Visitors to The Henry Ford are likely familiar with the iconic Mold-A-Rama machines scattered throughout the museum. Loud, colorful, and with that distinctive “Mold-A-Rama” smell of warm plastic, they have spit out affordable souvenirs for thousands of guests over the years. The Henry Ford boasts 10 Mold-A-Rama machines, made more impressive when you consider only a few hundred machines were ever produced.
“Antique Automobile” Mold-A-Rama machine at Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. / Photo by staff of The Henry Ford
Like all things at The Henry Ford, Mold-A-Rama machines are a story of classic American innovation. They were invented in the 1950s by John H. “Tike” Miller, after he sought to replace a broken figurine in his Nativity set. When he was unable to buy a single figurine from his local department store, he made his own from plaster. This would eventually lead to a business selling plaster figurines and then experiments with plastic injection molding machines. These advancements in molding machine technology would allow Miller to sell thousands of plastic figures out of his Illinois factory.
Final patent for John Miller’s plastic mold injection machine. / Courtesy of Google Patents
At the end of the 1950s Miller’s company declared bankruptcy, and Miller licensed the rights to his machine to Automatic Retailers of America Inc. ARA would go on to produce hundreds of Mold-A-Rama machines throughout the 1960s. Mold-A-Ramas were featured at both the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair and the 1964 New York World’s Fair, and in 1966 they were installed at their first permanent location, the Brookfield Zoo (where they can still be found today!). After this, Mold-A-Ramas could be found in popular tourist destinations, restaurants, and even interstate rest stops. Experts estimate these golden years produced up to 300 unique moldsets for 200 machines.
Disaster struck soon after, when ARA elected to dissolve the Mold-A-Rama division of the business in 1968. The company cited high upkeep costs and excessive maintenance required as the reason for closure, a problem that continues today. By the 1970s, the original Mold-A-Rama Inc. had completely shut down.
When the company closed, both the Mold-A-Rama machines and operating locations were snapped up by various interested entrepreneurs. One such innovator was William A. Jones, a Michigan State graduate. Dissatisfied with his position as a corporate accountant, Jones purchased every Chicago area Mold-A-Rama machine and location from a retiring coworker in 1971. Ten years later, Jones would buy out a fellow operator to become the largest Mold-A-Rama company in the Midwest. In 2011, his company officially changed its name from The William A. Jones Co. to Mold-A-Rama Inc., marking the first time in 50 years that these machines were operated by their namesake. Today, Jones’s empire of wax spans seven locations across four states with nearly 60 machines.
Interestingly, the Mold-A-Rama machine has only one major competitor, the Mold-A-Matic. This story begins with store owner Eldin Irwin, who leased several Mold-A-Rama machines from ARA. When the company shut down production, Irwin purchased as much of the available inventory as he could and took the machines on the road. For years, he and his grandson would tour the country with the Mold-A-Ramas, visiting state fairs and carnivals. Like Jones, Irwin would expand his business dramatically in the 1980s. In this case, the Florida-based Mold-A-Matic Inc. wanted to sell their entire inventory, which Irwin acquired along with the name. Currently, the company is run by Irwin’s grandson and has 11 locations with nearly 50 Mold-A-Matic machines.
“1952 Weinermobile” Mold-A-Rama machine at Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. / Photo by staff of The Henry Ford
In 2025, the dust has settled. While a handful of independently run Mold-A-Rama machines exist, Mold-A-Rama Inc. and Unique Souvenirs Inc. (formerly Mold-A-Matic Inc.) remain the only companies to service multiple locations. Both companies have remained in their respective families and are currently run by second- and third-generation Mold-A-Rama operators. The companies agree not to encroach on one another’s territories, and they even collaborate on occasion and share resources. This is especially necessary as the years pass and machines break down. Every Mold-A-Rama machine running today was built in the 1960s, and as time goes on, they become harder to repair—especially since their parts are out-of-production. Nearly 75 years after the Mold-A-Rama was first conceived, we are facing a future where it may fade out of existence.
Despite this, people’s love for the machines and their molds is still strong. Both Unique Souvenirs Inc. and Mold-A-Rama Inc. have websites providing information about the machines, their locations, and collectible molds. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago recently hosted a temporary Mold-A-Rama exhibit, complete with additional machines and a rotation of retired molds. This exhibit was extended several times, and ultimately was so popular that it stayed on display for over two years.
Collection of current and retired molds at Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. / Photo by Staff of The Henry Ford
Display of a moldset and preliminary versions of the Mold-A-Rama at Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. / Image by Staff of The Henry Ford
Outside of official channels, Mold-A-Rama fans share their experiences and collections on various social media platforms. It is truly impressive to see a machine that should have been made obsolete continue to thrive so many years later.
Rachael Monroe is Project Cataloging Specialist at The Henry Ford.
Assembled by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), this colorful backpack contains English and Spanish language versions of the book Borreguita and the Coyote, a VHS tape of a television episode centered around the book, and bilingual activity booklet and board game designed to let families practice their language skills together. This kit was likely given to a library, community center, or school for distribution, before eventually making its way into The Henry Ford’s collection in 2024. It represents an extension of the efforts to promote children’s literacy and love of reading undertaken by a program that would come to influence a generation of children: the Reading Rainbow television show.
Reading Rainbow "Borreguita and the Coyote" Family Literacy Kit, 1999-2008. / THF198380
First airing in 1983, Reading Rainbow was developed to address the problem of children losing their reading comprehension skills over the summer break. Hosted by LeVar Burton, each episode focused on a different topic related to a featured book, and consisted of live-action segments with Burton, a celebrity narrating the chosen book, and recommendations for similar books that viewers could check out at their local library.
In the show’s early days, television was viewed as the enemy to education, and the show creators encountered initial skepticism. Despite this, and thanks to funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, throughout its 23-season run Reading Rainbow demonstrated that it did, in fact, boost children’s reading skills. As the show progressed, it was able to tackle more difficult issues, with notable segments including footage of a live childbirth, and LeVar Burton talking to the students of PS 234 as they returned to their school after being forced to leave in the aftermath of 9/11.
Season 6 episode “Robbery at the Diamond Dog Diner” saw Peter Falk reading the picture book, of the same name and LeVar getting roped into working at a diner. This letter to “Dinerman” Richard Gutman, and other correspondence, indicates that he was helpful to the production team in their search for a diner to film in — a testament to the research the Rainbow team put into their live segments. / THF715225
Despite its immense popularity — the show would receive over 250 awards including a Peabody and 26 Emmys and earn the title of the most-watched PBS program in classrooms — Reading Rainbow faced new challenges with the 2002 passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, which shifted funding from programs that taught children to love to read, and toward programs that taught them how to read. The final original episode aired in 2006, although reruns would continue until 2009.
Like so many objects in The Henry Ford’s collection, this kit allows us to tell multiple stories. It allows us to talk about one type of literacy. It adds to our collections related to popular children’s television shows. It gets to the experience of immigrants in America as they try to learn another language. All of these are valid lenses through which to view this kit, and all were cited as reasons why it belonged in our collection.
At The Henry Ford, we share something common with Reading Rainbow — the belief that objects, like books, can expand our horizons through the stories they tell. But you don’t have to take our word for it!
To learn more about Reading Rainbow, check out the documentary Butterfly in the Sky. You can also find story segments from Reading Rainbow, along with related activities, on the Reading Rainbow website.
Rachel Yerke-Osgood is an Associate Curator at The Henry Ford.
When the United States entered World War II, there were immediate voids in the workforce left by those leaving to fight abroad. Women across the country heard a call to action and stepped in, taking on new roles previously held only by men.
Popularized by the song Rosie the Riveter, Rosie became the fictional face of these early wartime women workers. Rosie was feminine, yet strong and powerful, changing the societal stigmas against working women and drawing interest in wartime work.
"Rosie the Riveter" sheet music, 1942. / THF290068
Reproduction World War II Poster, "We Can Do It!," 1998. / THF108519
Women across the country were inspired to join the ranks of Rosie but concerns over gender roles and domestic responsibilities discouraged others. However, as the war raged on and production needs continued to rise, the United States was faced with a manpower, or rather a womanpower, crisis.
Late in 1942, the War Manpower Commission announced a new campaign to recruit more women workers after estimating the majority of roughly five million new employees in 1943 would have to be women to keep up with war production demands. Ford Motor Company, placed at the center of the arsenal of democracy, was a leader in this campaign and shaping their facilities to attract more women to factory work.
Stories of real-life Rosies proved helpful in motivating others to find their place in Ford factories. These stories, documented by the Ford Motor Company Photographic Department, were distributed across the country to news publications large and small.
Riveter Florence Nightingale Working at Willow Run Bomber Plant, 1942. / THF93712
Florence Nightingale III Press Release, 1942. Accession 378, Box 30.
The story of Florence Nightingale III, descendant of the famous war nurse, was distributed locally and meant to recall the long-standing tradition of women’s contributions during wartime.
Women Making Sandcore Molds for Casting Cylinder Heads for Airplane Engines at the Ford Motor Company Rouge Plant, March 29, 1943. / THF82800
Women Making Sandcore Molds for Casting Pratt & Whitney Airplane Engine Cylinder Heads, Ford Rouge Plant, March 1943. / THF718497
“Women Find Many Opportunities at Ford Co.,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 24, 1943. / Accession 7 Clipping Books Series, 1943.
A story on the women working at Ford Motor Company’s Rouge Plant was shared in the Pittsburgh Courier, highlighting the variety of jobs available to women and praising their skilled contributions to the war effort. Stories like this sought to encourage women to find work at Ford Motor Company and inspire efforts locally.
Norma Denton Using the Time Clock at Willow Run Bomber Plant, 1943. / THF23643
Norma Denton Atop an Airplane Assembly, February 1943. / THF326852
Norma Denton, a recent graduate, was featured in LOOK magazine, a popular and nationally distributed publication. Through a photo diary of her workday, part of a series titled Around the Clock Activities, Norma was photographed working, socializing, and enjoying the amenities of Ford Motor Company’s Willow Run plant. Her story aided in making wartime work more approachable and appealing to younger women.
While these special features brought some success, workforce demands persisted and required other innovative ways to draw the number of women workers needed to win the war. Following a visit to Ford’s facilities — likely related to research for his own wartime films — Walt Disney offered some creative suggestions to aid recruitment.
On February 18, 1943, Walt Disney wrote to John W. Thompson, Director of the Ford News Bureau, regarding an idea for a “Womanpower” movie. In his letter, Disney proposed a potential film aimed at attracting women to the factories by emphasizing women’s past contributions during wartime and highlighting the amenities offered to a modern industrial woman. Disney notes how much he enjoyed his visit to the Ford plant and his informal chat with Edsel Ford.
Letter from Walt Disney regarding Making a Ford Motor Company War Work for Women Film, February 18, 1943. / THF131114, THF131115
Edsel seemed to agree with Disney’s suggestion. In a memo from March 1943, he notes that in addition to regular press releases and housing improvements for women employees, a film is in production highlighting women working at Willow Run on aircraft assembly.
The ten-minute film, Women on the Warpath, aimed to inspire the next wave of women workers by recognizing the “American women everywhere, whose valor on the industrial front has sped the day of victory.” Previously, most women workers were young women or those who had traded traditional roles for higher paying factory jobs. The film makes an appeal to all women, including mothers and wives, that they are needed in the factories to help bring victory and their loved one's home. The film was distributed across the country with screenings in theaters and by a variety of women's clubs.
"Women on the Warpath," 1943. / Courtesy of the Ford Motor Company Collection and National Archives at College Park - Motion Pictures.
Ford Motor Company's efforts to recruit women workers proved victorious. During peak production, more than a third of their employees were women. As the war ended and men returned home to their jobs, many women returned to domestic roles seeing their work as a temporary patriotic contribution to help win the war. Others felt liberated from societal expectations and found a new sense of personal and economic freedom through working. It would take time before women represented a significant portion of the workforce in the same way, but the foundation had been laid for a more empowered and promising future.
Lauren Brady is Reference Archivist at The Henry Ford
Experiential opportunities in cultural spaces can nourish emotional connections
By Elif M. Gokcigdem, Ph.D.
To challenge behaviors that contribute to fragmentation in our communities, we need more than an intellectual understanding of our interconnectedness. Besides knowledge, we need a deeper connection that makes us care and act compassionately toward the whole to which we belong — all of humanity, our kin that we share our world with and our planet.
We perceive and experience this indivisible whole from our respective worldview, which is shaped by the narratives we grow up with, our physiology, culture, language and other factors. The way we view the world influences how we make meaning of ourselves as well as what we share our existence with — people, objects, ideas, nature. What we find meaningful and worthy of our love, in turn, influences our behavior and actions, shaping how we live.
Empathy, our inherent ability to perceive and imagine what it might feel like to be the other, challenges our habitual worldview. When we feel an emotional connection to others’ experiences, our worldview expands to include diverse narratives. Experiencing this capaciousness lets us develop a broader sense of self who is able to witness their own attitudes, choices and behavior within the wider context of a collective existence. Witnessing and articulating our unique perception empowers us with agency to notice our motivations and calibrate our actions.
As we face increasingly complex global challenges, it is essential to reflect upon what empathy means to the collective of which we all are an integral part. Cultural spaces — like museums — are critical resources for empathy-building. Informal learning platforms, they can expand our worldview, allow us to explore narratives different from our own and perceive ourselves and our actions not as separate and singular, but integral to the whole.
During the last decade, I have been immersed in a multifaceted exploration of empathy-building through museums, leading a multidisciplinary and international community to deepen our understanding of this ability to relate to others and their experiences, and how to innovate new tools that can position museums as incubators for further empathy-building.
As I observed how intentionality and collaboration across cultures, disciplines and sectors were essential to this effort, the Designing for Empathy® framework and ONE - Organization of Networks for Empathy were born. Designing for Empathy® is an evolving framework that considers a oneness mindset as a master perspective, inspiring how we might see the world around us and our place in it, while reminding us to calibrate and harmonize our attitudes and behavior toward the collective. Within this context, empathy-building is defined as an intentionally designed, transformative lived experience through an encounter with the other that leads to an understanding of the self — not merely as a dispensable part, but as essential to the whole.
Museums allow us to intentionally utilize them as readily available platforms for transformative experiences of empathy and contemplation, where each encounter can be an opportunity to develop a knowledge of our humanness and the filters through which we perceive the world. While empathy-building requires intentionality, it also demands the presence of conducive ingredients within the “alchemy of empathy: storytelling, experiences of awe and wonder, dialogue, experiential learning and contemplation. Each of these ingredients (which are further explained on the following pages) offers a portal into a deeper knowing due to the transformative qualities they are rooted in — curiosity, vulnerability, authenticity, sincerity, humility, courage and trust.
Ingredient: Storytelling
Through first-person accounts, powerful stories from the point of view of the cultures featured, authentic objects and factual information, museums can offer opportunities to bear witness and articulate past and current events, and imagine what it would feel like to be a part of another’s lived experience.
Example: Greensboro Woolworth Lunch Counter
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., invites visitors to immerse themselves in the powerful narratives of the segregated Greensboro Woolworth Lunch Counter interactive exhibition. As visitors take a seat at a modern interpretation of the 1960s diner, they can choose to learn about the Selma March, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Woolworth’s Sit-in. Surrounded by dynamic visual storytelling elements and authentic artifacts, participants are then presented with choices that test their willpower in the face of adversity as they are asked to think about how they would respond if faced with these situations.
Ingredient: Awe & Wonder
An extraordinary experience, something that is otherwise inaccessible in our daily lives, or the immediacy of a newly found perspective on something ordinary, can shift our entrenched perspectives and paradigms, allowing us to explore our capacity for expansion and transformation through vulnerability and contemplation.
Example: Unsupervised
New York MoMA’s historic acquisition of Refik Anadol’s AI-powered installation Unsupervised offers a captivating experience that challenges our sense of place, time and scale. It invites us to find solace within by immersing ourselves in something vast, generative and fluid in its simultaneous and ever-changing creative expression.
Ingredient: Dialogue
Learning to hold off judgment is essential to any meaningful dialogue. Cultural resources in museums can provide a wide spectrum of context, bringing people together for facilitated experiences of non-judgmental listening and dialogue. Proximity to another’s narration of a lived experience, combined with intentionality and undivided attention, create space for empathy and trust to flourish.
Example: A Collective Dialogue: Exploring Belonging through Art & Empathy
At this public workshop I facilitated at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., we explored the themes of “othering and belonging,” utilizing Robert Motherwell’s massive Reconciliation Elegy as the context for an engaging collective dialogue using the Creative Tensions method. Within this method, movement is often used in situations that require perspective, creativity and idea generation. A facilitator presents participants with prompts and invites them to express their stance on the matter by moving to one side or the other of a predetermined area. As individuals are invited to explain their choices, others are free to change their positions by getting closer or farther away from what is being shared.
Ingredient: Experiential Learning
An encounter is required to create, track and unfoldan inner experience such as empathy or a perspective shift, where one can witness the self, the other and the greater context within which the experience is unfolding. Through experiencing, witnessing and articulation, one might develop the agency to take responsibility of habitual perspectives and biases at the point of their arising.
Example: Human Phenomena
San Francisco’s public learning lab, the Exploratorium, includes the Osher Gallery which focuses on Human Phenomena. Here, a variety of playful, yet thought-provoking experiences enable visitors to explore some of the world’s most pressing problems through the lens of human perception, behavior and social interactions.
At the Science of Sharing exhibit set, for example, visitors are presented with situations inviting an immediate response in the form of a choice expressed by a real-time, real-life action. This human experience of encountering a moment of choice then becomes the subject and the object of the experience, opening up possibilities for developing a knowledge of the self through articulation and contemplation.
Ingredient: Contemplation
Expanding our circle of empathy requires conscious awareness, meaning-making and reflection. Contemplation allows us to go beyond our first impression of what is apparent into a search for its meaning and essence. What we find meaningful, or meaningless, shapes who we become as it influences our behavior. Through contemplation, each encounter with the other becomes an opportunity to discover something new about the self, and ultimately to transcend the self within a wider context.
Example: Mandala Lab
New York’s Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art’s Mandala Lab is a traveling experience that centers on an ancient Tibetan mandala to invite deep reflection on the human condition. As participants witness their unique perception and behavior through a series of encounters, they also observe a wide variety of reactions expressed by others around them, inviting contemplation on individual perspectives and actions within the expanded context of our shared humanity.
Editor’s note: The Rubin Museum transitioned to a decentralized, global museum model in fall 2024, closing its 17th Street building in New York City. Today, the museum serves people across the world through traveling exhibitions and experiences, along with partnerships, collection sharing, resources for artists and scholars engaging with Himalayan art, and digital content.
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Time for Self Reflection
A look at what The Henry Ford is doing to build empathy on its campus, through the lens of those doing the work
The Henry Ford Magazine asked a small collective of The Henry Ford’s team to reflect on the role museums can play in empathy-building and what they experience, contemplate and hope to accomplish on our very own campus to encourage visitors to explore their own sense of self and interconnectedness to others. Experts from varied disciplines were chosen to give readers multiple perspectives, from longtime curators and our leadership responsible for talent development and community engagement to our most analytical minds and new faces giving fresh takes on theatrical programming. For scope, we asked everyone to consider the same questions. Here are the questions and their responses.
Why is it vital for educational/entertainment venues such as a museum to build empathy into their “culture” — from their guest experiences and programming to their collections and physical spaces.
From your perspective, what is The Henry Ford doing right in terms of its empathetic interventions? Can you share your hopes for the future?
Empathy Through Insight
Jarell Brown
Director of Analytics & Business Intelligence (B.I.R.A),
Principal Innovator of Innovation Atlas
The Henry Ford
Building empathy into the culture of educational and entertainment venues like ours (The Henry Ford) is essential for fostering inclusive and trusting environments for our guests. Empathy allows us to connect with diverse audiences and communities by understanding their past and current experiences, and their needs and aspirations, so we can create environments and programming that resonate and empower their voices.
By prioritizing empathy and inclusivity, museums can make their programs and exhibits more accessible, sustainable and meaningful to all visitors, regardless of their background, abilities or how they engage with The Henry Ford. Leveraging admission programs, educational programming and entertainment events like our Salute to America, Hallowe’en and Holiday Nights through The Henry Ford’s Community Outreach Program, for example, creates accessible opportunities that address some of the unique challenges communities face when trying to visit.
The Invention Convention Worldwide program, which leverages data and insights from the geographic information system Innovation Atlas, identifies schools, communities and regions for participation in learning how to invent, regardless of their socioeconomic background. Invention Convention Worldwide, like other accessibility programs across our organization, levels the playing field and inspires the next generation of innovators.
By fostering and practicing a culture of empathy within your programs and mission, museums can play a vital role in addressing and supporting unique solutions to the challenges communities face, breaking down barriers and inspiring the next generation.
Empathy Through Exhibitions
Jeanine Head Miller
Curator of Domestic Life
The Henry Ford
Museums are more than places that provide information — they offer opportunities to explore new experiences and be introduced to perspectives that are not our own. As thought-provoking places, museums have an important role in nurturing empathy.
Museums provide unique, often immersive, experiences as guests stand in the presence of intriguing objects while learning their stories, or enter spaces inhabited by people long ago. There is an immediacy, a visceral quality, to this multisensory experience that conveys deeper understanding of others’ lived reality.
Museum guests feel welcome when they “see themselves” in museum exhibits. By including stories of diversity, museums embrace underserved audiences and allow all guests to see the world through others’ eyes.
The Henry Ford has expanded the stories that it tells, moving beyond a traditional lens of white, middle-class experience to encompass a more inclusive vision. Our permanent exhibits are now planned with diverse viewpoints at the center of the conversation. Recent pop-up exhibits have shared the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community, explored more deeply the African American struggle for civil rights, and presented diverse December holiday traditions beyond Christmas.
We continue to gather an increasingly diverse range of objects and archival materials that represent more broadly the American experience, reflecting differing experiences and multiple perspectives of others who share our complex world. When possible, we also capture the reminiscences of those who used the objects, preserving layers of context and personal meaning — “voices” that will continue to foster deeper understanding for guests far into the future.
The ability to see the world as others do — and use it to guide our actions — is key to creating a kinder, more just world. My hope is that museums will continue to play a significant role in cultivating empathy, creating deeper, lasting understanding that encourages a worldview that values everyone.
Empathy Through Objects
Katherine White
Curator of Design
The Henry Ford
An 18th century German secretary desk sits at the edge of the Fully Furnished exhibit in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, surrounded by examples of mostly American-made furniture. A guest might easily stroll by the desk on their way to the shiny Dymaxion House or a new temporary exhibition in The Gallery, especially if the guest is not a furniture enthusiast. But like most objects in the museum, the desk is not as straightforward as a cursory glance suggests.
A closer look at the desk (or rather, the label nearby) reveals an incredible story of the desk and its owners, their persecution and survival as a Jewish family in Nazi Germany, and the family’s journey to America with all their belongings — including this heirloom desk.
This object, like all others in the museum, is really about people.
Museums are about people. The objects exhibited within them were created by people. People used these objects, invented them, selected them, cherished them, passed them down to their children, or perhaps sold them at a garage sale. Objects are powerful — they embody the stories of people. Objects have the power to transport us to another’s perspective and in doing so, create empathy for others both like and unlike us.
Museums are one of few public institutions that the public continues to find trustworthy. We have an incredible opportunity to cultivate empathy in the public through acquiring and exhibiting objects that tell a variety of stories. How challenging it is to demonize a group of people when encountering an object that illustrates their humanity!
We continue to work toward acquiring a more inclusive and diverse collection of objects, which will then become the basis for more inclusive exhibitions, programs and experiences for our guests. In the not-so-distant future, I hope that every person can see themselves reflected within this museum — and that every person encounters a perspective different from theirs, too.
Empathy Through Outreach
Anita Davis
Program Manager, Community Outreach & Engagement
The Henry Ford
Museums have a tremendous opportunity to inspire, empower and uplift underrepresented and minoritized groups. Oftentimes the stories of these groups are marginalized to trauma and oppressive snippets of their history. It can be much harder for certain communities to find hope and inspiration when there isn’t a balancing of hardship with celebration or unjust with equity in the storytelling of their history. This oversight has the potential to lead to mistrust of cultural and educational institutions.
the flipside, by not providing a holistic view of a particular community’s history, those on the outside may come to a misinformed conclusion. By having balanced storytelling, society can show more compassion toward one another, draw on similarities while also celebrating the uniqueness of others.
Through The Henry Ford’s Community Outreach Program, we are intentional about sharing the mission and work of our community partners. Our partners represent a vast variety of service organizations that support communities with great need and little resources. By spotlighting these organizations, our various networks can find personal connections, be inspired and hopefully decide to get involved. It’s important for us to create an environment of empathy and not pity. Pity can position someone as superior and the other as inferior. We combat this by providing opportunities for resource sharing and collaboration between corporate partners, communities partners, donors and The Henry Ford staff. We have learned that collaboration and intentional engagement among networks can lead to shared compassion for the well-being of a particular community.
My hope for the future is that The Henry Ford continues to build toward creating a more honest, inspirational and welcoming environment for all communities represented in our collection. Given the nature of our institution and the position it holds, we have a huge responsibility to ensure that we don’t misrepresent the people whose stories have been historically minimized.
Henry Ford is such a unique experience. We can truly be that community conveyor that inspires other cultural institutions to rethink how they tell stories and engage with surrounding communities.
Empathy Through Leadership
Mike Moseley
Director of Leadership and Talent Development
The Henry Ford
I always tend to look at things from the perspective of what’s the responsibility of leaders. It’s my job. As the director of Leadership and Talent Development, I will tell you that empathy is a vital leadership quality that benefits both individuals and organizations. By understanding and connecting with others, empathetic leaders can create a positive and productive work environment, drive innovation and build strong relationships.
So, as that applies to our work as museum leaders, using the ability to understand and share feelings of others helps people connect to their history, heritage and the world around them. A leader who can deeply understand and connect with the diverse audiences they serve — both staff and The Henry Ford guests — is better equipped to create meaningful experiences and foster a sense of belonging that is necessary for authentic storytelling.
Museum leaders who act empathetically attract people from all walks of life, with varying backgrounds, interests and experiences. A leader who can empathize with these diverse audiences can better understand their needs, desires and perspectives. This understanding allows for the creation of exhibits and programs that resonate with a wider range of people.
Empathy fosters trust and connection between leaders and their staff, volunteers and community members. When people feel understood and valued, they are more likely to be engaged and supportive of our institution’s mission.
The Henry Ford should be a welcoming and inclusive environment for all. We are continuing to work on that.
By empathizing with the experiences of marginalized communities, our leaders can ensure that our collections, exhibits and programs are representative and respectful of diverse perspectives.
The world is constantly evolving, and we must adapt to stay relevant. Empathy helps leaders to anticipate and respond to changing needs and preferences, ensuring that The Henry Ford remains a valuable resource for the community.
believe the ongoing commitment we have to strong leadership development at every level, and the institution’s commitment to creating a safe and diverse work environment, are steps that we are taking to build a more empathetic culture.
Empathy Through Performance
X. Alexander Durden
Manager, Theatrical & Musical Experiences
The Henry Ford
I have always wanted to push limits. Take things that I have learned from my life experiences and apply them in a different context. It’s what has opened my artist worldview.
Early in my hiring process in 2023, I asked about what programming we had on the African American community, Native Americans or the Middle Eastern population. For me, The Henry Ford provides an incubator where we can explore and talk about the stories and the people and be inventive about the ways in which we do it.
Last January, we premiered The Beginnings of the Boycott, a piece about the events that led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, in the museum. We also debuted Market Season in Greenfield Village last year. Both are multicharacter pieces.
I noticed early in my time that a lot of dramatic programming was a single actor speaking first-person to the audience. Many times, we like watching a movie or attending a play because we have the opportunity to peek into a situation and observe, we get to pick up on the in-between, the nuances of the characters and the way they communicate with one another.
With Market Season, for example, we researched the historic multiculturalism of Detroit and focused on three Detroit Central Market figures in the late 19th century: market staple Mary Judge, Jewish fishmonger and activist Itzak Danto and James Kanada, the first Black frontiersman. We felt it was important to uplift these pillars in our local history by telling their connected stories.
Visitors often respond, “Oh! I didn’t know this person was real.” We are starting conversations, which is important because we want people to know these individuals beyond their biographies. We want guests to see how they existed together and the subtext to the relationships now on display. Visitors are definitely picking up on it.
Beyond dramatic programming, we have established our new performance series in the museum and village. Music in the Market and Arts & Artifacts highlight different musical acts, often based on designations like Jewish Heritage Month or Hispanic Heritage Month.
Not only are people being entertained, but they are also learning, being exposed to something new. That’s powerful because although our communities are quite diverse in the metro Detroit area, we don’t cross lines very often. We don’t ask questions. That’s why we’ve encouraged our guest artists to talk about their instruments, talk about their culture and the origins of their performances with guests.
Our job as a museum is not to preserve history but to provide context to history. Artifacts are only jumping-off points. We must talk about what and who led to innovation, what was the need that had to be met.
For hundreds of years, we have been interested in entertainment. We consume performances to feel what is an ideal or unideal human experience. We hunger for empathy or something we can empathize with. At The Henry Ford, I think we need to continue leaning into the uncomfortability. To appropriately contextualize history, we must talk about things that make us uncomfortable. How do we do that? Very carefully. Arts is a fantastic way to start conversation. Art speaks when words fail.
My hopes for the future... that we continue to activate other artifacts in our collections, find more common ground, and unearth and explore our differences because that allows usto understand the full range of humanity.
I am excited, thankful and hopeful that I can continue to contribute as much as I learn.
This post was adapted from an article in the Winter/Spring 2025 issue of The Henry Ford Magazine.
Pineapple cultivation in Hawaii confirms global movement of plants and people. The sweet tropical fruit (Ananas comosus) originated in South America. Then, Portuguese and Spanish colonizers transported the crop from the Western to the Eastern Hemisphere. Reputedly, the Spanish horticultural experimenter Francisco de Paula Marín moved the pineapple on to Hawaii in 1813.
Pineapple field in Hawaii around 1910 / THF200642
The pineapple transitioned from a novelty to a market crop slowly. First, planters focused on sugar cane, not pineapples, but changes in land and labor resources benefited growers of both crops. Namely, planters negotiated with Hawaiians for permission to recruit men from Asia, especially from Japan and China, to work on contract with native Hawaiians to raise cane and refine it into sugar. Ronald Takaki documented the experiences of these laborers as they created a working-man's culture on sugar cane plantations in Pau Hana: Plantation Life and Labor in Hawaii, 1835-1920. Hawaiians also abandoned traditional land-management practices that allowed planters to consolidate land.
Japanese and Chinese laborers worked along with Hawaiians at menial and management tasks as pineapple production increased. They prepared fields, transplanted the crop, and tended it over two years as it matured. They also constructed canning plants, harvested the crop for canning, and prepared shipping crates.
Some Japanese families farmed their own small pineapple fields. They performed field trials when John Kidwell, an Englishman who had relocated to California, began testing different types of pineapple. One, the Smooth Cayenne variety from Florida, appealed to planters for size and taste, and it became the standard crop grown in Hawaii.
Can label, "Gold Band Brand Sliced Hawaiian Pineapple," 1898-1930 / THF113853
Asian laborers remained at work in island fields after the United States annexed Hawaii in 1898 and incorporated the islands as a U.S. territory in 1900. Yet, U.S. immigration restrictions reduced the movement of Asian contract laborers onto the islands. Efforts to increase the number of white laborers and homesteaders in Hawaii never met expectations. Instead, planters continued to rely on short-term labor contracts to recruit temporary workers from the Philippines, or planters recruited laborers from other countries, namely Portugal and the Caribbean islands. These individuals could have acquired knowledge of the crop through previous experiences.
A pineapple field, southern Florida, 1904 / THF624691
Schoolchildren might learn about pineapple cultivation from stereographs like this one, which shows the hard work of harvest in three dimensions. The image shows Black laborers in southern Florida wearing gloves and forearm coverings to protect them from the spiky leaves. The reverse of the stereograph explains the process of raising pineapples.
Harvesting Indian River pineapples in Florida, 1900-1910 / THF624683
Florida ranked as the center of fresh pineapple production in the United States around 1900, and additional fields in California and the West Indies supplemented the Florida crop. The stereograph shows and describes the process of harvesting pineapples for the fresh market. Laborers cut the fruit and handled it carefully to prevent bruising. The packers in the shed in the background (next to the water tank) laid the tender fruit in wooden packing crates to protect them during the trip to East Coast markets.
The canned pineapple business in Hawaii quickly outpaced the fresh fruit business closer to U.S. mainland markets. Years of engineering made the canning plants as mechanized as possible to reduce labor and ensure quality canned goods. A first step in the process required a machine that precisely cored the pineapple. James D. Dole, Hawaiian Pineapple Company, contracted with engineer Henry G. Ginaca in 1911. The Ginaca Pineapple Processing Machine resulted, patented, and further refined to increase the number of pineapples that could be peeled and cored in one minute. As John Wesley Coulter notes in his 1934 Economic Geography essay “Pineapple Industry in Hawaii,” it took less than five minutes to prepare one ton of fruit for canning.
Packing pineapple, California Packing Company, Plant no. 29, Honolulu, circa 1922 / THF276827
As machines whirred, women sat on stools selecting “fancy” sliced pineapple and packing it into cans while others sorted and packed the standard grade. Others picked up irregular pieces for the lowest quality (and priced) can. Each line in the cannery kept a set number of women busy, and a man monitored the mechanics as depicted above in the photograph of Plant no. 29 in Honolulu.
“Fancy Quality” Royal Arms sliced Hawaiian pineapple, 1930-1939 / THF715748
A report on women working as wage laborers in seven Hawaiian canneries indicated that between the 1890s and 1920s, the total canned pineapple increased from 2,000 to 9 million cases. Women accomplished this work in clean and well-maintained factories, which were uniformly sanitary and modern according to Caroline Manning in her 1930 article for the U.S. Department of Labor Bulletin, "The Employment of Women in the Pineapple Canneries of Hawaii."
Women packing sliced pineapple into cans at the California Packing Corporation Hawaii Pineapple Operations, circa 1950 / THF276640
Manning also reported that relatively few women — just over 14,000 — worked at wage-earning jobs in Hawaii, and most worked as agricultural laborers on sugar plantations. Of all wage-earning women in Hawaii, 65 percent were Japanese and 10 percent were Hawaiian or of Hawaiian descent. The remaining 25 percent were predominately women from Europe or the Americas working in clerical positions, with a few hundred women from China, the Philippines, and Korea employed in various wage-earning occupations. In canneries, women of Asian origin constituted 87 percent of the work force: Japanese (32 percent), Hawaiian (27 percent), Chinese (19 percent), Filipino (5 percent) and Korean (4 percent).
Women monitoring crushed pineapple. California Packing Corporation Hawaii Pineapple Operations, circa 1950 / THF276667
Labor Bureau researchers confirmed about a dozen Japanese women working in the fields, usually alongside men in their families. The women removed crowns from the pineapples and packed them in crates for shipment to canneries. They also trimmed crowns, slips, and suckers in preparation for planting the next year's crop.
Laborers on these plantations sometimes secured lodging, water, electricity and fuel, medical treatment, garden space, and provisions available for purchase at a company store. Around 1950, the California Packing Corporation documented changes in Hawaii Pineapple Operations. One photograph shows children playing near worker housing covered with corrugated tin roofs.
Labor housing, California Packing Corporation, Hawaii Pineapple Operations, circa 1950 / THF276665
Other photographs in the California Packing Corporation album, taken around 1950, show the physically taxing work of pineapple planting, cultivation, and harvest. The canning companies tried to reduce labor needs by mechanizing planting and harvest, and developing a paper mesh to reduce the need for cultivation as the crop matured over two years.
Using a dibble to plant pineapple crowns. California Packing Corporation Hawaii Pineapple Operations, circa 1950 / THF276612
A taxi-type planter carried men who planted crowns, slips, or suckers as they moved through the field, circa 1950 / THF276673
Laborers harvesting pineapples that move along the conveyor belt to a holding container on the harvester, around 1950 / THF276606
Recipe Booklet, "Hawaiian Pineapple as 100 Good Cooks Serve It," 1928 / THF294797
Then next time you pick up a can of Hawaiian pineapple, consider the global movement of plants — and the histories of the people who contributed to it. Be mindful of the laborers who worked in pineapple fields and canneries during the twentieth century. Increasing your knowledge about who works in pineapple canning plants today can make you a more informed consumer. You also might explore the pineapple by trying out a recipe published in one of The Henry Ford's historic cookbooks, Hawaiian Pineapple as 100 Good Cooks Serve It (1928).
Debra A. Reid is Curator of Agriculture and the Environment at The Henry Ford.
Representation matters. And for communities that are marginalized, representation in mainstream media can feel like a long overdue recognition that can change everything.
For the Indigenous community, mainstream recognition came with the introduction of the Hulu FX original series Reservation Dogs. Created by 2024 MacArthur Fellow Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muscogee Creek) and Taika Waititi (Māori/Ashkenazi Jewish/Irish/Scottish/English), the series explored the adventures and growing pains of four Indigenous teenagers growing up on the Muscogee Reservation in rural Oklahoma. They deal with teenage shenanigans, growing up, and coping with the death of their friend Daniel, who dies before the events of season one take place.
The show featured a primarily Indigenous cast. The actors who played main characters included Devery Jacobs (Mohawk) as Elora, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Oji-Cree) as Bear, Lane Factor (Caddo/Seminole/Muscogee Creek) as Cheese, and Paulina Alexis (Alexis Nakota) as Willie Jack. There were also appearances from recurring Indigenous actors such as Zahn McClarnon (Standing Rock Lakota), Dallas Goldtooth (Mdewakanton Dakota/Diné), Gary Farmer (Grand River Cayuga) and Jana Schmieding (Cheyenne River Lakota).
"Indian Country" map created by Bobby “Dues” Wilson (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota). From the Collections of The Henry Ford. / THF725033
The show focused on a number of topics within Indigenous communities, such as loss and suicide, poverty, boarding schools, storytelling, ceremonies, traditions, friendship, and adventures. It brought issues in Indian Country to the mainstream and an international audience. The show also featured works by Indigenous fashion designers, artists, musicians, and writers. One such artist is Bobby “Dues” Wilson (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota).
Known primarily as Bobby Dues, he works as a multimedia artist in the mediums of poetry, acting, comedy, and visual arts. A version of the print above appeared in Season 2, episode 10 of Reservation Dogs.Titled “Indian Country Map,” it depicts the United States, Canada, and parts of Mexico and shows the land as Indigenous land. It plays on the term Indian Country, which is defined as lands the federal government holds in trust for tribal nations. This includes reservations and allotments where title to the land has not been severed. It also refers to the Oklahoma territory, which was deemed Indian Country during the Indian Removal period.
A close-up of “Indian Country” shows Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. From the collections of The Henry Ford. / THF725033
The artist, who was asked to create this map for who was asked to create this map for Reservation Dogs, depicts the culture, beauty, and uniqueness of the land and those who call it home. On the map, the artist calls out the many different tribal nations that called the land home and even features some notable people. In the area between Oklahoma and the southeastern part of the United States, we can see Wilma Mankiller (Cherokee), the first female principal chief of the Cherokee nation. The nation was removed to Oklahoma during Indian removal in a route that was called the Trail of Tears. Contemporary Indigenous artist Natalie Ball (Black, Modoc, and Klamath) is featured in her homelands in the Pacific Northwest. Ball also serves as a tribal council member for the Klamath Tribes Tribal Council.
A close-up of “Indian Country” shows Natalie Ball, artist and Tribal Council Member (Black, Modoc, and Klamath). From the collections of The Henry Ford. / THF725033
Wilson's “Indian Country” map shows the breadth of Indigenous history and knowledge still carried today. On Reservation Dogs, it played a role on a television show that included a primarily Indigenous cast and writers — that was watched by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. The show — and this map — are powerful portrayals of Indian Country that show Indigenous people as contemporary nations and not something of the past.
Are you curious about the land that you live on? You can learn more with these resources:
The Henry Ford's Land Acknowledgement
Heather Bruegl (Oneida/Stockbridge-Munsee) is the Curator of Political and Civic Engagement at The Henry Ford.
Revolutionary political philosopher, writer and activist Grace Lee Boggs (1915-2015) dedicated her life to creating social change, often in collaboration with her husband James Boggs. Through their work such as the book Revolution and Evolution in the 20th Century, the National Organization for an American Revolution and Detroit Summer, they advocated for each person to make an internal political evolution that could be amplified to the community and the world. The title of Grace Lee Boggs's 1984 newsletter "America — Love it Enough to Change it" came from a James Boggs quote that exemplified their shared commitment to social change: "I love this country not only because my ancestors' blood is in the soil but because I see the potential of what it can become."
"America — Love It Enough to Change It," 1984. Grace Lee Boggs's pamphlet focused on the 1984 election and reactions to the Reagan administration. / THF722642
Grace Lee Boggs's early life experiences with anti-Asian discrimination shaped her political identity. When her parents immigrated to the United States from China’s Guangdong province in 1911, it was during a period of heightened anti-Asian sentiment in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Between 1882 and 1943, the U.S. government implemented restrictive legislation against Asian immigration, while racist rhetoric about Asian immigrants was common in American life and popular culture. Lee Boggs's father was known as "the king of restaurant businessmen among the Chinese" because he owned and operated two successful Chinese restaurants in Manhattan's Theater District. This success did not insulate Grace Lee Boggs or her family from bigotry. Even though the family could afford a three-story house in Jackson Heights, Queens, restrictive covenants barred any non-white person from owning property in the area; their white contractor's name was on the title of their home. When Grace Lee Boggs was in her twenties, multiple potential employers told her that they would not hire a Chinese American woman even though she had a PhD in philosophy from Bryn Mawr College and was a trained stenographer. In 1940, she was hired as a librarian at the University of Chicago.
Children in Chinatown, San Francisco, California, 1899. Many Chinese Americans faced discriminatory laws around housing, immigration, and jobs following the passage of the first Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. Many were forced to live in specific neighborhoods where they could rent a home and set up their own businesses. / THF119079
This job connected her to local activists who were protesting the untenable living conditions in Chicago's predominately Black South Side neighborhoods. In joining them, Lee Boggs learned about organizing action, leftist political thought, and the ways that discrimination affected Black Americans. Lee Boggs wanted to continue working for social change, so she joined the Workers Party and participated in the March on Washington Movement (MOWM).
MOWM began in 1941 when A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin organized Black Americans to march on Washington, D.C. to demand equal employment opportunities for manufacturing jobs. This mobilization caused President Franklin Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802 to establish the first Fair Employment Practices Committee. As the movement persisted throughout the war years, MOWM organized non-violent demonstrations to force manufacturers to follow through with the government's mandate. Grace Lee Boggs championed MOWM and similar people-led movements in her work for the rest of her life.
Picketers in Support of Hiring Negro Workers for Ford Motor Company, 1942. MOWM inspired this Detroit-based protest to demand Ford hire Black Women in their plants. / THF132237
Between 1942 and 1962, Lee Boggs worked with leftist philosophers C.L.R. James, and Raya Dunayevskaya. The three of them created a Marxist collective called the Johnson-Forest Tendency — later known as the Correspondence Publishing Committee — in response to the Workers Party's lack of political and social action. Members of Johnson-Forest Tendency — known as “Johnsonites” — wrote and published pamphlets that called for racial equality, economic justice, and labor organizing. Through this work Grace Lee Boggs met her fellow Johnsonite and her future writing partner and husband, James Boggs.
But What About the Workers?, 1973. James Boggs was a prolific political writer in his own right. In works like But What About the Workers? Boggs wrote based on his experiences as a Black American auto worker. / THF266642
James Boggs (1919-1993) was born in a small community near Selma, Alabama, where he attended high school and which would become a strategic part of the coming Civil Rights Movements. James left the South in 1937 to search for work during the Great Depression. He settled in Detroit when Executive Order 8802 opened manufacturing jobs to Black men; from 1942 to 1970, James Boggs was a Chrysler employee. During that time, he became increasingly politically involved both in labor and protest movements. Boggs joined the Socialist Workers Party, wrote critically about concessions the unions made with auto companies, and participated in anti-segregation sit-ins in downtown Detroit's bars and restaurants. When Raya Dunayevskaya moved the Johnsonites' headquarters to Detroit in 1952, James and Grace Lee Boggs became further acquainted and married the following year.
James Boggs was a self-educated political philosopher who used his experiences to inform his writing; he encouraged others to see themselves as potential forces for change no matter their background. Although Grace Lee Boggs had degrees from two Seven Sisters colleges, she also believed that everyday lived experiences — rather than academic credentials — were valuable teachers to affect change in the world.
The Johnson-Forest Tendency was focused on international movements and having an academic and philosophical pedigree. After James and Grace Lee Boggs split from the Johnsonites in 1962, they emphasized local political action in Detroit. For Grace Lee Boggs, the city of Detroit was a place where political action and human connection were a part of everyday life. As she wrote in her autobiography, "It was a city of neighborhoods and beautiful trees. It also felt like a 'Movement' city where radical history had been made and could be made again." The Boggses lived in a predominantly Black and working-class neighborhood on the East side of Detroit. Grace Lee Boggs also co-organized the Detroit Walk to Freedom in 1963, which was a mass march in solidarity with the Southern civil rights struggle that also highlighted issues of inequality in the North.
"Walk to Freedom" March in Detroit, Michigan, June 23, 1963. Over 100,000 participants marched down Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit during the Walk to Freedom, making it one of the largest civil rights demonstrations to date. / THF705511
Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the Boggses were at forefront of radical Black American activism and consciousness raising in the city of Detroit and across the country. Their work combined the personal with the philosophical, and political; it encompassed everything from helping neighborhood teenagers find jobs to holding audiences with leaders like Malcolm X, Lyman Paine, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee. After James Boggs's 1993 death, Grace Lee Boggs dedicated the remainder of her life to championing a need for a revolution that focused on evolution, one where over time people could reimagine themselves, their communities, and the world.
Grace Lee Boggs via Wikimedia Commons
Kayla Chenault is an Associate Curator at The Henry Ford.
Bicycles take center stage in The Henry Ford’s newest Collections Gallery exhibit. / Photo by Matt Anderson
The Henry Ford is well known for its transportation collections, including automobiles from the road and race track, innovative early aircraft, and railroad locomotives of staggering size. But our holdings also include an impressive number of two-wheeled vehicles. Several of them are featured in our newest exhibit, Bicycles: Powering Possibilities, located in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation’s Collections Gallery (on view May 3, 2025 - February 15, 2026).
Bicycles gave many children a sense of independence, whether riding with friends or earning money on a paper route. / THF201333
There’s something almost magical about bicycles, powered by our own effort and ambition. For children, bikes provide an early taste of freedom and independence. For adults, they offer a green alternative for daily commuting, or a recreational escape along paved paths or off-road trails. It was the bicycle that introduced Americans to the power of personal transportation. Cyclists were the first group to lobby for better roads, and 19th-century bicycle technology and manufacturing techniques influenced two of the 20th century’s defining machines: the automobile and the airplane.
This simple Draisine, built about 1818, is an ancestor to the modern bicycle. / THF108100
Bicycles: Powering Possibilities tells the story through 17 significant machines. The oldest and most basic is our circa 1818 Draisine. It’s as simple as can be. Riders simply scooted their feet along the ground to make the vehicle go. Critics at the time said it was nothing more than a “good way to wear out shoes,” but the little Draisine effectively doubled a pedestrian’s pace. More influential, and more recognizable to modern cyclists, is our 1866 Sargent & Company Velocipede. French blacksmith Pierre Michaux is credited with adding foot pedals to the front axle, giving riders the means to move without their feet touching the ground.
Big wheels increased a bicyclist’s speed and power, but they intimidated new riders. / THF203364
British racer James Moore turned heads in 1870 riding a bicycle with an oversized front wheel. That big wheel allowed Moore to move faster and farther with each turn of the pedals, and the seat’s location above the wheel increased his leverage when pumping his legs. By the end of the decade, high-wheel bikes like our circa 1878 Singer & Company machine were everywhere. But riding a high wheeler required an extra dose of athleticism. Just getting on or off was a challenge, and even experienced riders dreaded tumbling over the handlebars in a “header” accident.
British manufacturer Rover took the next step in the bicycle’s evolution with a new design in 1885. Rover’s “safety bicycle” featured two modestly sized wheels propelled by a chain-and-sprocket drive. The smaller wheels made it easier to climb into the saddle, and the sprockets provided the same mechanical advantage as direct-drive high wheelers. Safety bikes like The Henry Ford’s 1892 Rambler made biking more accessible and ignited a bicycle boom that, by the mid-1890s, saw more than a million new bikes built in the United States each year. At the same time, bicycle competitions grew in popularity both here and abroad. Racers used advanced, lightweight machines like the 1898 Tribune “Blue Streak” to break records and best opponents on tracks, trails, and roads.
All fads run their course, and the 1890s bicycle boom was no different. The turn of the 20th century saw the market flooded with poorly built budget bikes that turned off riders. At the same time, automobiles and motorcycles eclipsed the bicycle’s technical novelty. By 1902, American bicycle production was only a fraction of what it had been a few years earlier.
Adults may have abandoned the bicycle, but children kept riding. Savvy manufacturers shifted toward the youth market, producing children’s bicycles based on adult motorcycles, with flashy colors and stylish accessories that appealed to young riders. Schwinn had baby boomers dreaming about its top-of-the-line Phantom series, while Schwinn and Huffy both later lured the boomers’ Gen X and millennial kids with entry-level BMX bikes.
American cyclists won nine medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics, inspiring a new generation of riders / THF720378
In the early 1970s, lighter multi-speed machines lured American adults back into the saddle. Ten-speed bikes like the 1970 Schwinn Continental were well suited to road riding in a variety of conditions. Within 20 years, bikes with 18, 21 or even 25 speeds were widely available. Today bicycling is as popular as ever in the U.S., and new riders continue to take up the sport thanks to promotional efforts, safety campaigns, and the spread of urban bike lanes and rural recreational trails.
Bike racer Major Taylor broke records and endorsed manufacturers like Orient. / THF207504
Visitors to Bicycles: Powering Possibilities will meet several influential builders, riders, and racers. Albert A. Pope applied early mass-production techniques to bicycle manufacturing at his state-of-the-art factory in Connecticut. Major Taylor wowed audiences in the U.S., Europe and Australia with his speed sprints and, as a Black American, did so in the face of ugly discrimination. Tillie Anderson was praised as one of the best riders of her day and is said to have won all but seven of the 130 competitions she entered. Frank Schwinn and Horace “Huffy” Huffman revived their respective family businesses by building some of the 20th century’s most popular bicycles. Of course, we can’t forget the Wright brothers, whose 1890s bicycle shop gave them the resources to build and fly the world’s first successful airplane.
“Bicycles: Powering Possibilities” includes 17 machines representing 200 years of development. / Photo by Matt Anderson
The exhibit’s interactive experiences let visitors join in the fun. Handling different materials like wood, steel, and aluminum shows how a bike’s weight is affected by its very substance. Sprockets and chains illustrate the mechanical advantages of multiple gear ratios. Spokes with decorations and playing cards demonstrate how young riders have customized their bicycles for generations. Video displays feature bicycle scenes from favorite movies and television shows, while vintage newsreels showcase long-ago bicycle rides and races. Additionally, three point-of-view videos let visitors ride along over mountain trails in Utah, through Manhattan traffic to Times Square, and along Mackinac Island’s tranquil Main Street.
Bicycles: Powering Possibilities is on view in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation’s Collections Gallery from May 3, 2025, through February 15, 2026. Don’t miss the opportunity to see, study, and celebrate these mechanical marvels that have kept us moving for two centuries.
Matt Anderson is Curator of Transportation at The Henry Ford.
Imagine you are walking through the collections at a library. When you think about a book on those shelves, what comes to mind? How do you picture it?
Most likely what you thought of was something that has a rectangular shape, smooth picture or text cover, and white pages. While that is most likely the case, you might be surprised at what else might be hiding in there. Sometimes, you may stumble upon a book that is just a little different.
Here in the Benson Ford Research Center at The Henry Ford, we have a few examples of some fun surprises one could come across in the library.
This first book has a trio of strangeness as it is the oldest book we have in our collections, but it is also a French translation of a book regarding military information. All of which is a bit different for the scope of our collection. The book is a translated version of De Re Militari written by Flavius Vegetius Renatus written in 1536.
While this next book may not be that old itself, people have been making miniature books for at least 500 years. After searching through the library and museum collections, the smallest book I believe to be in our collections is this teeny tiny book of a man who had a large impact on the world. It is a miniature book from 1961 containing the inaugural address of the 35th president, John F. Kennedy. The dimensions of the book and case are H 2.875” x W 2.438” x L .5 in.
Miniature Book and Case, "The Inaugural Address of John Fitzgerald Kennedy," 1961 / THF166334
Although that one is the smallest, we do have a few other peculiarly small books. Some examples include the copy of Robinson Crusoe below and a few books that are on exhibit with Your Place in Time. All are part of a book series called the Big Little Book, first started in 1932 by Whitman Publishing Company. The Bytes of Wisdom miniature book also happens to be a pop-up book! The Abraham Lincoln miniature book on the far right is a very close contender to the JFK miniature book above, being just about a quarter of an inch bigger in height.
The Big Little Book copy of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe; Bytes of wisdom: a user's guide to the world. R 004 C957 1996.; Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, 1861-1865 : selections from his writings. R 973.7 L736 1950. / Image by Mollie Gordier
On the other hand, we have some hefty and oversized items such as this Norman Rockwell biography, a self-titled book on artist Alexander Girard, a book of America in maps, and this understandably chunky second edition of Webster’s dictionary from 1946.
Norman Rockwell: artist and illustrator. X NC 759.13 R684n, 1970.; Alexander Girard. X NC 745.4092 G517 O44 2011.; America in maps dating from 1500 to 1856. X NC 912.73 A51.; Webster's new international dictionary of the English language: unabridged. X NC 423 W382n 1946. / Image by Mollie Gordier
Some books break the rectangular mold, such as this one commemorating the 40th anniversary of the space race that heightened when Americans Neil Armstrong and Edwin A. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. stepped foot on the moon in 1969. Instead of an angular shape, this book and others in this series all take the shape of a circle.
One small step: 40th anniversary of the race to the moon. 387.8 O58 2009. / Image by Mollie Gordier
Beyond the basic shapes, there is this Smucker’s cookbook that contains some delicious recipes within pages that imitate an actual jar of Smucker’s Sweet Orange Marmalade.
Smucker's best-loved recipes. NC 641.6 S666 2006. / Image by Mollie Gordier
This next book took a different route with a stylish cover made entirely of metal. It is a 1968 exhibit catalog for the Museum of Modern Art that also happened to feature artist Lillian Schwartz — an artist whose work is included in our collections.
The machine : as seen at the end of the mechanical age. 709.22 H917 1968. / Image by Mollie Gordier
Some books simply have a small touch that is outside the box, such as the following two books that not only have aesthetically pleasing covers, but they are also a tactile experience. We have a glittery history of the Academy Awards with an iconic awardee envelope adhered to the front cover and a velvety book about dolls.
![The Academy Awards: the complete history of Oscar. X 791.43 K56 2002.; The Doll. X 745.5922 F791 [1972].](/images/default-source/blog-images/pic-7-textured-covers.png?sfvrsn=4fad0801_1)
The Academy Awards: the complete history of Oscar. X 791.43 K56 2002.; The Doll. X 745.5922 F791 [1972]. / Image by Mollie Gordier
This is especially the case with this book about miniature golf written by John Margolies that has a cover made of artificial grass.
John Margolies's miniature golf. 796.3522 M329, 1987. / Image by Mollie Gordier
Not only is the cover of a book fair game in customization, the text block edges of a book can also feature some originality. Here is a sampling of some of the colorful pages we have at the Henry Ford. Some of these examples have solid or metallic colors while some of the older rare books have a technique called “marbling” covering the pages. Marbling was also very popular as decoration on front covers or the endsheets, which are the pages adhered to the inside of the cover.
Image by Mollie Gordier
The existence of books and all their various forms is vast and quite rich, and is not easily condensed into a short blog post. If you enjoy understanding the many shapes and forms of books over time and the plethora of interesting influences in those changes, you may be interested in reading a book…about books! Such as these found in Benson Ford Research Center library: The Book by Amaranth Borsuk and The book: a cover-to-cover exploration of the most powerful object of our time.
Image by Mollie Gordier
Mollie Gordier is the Technical Services Librarian at The Henry Ford.
"Agras MG-1" Drone, with remote control, battery, and battery charger, 2016. Gift of Northwestern Michigan College / THF199347
Curators at The Henry Ford document milestones in their given areas of responsibility. For agriculture and environment collections, one significant recent development involves uses of uncrewed aerial technology — popularly known as drones — to apply growth enhancers (fertilizers) and plant protectors (herbicides and pesticides) to specific locations in fields, vineyards, and orchards. Curator Debra Reid began conversations with the Michigan Soybean Committee in 2023 to secure a drone for our collections to document this aspect of precision agriculture.
Drones flew on military missions, predominately, until the early 2000s. One example includes the 1918 Kettering Bug, described as the world's first "self-flying aerial torpedo.” As a Smithsonian Magazine article explained, “the simple, cheaply made 12-foot-long wooden biplane with a wingspan of nearly 15 feet” included “a 180-pound bomb. It was powered by a four-cylinder, 40-horsepower engine manufactured by Ford.” These precision-based technologies aimed to put fewer pilots at risk.
Employees of the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company Working on the Kettering Bug, 1918 / THF270430
Other drones in The Henry Ford’s collections address robotics in aerial photography and stunts.
3DRobotics Solo Drone, 2015-2016. Gift of Industrial Designers Society of America / THF193809
3D Robotics (3DR) released its Solo drone in 2015 to great fanfare. NBC News claimed the Solo, when paired with a GoPro HERO camera, could take Hollywood-quality shots. 3DR, the largest North American manufacturer of drones for consumers at the time, believed that the quadcopter with its open-source operating software would dominate the aerial photography market. It may have done so, but competition from the China-based Dajiang Innovation Technology Company (DJI) challenged 3DR and outmaneuvered the Berkeley, California, company. In response, 3DR abandoned the drone manufacturing business and DJI came to dominate the hobby market for uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Front view of the "Agras MG-1" Drone with propellers folded to show the radar module, spray tank, spray nozzles, and landing gear, 2016. Gift of Northwestern Michigan College / THF199333
DJI manufactured the Agras MG-1 specifically for the growing market in precision agriculture and advertised the octocopter as “designed for variable rate application of liquid pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides, bringing new levels of efficiency and manageability to agriculture." Farmers found the investment paid off in numerous ways. They reduced input costs by reducing the quantity of synthetic chemicals applied. Additional environmental benefits included reduced run-off that negatively affects water quality and reduced greenhouse gas emissions because farmers used less fossil fuel during application. Reducing vehicular traffic also improved field health by reducing soil compaction which supported regenerative agriculture goals.
The rapid expansion of hobby and commercial drone markets prompted licensing regulation. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) required commercial drone operator licensing in 2016, but some schools had anticipated the need. Northwestern Michigan College first offered a course in Uncrewed Aerial Systems operation at the Yuba Airport in Grand Traverse County, Michigan, in 2010, becoming one of the first schools in the United States to do so. In 2013, NMC launched an Associate in Applied Science degree with a specialization in UAS. Then, NMC purchased one of the first DJI spray drones used in the United States, according to Tony Sauerbrey, UAS program manager at NMC. The Agras MG-1 facilitated the rapid expansion of commercial drone use in Michigan farm fields.
Instruction in Agras MG-1 operation. Gift of Northwestern Michigan College / THF717085
Learning to operate the Agras MG-1, dispensing water, rather than chemicals. Gift of Northwestern Michigan College / THF717084
The Agras MG-1 in flight over a Michigan vineyard. Gift of Northwestern Michigan College / THF717081
DJI designed the Agras MG-1 to carry 22 pounds of liquid pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers — an amount that could treat an average of an acre in 10 minutes. Its “intelligent” operating system relied on global positioning systems (GPS) data to fly level to the terrain and to automatically adjust the quantity of spray to the flying speed and thus ensure even distribution. Operators had to understand the inputs as well as ways to override them if the battery ran low, the tank ran dry or changes in the weather made it difficult to operate the drone safely.
Rapid expansion in drone-aided agriculture led to training alliances. NMC partnered in 2017 with Michigan State University's Institute of Agricultural Technology so MSU students could meet drone licensing requirements. NMC also partnered in 2020 with Unmanned Systems Institute which administered additional industry safety certifications. Instructors need up-to-date technology, not dated UAS. Thus, NMC retired its Argas M-1, and we acquired it to document early UAS use in precision agriculture.
Debra Reid is Curator of Agriculture and the Environment at The Henry Ford.
