Posts Tagged inventors
On this week's episode of The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation you'll learn about Igor Sikorsky. Want to learn even more? Take a look below.
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Igor Sikorsky’s VS-300 Helicopter Transformed Aviation 75 Years Ago
Lish Dorset is Social Media Manager at The Henry Ford.
flying, inventors, by Lish Dorset, The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation
This week on “The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation” you’ll learn about the Wright Brothers. Want to learn more? Take a look below.
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Learn
Lish Dorset is Social Media Manager at The Henry Ford.
Additional Readings:
- Just Added to Our Digital Collections: Wright Brothers Images
- Morgan Gies: Driver to the Presidents
- 1931 Pitcairn-Cierva Autogiro
- Reliability Tours Land Public Trust
North Carolina, Ohio, 20th century, 19th century, Wright Brothers, The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation, inventors, flying, by Lish Dorset, aviators, airplanes
By the end of the 19th century technological miracles were commonplace. Railroad trains routinely traveled a-mile-a-minute. Electric lights could turn night into day. Voices traveled over wires. Pictures could be set into motion. Lighter-than-air balloons and dirigibles even offered access to the sky. But the age-old dream of flying with wings like birds still seemed like a fantasy. In a simple bicycle shop now located in Greenfield Village, two brothers from Dayton, Ohio, turned the fantasy of heavier-than-air flight into reality. Continue Reading
Ohio, 20th century, Wright Brothers, inventors, Greenfield Village buildings, Greenfield Village, flying, by Bob Casey, bicycles, aviators, airplanes
You may know that the Sikorsky VS-300A helicopter on display in Heroes of the Sky in the Henry Ford Museum was the first practical helicopter in the United States. Inventor Igor Sikorsky piloted this craft for about an hour and a half on May 6, 1941, setting a world endurance record. In 1943, as shown in this photograph, Sikorsky demonstrated the machine on the front lawn of the Henry Ford Museum just before donating it. Attendees at the event included Henry and Clara Ford, Henry Ford II, Charles Lindbergh, and Les Morris, Sikorsky’s chief test pilot. We’ve just digitized a number of photos related to the ceremony, Sikorsky, and helicopters in general—view them all in our digital collections.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections and Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
20th century, immigrants, Heroes of the Sky, inventors, Henry Ford Museum, flying, digital collections, by Ellice Engdahl
All eyes have been on Menlo Park in Greenfield Village recently, both here at The Henry Ford and across the nation. Menlo Park kicks off the first episode of our new television series, “The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation” on September 27 as Mo Rocca tours the building to learn more about Thomas Edison and the work he researched in that very space. This weekend members of the American Chemical Society (ACS) will be joining staff from The Henry Ford to bestow a special honor upon the building: National Historic Chemical Landmark. Continue Reading
21st century, 2010s, 19th century, Michigan, Dearborn, New Jersey, Thomas Edison, The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation, inventors, Greenfield Village buildings, Greenfield Village, events, by Lish Dorset
Since Thomas Edison’s birthday happened to be this past Saturday (February 11), it made me think of this first known portrait of him.
Even after 35 years of working with the museum’s photograph collections, this 3 x 2-3/4 inch daguerreotype still gives me goose bumps when I look at it. Made at the dawn of photographic technology, it serves as a powerful reminder of the unique connection between Henry Ford and Thomas Edison.
Because of Henry Ford's friendship with Edison, many objects, photographs and manuscripts became part of the museum's collections, including Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory.
This daguerreotype was a gift to us from Edison’s widow, Mina, probably in the 1930s. The depth of Henry Ford’s admiration for Thomas Edison was so great that he named his museum and village "Edison Institute" in honor of the inventor. The dedication ceremony occurred on October 21, 1929, to coincide with Light's Golden Jubilee, the 50th anniversary of Edison's invention of the electric incandescent light bulb.
I find it fascinating to view this photographic image of the famous inventor when he was just a child. Daguerreotypes, invented in 1839, became very popular in the United States from the 1840s through the mid 1850s. The process took about 20 seconds, and Edison, shown at age 4, had to sit completely still! His seriousness and look of concentration go beyond the need for stillness. It seems to me that he is thinking about how and why the camera is working as much as obeying the adult admonition not to move.
Cynthia Read Miller, former Curator of Photographs and Prints at The Henry Ford, is continually fascinated with the museum’s over one million historical graphics.
Additional Readings:
- Edison at Work
- Edison's Light Fantastic
- Light’s Golden Jubilee Honors Thomas Edison and Dedicates a Museum
- Thomas Edison Photographs
archives, photographs, inventors, Thomas Edison, childhood, by Cynthia Read Miller
