Posts Tagged digital collections
This year marks the 50th anniversary of an American automotive icon: the Ford Mustang. The Henry Ford counts among its collections three notable Mustangs: the 1962 Mustang I concept car, the first serial number of the 1965 production Mustang, and another 1965 Mustang on display at the Ford Rouge Factory Tour. In addition, our archives include photographs, design drawings (like this one for the 1963 Ford Mustang II prototype), and trade literature from every year of production. Relive the first half-century of the Mustang through the digital collections of The Henry Ford.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
Michigan, 21st century, 2010s, 20th century, 1960s, Mustangs, Ford Motor Company, drawings, digital collections, convertibles, cars, by Ellice Engdahl
The April 15 opening date of Greenfield Village is growing ever closer, and while you will have to wait just a bit longer to walk the streets and visit the buildings in person, you can now see a few of the Herschell-Spillman Carousel’s animals, like this beribboned cat, in our online collections. To find out if your favorite (perhaps a dog, goat, or patriotically outfitted horse?) has been added, follow this link to see what we’ve digitized.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
In 1906, the U.S. Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, opening a path to government regulation of unsafe ingredients in ingestible consumer products. Before this, though, manufacturers did a booming business in “patent medicines,” concoctions that purported to cure a variety of ills, from colic to indigestion to sexually transmitted diseases to “female complaints.” They were frequently alcohol-based and contained any number of ingredients (most unadvertised), ranging from the harmless to the toxic. The Henry Ford has a collection of patent medicines from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and we’ve just added a number of these to our online collections, including Dr. Page's Rail Road Pills. Over the upcoming weeks, we’ll also be adding results of chemical analysis of these medicines done in conjunction with the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Detroit, Mercy, in 2009. To get a sneak peek at the results for one of the medicines, check out “Dr. Tutt’s Liver Pills,” and click the “Specifications” tab to find out the contents. Or, see all our digitized patent medicines, along with related advertising and packaging.
19th century, patent medicines, healthcare, digital collections, by Ellice Engdahl
The collections of The Henry Ford contain hundreds of hats and headgear, most of which are not on public display. We’ve just added a number of hats to our digital collections, including this sailor hat, dating from the late 19th or early 20th century. View over 160 hats and related objects on our collections website.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections and Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
The Dave Friedman Collection at The Henry Ford comprises hundreds of thousands of photographs, slides, negatives, documents, programs, and published material covering 60 years of automobile racing. We’ve just added to our digital collections nearly 900 photos from the 1962 Pacific Grand Prix, including a number, like this one, featuring our own 1962 Mustang I Roadster. You can also view more than 3,000 total Dave Friedman collection images on our collections website, or find more Friedman material on The Henry Ford’s Flickr page.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
California, 20th century, 1960s, racing, photographs, digital collections, by Ellice Engdahl
Nearly as long as there have been automobiles, dealers and enthusiasts have been decorating them with hood ornaments. As you might suspect, the collections of The Henry Ford contain a few hood ornaments, and we’ve just added a number of them to our digital collections. View this Lalique dragonfly and other hood ornaments by visiting our online collections.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections and Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
Just Added to Our Digital Collections: William Clay Ford, Sr., Photos
The collections of The Henry Ford contain not only much of the history of the Ford Motor Company and Henry and Clara Ford, but also records related to Henry’s son, Edsel, as well as Edsel’s children. We’ve just digitized a number of photographs of one of Henry’s grandchildren, William Clay Ford, Sr. Before he retired from Ford Motor Company in 1989, William Clay Ford was involved in many capacities with the company his grandfather founded, and also served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Edison Institute (e.g., The Henry Ford) for nearly 40 years, plus 25 years as our Chairman Emeritus. In addition, he has also had a controlling interest in the Detroit Lions NFL football team for the past 50 years. In this photo, young William walks among moss-covered trees at Richmond Hill, Georgia, with his grandmother, Clara. See more images and objects related to William Clay Ford, Sr., in our online collections.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
Georgia, Ford workers, Ford Motor Company, Michigan, 20th century, William Clay Ford, photographs, Ford family, digital collections, by Ellice Engdahl
On October 23, 1934, the husband-and-wife team of Jean and Jeannette Piccard navigated a balloon as high as 10.9 miles above the earth, starting from Dearborn, Michigan, and landing many hours later hundreds of miles away in Ohio. This flight reached the stratosphere, and set the women’s altitude record for Jeanette, which she held until the early 1960s. The Henry Ford has digitized about 40 photographs and documents related to the flight, including this quirky photo of Charles Roscoe Miles, a Lincoln portrayer visiting Dearborn at the invitation of Henry Ford, examining the gondola a few days before the flight. Find more material documenting the adventure before, during, and after the flight on The Henry Ford’s collections website. (If you want even more, browse additional Piccard material in the digital collections of the Detroit Historical Society, and read their accompanying blog post.)
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
aviators, women's history, Michigan, Dearborn, flying, digital collections, by Ellice Engdahl
In 2012, Dennis Fiems donated hundreds of laundry and other soap packaging items to The Henry Ford that been collected by his late wife, Susan Strongman Fiems. According to Curator of Public Life Donna Braden, this collection is important as it exemplifies several 20th century trends: the evolution of product packaging, the changing nature of housekeeping and “women’s work,” increasing cultural attention on hygiene, and technological advances in these chemistry-driven products. More than 300 of these items are now digitized and available to browse online, including this sample-size box of FAB soap flakes from the early part of the 20th century. You can see additional items from the Fiems collection (plus other related objects) by visiting The Henry Ford’s collections website and browsing keywords such as soap, laundry products, and even clothespins.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
technology, women's history, home life, advertising, by Ellice Engdahl, digital collections
The Henry Ford has a number of banks in its collections, ranging from piggy banks to commemorative banks to corporate promotional giveaway banks to mechanical banks. We’ve just added some banks to our digital collections, bringing the total number available for browsing online to about three dozen. One of our most recent additions is this “Arabian Safe” bank from the late 19th or early 20th centuries, featuring exotic scenes of camels and palm trees. See this and other banks by visiting our digital collections.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
20th century, 19th century, digital collections, by Ellice Engdahl
