The Henry Ford Museum

 From Dayton, Trish and I drove up to Lake Orion, Michigan, where we spent four nights with her ninety-five year old mother.  We got to see other family members while we were there. 

Leaving Lake Orion, we drove down to Dearborn, Michigan, where we spent most of the day at the amazing Henry Ford Museum there.

The museum, which opened in Ford’s lifetime, is a remarkable collection of Americana, not just automobiles, though they are there in plenty.

We first visited the Buckminster Fuller model house.  Designed to meet the post WW II housing crunch, the aluminum and glass house was to be factory manufactured and installed for what today would be just over $100,000.  It would not, however, have been on the market until 1952, and the need was for housing in 1946.  This is the only existing model.

Among the fun things was the original 1952 Oscar Meyer wienermobile!

Among the more important things was the actual bus on which Rosa Parka refused to give up her seat.  We got to sit on the bus and hear the recording of Parks herself telling about that day. (Near the bus is also displayed the chair in which Lincoln was shot.)

Among the most interesting cars in the museum collection are four presidential limousines.  These include the car in which John Kennedy was shot, which was later totally rebuilt and returned to White House service as a totally enclosed bulletproof vehicle.  It served until the Nixon era.

My favorite was the Lincoln used by both Truman and Eisenhower known as the “Bubbletop.”

You could spend days in this place and still never see everything from trains to airplanes to machinery to furniture.  A very worthy way to spend a day!