirees.
Elizabeth Firestone’s closet was filled with couture garments by prominent designers — her fashions were the talk of society. She was just as discerning — though more playful — when choosing costumes for the White Elephant Ball. In 1956, the Firestone family’s costumes reflected a whimsical fairyland theme — they came dressed as a family of humanlike rabbits.
Harvey and Elizabeth Firestone’s daughter Anne in her rabbit costume at the White Elephant Ball in 1956. | THF711467. Gift of Mrs. William Clay Ford, Mrs. John F. Ball and Mrs. William Leatherman.
Guests, dressed in masquerade costumes, gathered at venues like the Newport Country Club each year at summer’s end for the White Elephant Ball. | THF710383
Children's Costumes
Whether for dress-up play or to celebrate Halloween, homemade or store-bought, kids love donning costumes that reflect their personality or interests — letting them dream and use their imaginations.
Pirate costume made by Halco, 1940-1949. | THF196646
Pirate
Taking on the identity of a pirate is appealing — perhaps because pirates get to behave in ways that non-pirates don’t!
Drum Majorette costume, 1950-1955. | THF196359. Gift of Jeanine Head Miller.
Drum Majorette
Costume trends come and go. In the 1950s, drum majorette costumes were popular — kids could imagine themselves leading a marching band through the town!
Snow White costume, about 1960. | THF196315, THF196339. Gift of Mary Sherman.
Snow White
Since the 1930s, kids have enjoyed imagining themselves as a favorite character from Disney’s popular animated films.
Astronaut costume made by Ben Cooper Inc., 1966-1970. | THF196321, THF196343
Astronaut
Many kids dreamed of being an astronaut during the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1950s and 1960s — a race which effectively culminated in the July 1969 moon landing by American astronauts.
Blue Fairy costume worn by Lisa Korzetz of Southgate, Michigan, about 1966." title="THF196317">
Blue Fairy costume mask worn by Lisa Korzetz of Southgate, Michigan, about 1966." title="THF196332">
Blue Fairy costume worn by Lisa Korzetz of Southgate, Michigan, about 1966. THF196317, THF196332. Gift of Antoinette Nycek Korzetz.
Blue Fairy
The magical abilities of the Blue Fairy — a spirit who changed Pinocchio from a wooden marionette into a real boy — appealed to kids. Their parents appreciated the safety features of this costume, like flame-retardant fabric and bright colors for nighttime trick-or-treating.
Lisa Korzetz in her Blue Fairy costume with her brother Edward, about 1966. THF710392. Gift of Antoinette Nycek Korzetz.
Witch costume worn by Lisa Korzetz of Southgate, Michigan, 1971-1972. | THF196319, THF196350. Gift of Antoinette Nycek Korzetz.
Witch
Witch costumes are a classic Halloween choice, popular with both children and adults.
Barney-inspired costume worn by Eric Nietering of Dearborn, Michigan, 1993. | THF196354. Gift of Emily Nietering.
Barney
When the children’s television series Barney & Friends debuted in 1992, it became a runaway hit with preschool-age kids. Four-year-old Eric Nietering — like countless other children — was a big fan of Barney, a friendly, huggable T. Rex with an optimistic attitude.
Eric Nietering proudly poses in the Barney costume made by his mother, Emily. / THF710386. Gift of Emily Nietering.
Link costume worn by Isaac Morland of Canton, Michigan, 2021." title="THF196415">
Link costume shield worn by Isaac Morland of Canton, Michigan, 2021." title="THF196410">
Link costume sword worn by Isaac Morland of Canton, Michigan, 2021." title="THF196411">
Link costume worn by Isaac Morland of Canton, Michigan, 2021. | THF196415, THF196410, THF196411. Gift of Kate Morland.
Link
Kids love pretending to be characters from their favorite television shows, movies or video games. Isaac Morland chose a disguise as Link, a warrior hero from The Legend of Zelda video game.
Isaac Morland and his brother Simon dressed for Halloween in 2021. / THF710391. Gift of Kate Morland.
Jeanine Head Miller is curator of domestic life.
Daggett Farmhouse in Greenfield Village. / THF175173
Samuel and Anna Daggett and their children, like other farm families living in northeastern Connecticut in the 1760s, made careful preparations to get through the winter. Food was a year-round concern and a top priority, especially in the fall, as the family preserved a supply of meat, harvested crops and took special care to prepare and store fruits and vegetables to last the colder months.
The Daggetts kept pumpkins and other winter squash in their house cellar or attic to prevent freezing. They stored a variety of hardy root vegetables in an outdoor root cellar — essentially a stone-lined pit dug into the earth, preferably into a small hillside, and lined with stones for additional insulation and cleaner storage. A wooden cover or door lined with straw provided access throughout the winter. In addition to turnips, potatoes, beets and similar vegetables, the Daggett family stored cabbages — pulled roots and all — in the root cellar. They left other root vegetables, like parsnips and salsify, in the frozen ground of the garden and dug them out as needed.
Presenter with carrots in Daggett Farmhouse garden, early August 2023. / Photo by Debra A. Reid
The family left beans and peas to fully mature on their vines or stalks in the field. Once completely dry, they pulled and laid the plants on a flat surface, then hit them with a wooden tool called a flail to break the pods apart. The Daggetts gathered the loose beans or peas and cleaned them by a process called winnowing, flipping them up and down in a large shallow basket as the breeze blew away dust and debris. They then packed the beans and peas in sacks and stored them away in cool, dry locations around the house until it was time to wash and cook them. The family also dried green beans, which could be reconstituted and used as a welcome addition to soups and stews in the winter and early spring, when no fresh green vegetables were available.
With careful planning, all sorts of vegetables would meet the family’s needs until produce became available again. It’s no wonder that the first early greens from the garden were so looked forward to after a winter of starchy root vegetables!
Much of the fruits grown and used by the Daggett family — especially apples but also perhaps pears, peaches, cherries, quinces and grapes — could also be carefully preserved for the winter. The Daggetts had very limited technology when it came to “canning” as we know it today, but they did keep fruit jams or preserves in small earthenware crocks sealed with beeswax, spirit-soaked parchment or animal bladders. They also sliced fruit and laid it flat in baskets or wooden racks to dry. Some fresh fruit could be kept whole, carefully packed in barrels and stored in one of the rare cool spots around the house.
Samuel Daggett pressed apples using a large, animal-powered machine. The family fermented the sweet juice of the crushed apples into hard cider, which could be stored in barrels for use throughout the winter, and made cider vinegar and applejack, a kind of apple brandy. The Daggett farm produced enough cider to meet the family’s needs and even some extra to sell to the surrounding community. Other beverages that kept well included perry (fermented pear juice), wine made from grapes and beer brewed with hops from the garden.
Presenter with hops at Daggett Farm, early August 2023. / Photo by Debra A. Reid
Today at Daggett Farm in Greenfield Village, as in 1760s New England, the slower pace of long summer days begins to quicken as the harvest season approaches. If you visit in the fall, you may see the staff harvesting and storing away a variety of garden produce, much like the Daggett family did.
Jim Johnson is The Henry Ford's curator of historic structures and landscapes and director of Greenfield Village. This post was adapted for the blog by associate curator Saige Jedele.
Background shows a sneak peek of the conservation treatment of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s desk. / Image of Grant writing his memoirs in July 1885 courtesy of the Library of Congress.
The Henry Ford has quite a collection of objects used by historical figures on display. There are many more gems safeguarded in storage with equally fascinating stories. One such piece is Army General and 18th U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant’s secretary desk. Henry Ford was interested in collecting items tied to people he admired. That is why he purchased Grant’s desk from renowned antique dealer Israel Sack of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1930. The desk had passed down through the family of Grant’s wife, Julia, before making its way to the former president. Grant used this desk while writing his “Personal Memoirs” in 1884 and 1885. Recently, the desk has made its way to the museum’s conservation lab for a bit of TLC and a taste of the limelight.
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Sally Ann Firestone with her grandchildren at their farmhouse in Columbiana County, Ohio, circa 1876. / THF115221
How should we answer the question, “Did women do farmwork?” In the time periods and regions interpreted at the working farms of Greenfield Village — here we examine the Daggett, Firestone and Mattox family farms — men typically worked in the fields and barnyards, and women worked in and around the farmhouse. (This contrasted markedly with Indigenous American and African cultures that operated with a matrilineal worldview and in which women had authority over farm work. Women in these cultures worked fields and processed, preserved and stored food.) Because of this gendered division, some argue that only men truly did farmwork. However, farmwork ebbed and flowed between fields and barnyards and the farmhouse. In the farmhouse and surrounding yard, women nursed orphaned livestock, started seeds, preserved food, discussed farmwork and market strategies, and prepared meals three times every day to maintain their family’s health. Everyone did farmwork, and no one found relief from it.
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Mattox Family Home in Greenfield Village, 1991. / THF250591
Starting in the Reconstruction Era, multiple generations of the Mattox family would live in the Mattox Family Home, a farmhouse located in Bryan County, Georgia. At a time and place when African American land ownership was rare, the Mattox family was able to farm their own land into the 1930s when the family was led by Amos and Grace Mattox. Grace Mattox’s story gives us a unique glimpse into what labor looks like for an African American woman and her family just one generation removed from slavery.
To be an African American woman working in agriculture, to tend a crop or to look after livestock was not new — the labor of entire African American families was used for generations by plantation owners looking to get wealthy from cash crops. Looking at Grace Mattox’s life, we can see what farming looked like without that layer of economic exploitation. What did farming mean for an African-American family that owned their own land instead of sharecropping? Or who farmed to put food on the table rather than to turn a profit? What changes when the person doing the farming gets to benefit from their own labor?
Continue ReadingMourning takes many forms. But can it ever be joyful? For celebrants of the holiday Día de Muertos, the answer is yes.
Día de Muertos, also known as Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, traces its roots back to the celebrations of pre-Hispanic Indigenous Mexicans, in particular the Mexica/Mexihcah (Aztecs). For them, death was considered an important part of the cycle of balance, and they practiced rituals to both prepare the recently deceased for the afterlife, and to honor those already departed. One such ritual was a two-month-long feast in late summer celebrating the dead; the first month was dedicated to honoring children, and the second to adults.
When the Spanish arrived in Mexico, they sought to drive out the old traditions, establishing mandatory church burials, abolishing certain mourning and funerary rites, enacting a grave tax, and banning feasting during burials, funerals, or on “Days of the Dead.” These traditions persisted, however, and eventually melded with the Catholic influence of the Spanish, who celebrated All Saints Day and All Souls Day, to create Día de Muertos.
Continue ReadingThrough determination and resourcefulness, Mary Judge stood out from the other hucksters at Detroit’s Central Market in the latter half of the 19th century. Poor, single and an immigrant, Judge managed to make a living — and a name for herself — at a time when such women seldom gained financial independence.
Born in Sligo County, Ireland, around 1825, Judge emigrated with her parents as a baby, settled in Quebec, received her education at a convent and became a nun. Judge left her order but remained a devout Catholic. When and how she came to the Midwest remains unclear, but a Detroit-based relative of her legal guardian helped set her up as a huckster at the vegetable building at Central Market, the city’s bustling agricultural marketplace, by 1863.
The vegetable building at Detroit Central Market, 1884. / THF139107
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Detroit. What comes to mind when you think about Detroit? Cars. Motown, of course! Labor unions. All these make sense, but do you also think of Nelson Mandela? Probably not. And United Auto Workers (UAW) support of Mandela? It probably never even crosses your mind. For most people, the first and frequently only thought that comes to mind is apartheid and Mandela's fight to stop the practice in South Africa.
Mandela was a union man. When he was president of South Africa (1994-1999), he declared, "The kind of democracy that we all seek to build demands that we deepen and broaden the rights of all citizens. This includes a culture of workers’ rights." He understood the importance of unions and the rights of workers. He knew that the organization of workers was vital to having a free and just society.
Button welcoming Nelson Mandela to Detroit on his 1990 Freedom Tour. / THF196997
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Ford Model A cars were easy to find at Old Car Festival, but our spotlight this year fell on Indiana-based automakers. / Photo by Matt Anderson
Auto enthusiasts, bicyclists and folks just looking for a little fun descended on Greenfield Village over the September 9-10 weekend as we celebrated our 2023 Old Car Festival. More than 600 vintage automobiles and some 250 bicycles — none dating more recently than 1932 — participated in this beloved late-summer tradition.
Each year at the show, we spotlight a special theme. Generally, it’s a particular make or model or a specific style of automobile. (Last year, for example, we featured early American luxury cars.) For 2023, we went in a different direction, instead focusing our spotlight on a state. Our “Indiana Autos” theme allowed us to honor the many marques of the Hoosier State. More than 400 distinct automobile brands called Indiana home at one time or another, and the state’s automotive industry was second only to Michigan’s in its size and significance. From premium luxury vehicles to the greatest spectacle in racing, our Indiana neighbors had it all.
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Detroit Central Market vegetable shed in Greenfield Village, 2022. / THF190482
Cities like Detroit built public markets where growers, fish mongers, vendors and peddlers sold directly to customers. People of all ages, many nationalities and various occupations crossed paths in these spaces. Vendors paid rent and tried to outdo each other with their vegetables, fruits, flowers and other wares. Some hawked their services as chimney sweeps or day laborers. Customers, attracted by the variety, stayed for entertainment.
Detroit's original city hall building with market sheds behind, 1861-1871. / Detail, THF623873
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