Posts Tagged research
Henry Ford's achievements, which revolutionized both industry and society, made him a folk hero. His unique and colorful personality helped cement his legend. A study in contrasts, he possessed an original mind and was a strong intuitive thinker, but had a distrust of formal learning and little personal education. Although he shrank from public speaking, he came to relish publicity.
Because of his immense popularity and notoriety during his lifetime and since, numerous sayings have been ascribed to Henry Ford. Many of these sound plausible but are incorrect, and some can’t be traced to him at all. Too often, a quote is attributed to Ford simply because its touches upon success in business or innovation: He has become a patron saint of the entrepreneur, a Paul Bunyan of the business world. One of the more popular of these quotations is, "If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse," which has never been satisfactorily traced to Henry Ford. In fact, the quote only begins to appear in the early 21st century, "quoted" by modern-day business gurus using it as an object lesson, whereas germs of its main idea can be directly sourced to other speakers through the late mid to later 20th century. (See more at the Quote Investigator.)
Compounding the problem of misattribution is what could best be described as the unclear origin of legitimate Henry Ford quotes. As mentioned, Ford had a strong aversion to public speaking. Nervous in front of crowds, he opened up and even sparkled in smaller settings. (Known for avoiding the press, he would grant the rare interview to a changing circle of select reporters.) Moreover, the rough-hewn Henry Ford was no writer, and hence relied on helpers to prepare published materials. Among his ghostwriters were two longtime, trusted staff members: his executive secretary, Ernest G. Liebold; and his publicist, William J. Cameron. Joining them was the journalist Samuel Crowther, who was the prolific ghostwriter of three Henry Ford memoirs (My Life and Work, Today and Tomorrow, and Moving Forward). Crowther spent considerable time with Ford and proved adept at presenting the magnate's ideas for publication.
As a result of the foregoing complexity, many of the quotations attributed to Henry Ford in common circulation today prove at best problematic to verify or challenge.
Work on collecting and authenticating Henry Ford quotations was begun by Ford Motor Company staff in the Ford Motor Company Engineering Library—possibly as early as the mid-1920s. (The library, housed in Ford’s Engineering Department, maintained files on a wide variety of subjects of interest to or about Henry Ford.) A longtime Ford Engineering librarian, Rachel MacDonald, assembled the quotations into a collection, the Henry and Edsel Ford Quotations collection. This collection was later transferred to the Ford Motor Company Archives, in 1955. While we do not know the exact date MacDonald started her research, records indicate that she was at Ford Motor Company at least as early as 1940 (but no earlier than 1936) and up through the transfer of the collection to Ford Motor Company Archives. What we don't know is whether the collection was started before or after Henry Ford's death (or, consequently, how much input Ford himself had in verifying the quotations). The Henry Ford received the collection in 1964 as part of a much larger donation of Ford Motor Company records. Staff, interns, and volunteers of the Benson Ford Research Center at The Henry Ford have continued work to authenticate Henry Ford quotes, resulting in this publicly accessible list.
The collection includes quotations that have been traced to a primary source or a reliable secondary source. Examples of reliable secondary sources would be a published interview with Henry Ford or other direct quotations of Henry Ford in newspapers contemporary to him, including but not limited to publications such as the Ford Times and Ford News. A book whose ghostwriting or collaboration was authorized by Henry Ford also falls under this category. Among the primary sources drawn on are Henry Ford's own "jot books," or personal notebooks, found in two different archival collections. These notebooks, few in number, provide a good example of Henry Ford's writing style and interests. If you are searching for a quote and do not see it on our list, it means that staff was not able to trace it to a reliable source.
So many of the unverified quotations are now out in the world and on the web that it is no small challenge to track and verify them. Quotations like the “faster horse” quip, as well as other maxims like the one illustrated below appear on a variety of products, including coasters, mugs, and T-shirts. These quotations and their use speak volumes to a natural human tendency to use legendary figures and a historical lens to illustrate the ideas and trends relevant for our time.
If you have questions or comments about the Henry Ford quotations page, please contact the Benson Ford Research Center at research [dot] center [at] thehenryford.org.
Rebecca Bizonet is former Archivist at The Henry Ford.
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.
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.
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).
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.
#Behind The Scenes @ The Henry Ford, educational resources, education, childhood, research, by Stephanie Lucas
My name is Danielle and I am currently a museum studies graduate student interested in becoming a museum registrar. I spent this summer at The Henry Ford, working in the department of Historical Resources to digitize the museum’s typewriter collection.
As an intern in the Registrar’s office, I had the opportunity to work with the museum’s extensive typewriter collection, which consists of over 100 typewriters. The typewriters range from a Sholes & Glidden, invented in the 1870s, to a Typatune musical typewriter (above). The collection also includes typewriter accessories, such as stands and cleaning kits, as well as trade catalogs produced by typewriter manufacturers and photographs of typewriters found in offices and workspaces. Continue Reading
21st century, 2010s, communication, research, digitization, conservation, collections care, by Danielle Bowman, #Behind The Scenes @ The Henry Ford
When guests see the Rosa Parks bus on display inside Henry Ford Museum, they are often in awe. Speechless. Moved, even.
And you don't have to merely look at this magnificent milestone in American history. When you visit Henry Ford Museum, you can actually climb aboard, walk the narrow aisle of the bus - and even sit in the very seat that Rosa Parks occupied on December 1, 1955.
But during that visit, two questions are typically asked: "Is it THE bus?" and "How did The Henry Ford get it?"
The answer to the first question: Yes, it is.
How the bus was acquired is a more modern story. In September 2001, an article in the Wall Street Journal announced that the Rosa Parks bus would be available in an Internet auction in October. Once we had confirmed the answer to the question posed above, we entered the online auction and came out the highest bidder.
After nearly five months of restoration, with support from the Save America's Treasures grant program, the Rosa Parks bus made its return to the floor of Henry Ford Museum on February 1, 2002. (With Liberty And Justice For All, the exhibition where the bus currently is displayed, had not yet been constructed.)
Paint chips from the unrestored bus, consultation with other experts, vintage postcards and eyewitness accounts from a museum employee who lived in Montgomery during the bus boycott allowed the museum to recreate the paint colors exactly.
Restoration efforts were performed on the bus down to the tiniest detail. For example: On the day Mrs. Parks boarded it, the bus was already seven years old and ran daily on the streets of Montgomery. Therefore, for authenticity, conservation experts applied recreated Alabama red dirt in the wheel wells, and tire treads and period advertising was recreated for the interior and exterior of the bus.
With all of these elements together and pondering what happened on December 1, 1955, exploring this historic artifact creates a powerful connection for many.
21st century, 20th century, research, #Behind The Scenes @ The Henry Ford, women's history, Rosa Parks bus, Rosa Parks, Henry Ford Museum, conservation, collections care, Civil Rights, African American history
Bob Casey, automotive historian and former Curator of Transportation at The Henry Ford, offers up some insight into the many books written on auto pioneer Henry Ford. Two of his favorites – both of which can be found in the Henry Ford Museum Store and the Greenfield Village Store – are The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century, by Steven Watts, and Young Henry Ford: A Picture History of the First Forty Years, by Sidney Olson. “Watts’ book is the best one-volume biography of Henry Ford that I have ever read – despite all that has been written about Ford, Watts still manages to find new insights,” said Casey. “Olson mined the Ford family and business records to create a lively, well-illustrated account of Henry Ford’s first forty years, from his childhood to the initial success of Ford Motor Company.”
Jeff Seeno, intern in the Media and Film Relations department at The Henry Ford, asked Casey some questions recently about Henry Ford and these reflections of Ford’s life.
Many books written about Henry Ford either vigorously attack him, or grant him extraordinary praise for his accomplishments. Do you feel these books in any way distort the picture of the true man?
Both of these books are very balanced accounts of the true Henry Ford. These are also very personal accounts of Henry Ford’s life. For example, Ford did not appreciate the talents of his only son, Edsel, who had a great eye for cars. He loved the way cars looked, and according to Watts, Ford Motor Company could have completely dominated the market if they had harnessed Edsel’s insight. But Henry Ford loved to lap up the acclaim and position himself as an incumbent visionary, and he could articulate his vision so well that everyone wanted to jump on board.
How do these books establish the essential Henry Ford – not only as a social visionary, but as a figure who has a controversial personality?
In Olson’s book, he is not afraid to talk about the mean side of Henry Ford. He mentions that Ford was a prankster, and a mean one at that. He tells the story of a time when one of Henry’s employees, George Flint, who was rather sloppy, would leave his shoes lying about when he changed from his work clothes to his street clothes. In an effort to teach Flint to be neater, Ford nailed Flint’s shoes to the floor.
On the other end, Watts’ book shows that Ford had much strength in regards to charity and the growth of the Ford Motor Company. He was very philanthropic in a quirky way, but after executing his “Five Dollars a Day” plan, his forthright genius and creative power went to his head.
1930s, 1920s, 20th century, research, Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company, by Jeff Seeno, by Bob Casey, books
