We drove to Detroit on Saturday morning, passing the world’s largest tire on the way.
We met friends in the parking lot of the Henry Ford Museum right at noon — at the exact minute we told them we’d get there. We spent the afternoon touring the museum. Here’s a little of what we saw in the approximate order in which we saw it.
We paid an extra $5 each to get into a special exhibition on the Beatles.
They had some exhibits from the early days when the band was still called the Quarrymen. The drum set belonged to Colin Hanton, but John, Paul, and George all played on it at one time or another. The guitar is the same model as John’s. We had to read the signs carefully. Most of the displays were just similar to Beatles’ stuff, not the actual items. In other words, artifakes.
A “brick-by-brick reconstruction” of the stage of the Cavern Club in Liverpool where the Beatles often performed.
After we took this photo, I ran out to the car and got the red chair.
This is thought to be the actual bus (1948 model) from Montgomery, Alabama, in which Rosa Parks refused to move to the back and set the civil rights movement in motion.
The chair, from Ford’s Theatre in Washington, in which Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot.
George Washington’s camp bed and chest, used when he toured the Revolutionary War battlefields at the end of the war.
The parts that make up a Model T Ford.
Stage from 1891.
Two photos of the limo Kennedy was riding in when he was shot in Dallas. The protected cover was added later when it was used by Johnson and Nixon.
1958 Edsel
1948 Tucker
1927 Blue Bird School bus, which “could be America’s oldest surviving school bus.” Again, we had to read the signs carefully.
1935 Stagecoach Travel Trailer belonging to Charles and Anne Lindbergh. Anne wrote one of her books and Charles wrote part of The Spirit of St. Louis in the trailer.
1899 Duryea
1900 Wood electric truck. Behind it is a 1952 Federal.
This replica of the 1833 steam locomotive was built for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer. Orville flies the plane, Wilbur holds the chair.
Scroll map of New York used by early pilots.
1925 Fokker Tri-Motor used by Richard Byrd in 1926 to fly over the North Pole.
Plane used in 1927 for an attempt to fly around the world. Edward Schlee and William Brock took off from Detroit and made it all the way across Europe and Asia but they gave up in Tokyo and traveled by steamship from there to Seattle.
An exhibit on aerial acrobats.
Machine used to make light bulbs. Supposedly, in the 1970’s, just 15 of these machines made most of the light bulbs in the world.
1914 tractor
Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House, made of aluminum and plastic — his vision for the future. It has 1,017 square feet. This shot is looking into the kitchen.
The living room.
The bedroom
1950s Weinermobile
My chief impression of the museum was empty space. There was room for at least twice as many displays. What was there was very impressively done, but I felt like the collection hadn’t been updated or added to in a long time.
At the end of the day, we had to buy a Mold-A-Rama model.
Which one? The car Kennedy was killed in, of course. Only in America.
We stayed until the museum closed at 5:00, then went for supper at Longhorn Steakhouse in Dearborn.
