The Henry Ford Magazine Winter/Spring 2024

Gain perspective.

Get inspired.

Make history.

PAGE 40

MAGAZINE WINTER/SPRING 2024

CAN UNLIKELY PLACES BE COMMUNITY SPACES?

THE COMMUNITY SPACES ISSUE

+ ANIMALS IN OUR LIFE CYCLE | PLATFORMS FOR CONNECTION

Better technology for a better world.

GM is committed to innovation and technology to help make a safer, brighter future for everyone.

A proud sponsor of The Henry Ford.

Simulated, preproduction or concept products shown and subject to change. Certain products not currently available or subject to limited availability.

See vehicle websites for details. gm.com ©2023 General Motors. All Rights Reserved.

Citizens is proud to be the presenting partner of Holiday Nights in Greenfield Village.

THE COMMUNITY SPACES ISSUE

SEE THE STORY ON PAGE 32 TO LEARN HOW ANIMALS HELP FORM SOME OF OUR CLOSEST CONNECTIONS.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES/ THEPALMER AND IRINA GUTYRYAK

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DIGITAL EDITION This issue of The Henry Ford Magazine is being distributed as a digital publication; print copies are not available. The digital publishing platform ISSUU expands our distribution globally and provides readers with the ability to easily share content they love through social media and email.

MAGAZINE

WINTER/SPRING 2024

Contents

DEPARTMENTS FEATURES Our Mission 4 Behind the Scenes 5 Letter from the President 6 Off the Shelf 8 Ask + Answer 10 Screen Time 11 A Look Back 82

INNOVATION GENERATION 13

18 COMFORT ZONES

Platforms on site and online are building communities and fostering connection

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LIFELONG COMPANIONS

Animals — real, imagined and animatronic — play significant roles in the fabric of our lives, communities and cultures

INSIDE THE HENRY FORD 40

Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation 58 Greenfield Village 60 Ford Rouge Factory Tour 62 Acquisitions + Collections 64 Member Spotlight 66 2024 Events 68

DISHING ON DINERS

The world’s expert on diners shares his start, describes his discoveries and explains his connection to The Henry Ford

PLAN YOUR VISIT 71 ON THE COVER

Please visit thf.org, subscribe to our eNews or follow us on social media for the most up-to-date information on venues, exhibits, events, programming and pricing.

Artifacts from The Henry Ford’s Richard J.S. Gutman diner collection — including a selection of scale model diners — will be on display in the Collections Gallery in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation starting late May. See story on Page 40.

PHOTO BY BILL BOWEN

STAY CONNECTED thf.org

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OUR MISSION

Who We Are and What We Do

Gain perspective.

Get inspired.

Make history.

THE HENRY FORD: A NATIONAL TREASURE AND CULTURAL RESOURCE The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, is an internationally recognized cultural destination that brings the past forward by immersing visitors in the stories of ingenuity, resourcefulness and innovation that helped shape America.

A force for sparking curiosity and inspiring tomorrow’s innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs, The Henry Ford fosters learning from encounters with authentic artifacts. Through its 26 million artifacts, unique venues and resources — Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation®, Greenfield Village®, Ford Rouge Factory Tour, Benson Ford Research Center® and Henry Ford Academy®, as well as online at thf.org, thf.org/inhub and through The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation — The Henry Ford helps all individuals unlock their potential and shape a better future.

The Henry Ford leads the Invention Convention Worldwide community and works to make STEM + Invention + Entrepreneurship (STEMIE) learning accessible to educators and students worldwide. As part of our leadership in invention education, The Henry Ford powers events like RTX Invention Convention U.S. Nationals and curriculum and professional development.

For more information, visit thf.org.

TO MAKE A DONATION OR A LEGACY GIFT

J. Spencer Medford Senior Vice President & Chief Advancement Officer 313.982.6016 spencem@thehenryford.org Chair of the Board Mark L. Reuss Vice Chair of the Board Linda Apsey Members’ Chair Christopher F. Hamp Treasurer S. Evan Weiner President and Secretary Patricia E. Mooradian Board of Trustees Paul R. Dimond Henry Ford III William Clay Ford, Jr. William Clay Ford III Alec Gallimore Ralph J. Gerson Eliza Kontulis Getz Kouhaila Hammer John W. Ingle III Elizabeth Ford Kontulis Richard A. Manoogian Hendrik Meijer Bruce Meyer Jon Oberheide Mark Truby Alessandro F. Uzielli Carla Walker-Miller Trustees Emeriti Lynn Ford Alandt Edsel B. Ford II Sheila Ford Hamp

Join us in our mission to inspire learners of all ages to unleash their potential. Donor support enables us to operate our world-class venues, create transformative educational experiences and advance innovation, ingenuity and resourcefulness. Every gift makes a difference, delivers impact and helps us take it forward for many years to come.

Love The Henry Ford? Please support all that we treasure. Give today at thf.org/donate.

MISSION STATEMENT The Henry Ford provides unique educational experiences based on authentic objects, stories and lives from America’s traditions of ingenuity, resourcefulness and innovation. Our purpose is to inspire people to learn from these traditions to help shape a better future.

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Life Trustees George F. Francis III Steven K. Hamp Roger S. Penske The Henry Ford Magazine is published twice a year

by The Henry Ford, 20900 Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn, MI 48124. Copyright 2024.

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

Sherri Howes Senior Director of Institutional Advancement 313.982.6028 sherrih@thehenryford.org Kerri Hill-Johnson Individual Giving Officer 313.982.6167 kerrih@thehenryford.org SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION

Amanda Hayes Head of Corporate Partnerships amandah@thehenryford.org MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

The Henry Ford Contact Center 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily 313.982.6001 GENERAL INQUIRIES AND GROUP RESERVATIONS

The Henry Ford Contact Center 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily 313.982.6001 RESEARCH INQUIRIES

313.982.6020 research.center @thehenryford.org EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF DIGITAL CURATION

Kristen Gallerneaux Curator of Communications & Information Technology DESIGN, PRODUCTION AND EDITORIAL SERVICES

313.974.6501 info@octanedesign.com Bill Bowen, Creative Director Julie Friedman, Art Director Jennifer LaForce, Editor Kathy O’Gorman, Copy Editor

Notable Colleagues and Correspondents

HOW DO YOU SERVE YOUR COMMUNITY? Our contributors share with us.

RANDIAH CAMILLE GREEN

By writing. By sharing the stories of everyday Detroiters, I shine a spotlight on the people in the city doing work on the ground where their credit is long overdue. This is my role as a storyteller — to show them that their stories, voices and experiences matter and to make sure they are seen.

Randiah Camille Green is an internationally published journalist, poet and yoga teacher from Detroit. She has bylines in Planet Detroit, Escape Magazine, Detroit Metro Times, BridgeDetroit and Belt Magazine.

BEHIND THE SCENES

RICHARD J.S. GUTMAN

SASSAFRAS LOWREY

Diner operators, journalists, high school and college students reach out to me regularly, and I eagerly share my knowledge to further the impact and legacy of diners on our culture.

For many years, I have facilitated writing workshops for unhoused LGBTQ+ youth at shelters and drop-in programs across the country.

Currently, I give back to my community by providing multimedia pro bono dog training support. My goal is to make dog training accessible so people can better understand their dogs and dogs can have more enriched lives.

Richard J.S. Gutman is the leading authority on diners. In 2019, he donated his diner collection, amassed over 50 years, to The Henry Ford.

Dishing on Diners, Page 40

Sassafras Lowrey is a full-time freelance writer and author whose work has been honored by the American Library Association and the Dog Writers Association of America. Sassafras is also a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA).

Comfort Zones, Page 18

Lifelong Companions, Page 32

STAY CONNECTED

thf.org Facebook, Insta, LinkedIn, youtube, tiktok, X, email

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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Thanks to you, our dedicated members and friends, The Henry Ford achieved so much in 2023.

We acquired the Selma home of Dr. and Mrs. Sullivan Jackson. This house served as a safe haven where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others worked, collaborated, strategized and planned the Selmato-Montgomery marches of 1965. We were able to move this artifact from Alabama to Michigan last fall, while also announcing that the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation committed a lead gift to help us preserve this important structure in Greenfield Village and ensure it is experienced by millions of people from all over the world.

Lead gifts from the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and the Ford Motor Company Fund announced last year also allowed us to push forward with the beginning stages of endowing a farm-to-school lunch program at our Henry Ford Academy — which will offer our high school students free, accessible, locally sourced and cooked-from-scratch school lunches. The gifts will also help us launch the national Farm to School Lunch Across America initiative during October Farm to School Month in 2024. Its goal is to serve schoolchildren, teachers and families a nutritious and delicious meal, sourced locally, and to work with regenerative farmers when possible.

We also celebrated our inaugural day of giving, Cornerstone Day, last year to great success, and opened the doors to our wonderful new Collections Gallery — you can still see its debut exhibition, Lillian Schwartz: Whirlwind of Creativity, through the end of March.

Starting in late May, the Collections Gallery will host the exhibition Dick Gutman, Dinerman, which will feature selections from Richard J.S. Gutman’s extensive collection that now belongs to The Henry Ford.

It includes historic diner photographs, menus, tableware, promotional giveaway items, clothing and more from diners across the United States. As a special companion to this coming exhibit, this issue of The Henry Ford Magazine features Dick Gutman sharing, in his own words, how his journey into the world of diners began and why The Henry Ford is undoubtedly the institution where his collection belongs. (See story on Page 40.)

Also in this issue, which is themed around community spaces, we explore inclusive platforms online and on site, showcase some of our student innovators that make up our growing Invention Convention Worldwide community and explore companionship between humans and animals big and small.

There is so much to be inspired by at The Henry Ford. I look forward to all that 2024 holds, and I can’t thank you enough for your support of our enduring efforts to move this extraordinary institution forward.

With deep gratitude,

PATRICIA E. MOORADIAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, THE HENRY FORD

STAY CONNECTED PHOTO OF PATRICIA MOORADIAN BY ROY RITCHIE

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Connecting communities to what matters Here in Detroit, we all need to share in the responsibility to do more. That’s why we work closely with The Henry Ford and other local businesses, nonprofits and community leaders who share our vision to create meaningful change. Side by side, we’re committed to making a difference in communities in which we live and work.

Matt Elliott President, Bank of America Michigan bankofamerica.com/detroit

What would you like the power to do?®

© 2023 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved. | ENT-669-AD

OFF THE SHELF

Recommended Films, Fine Reads and Dot-coms

WHAT ARE WE READING + WATCHING?

Shifting Perspectives Matt Anderson, The Henry Ford’s curator of transportation, offers his perspective on Shifting Perspectives, the second photography book from Anthony Schmidt.

Teenage photographer Anthony Schmidt uses small cars to big effect in this delightful collection of clever images. He stages model cars and trucks in real-world landscapes or near actual buildings like gas stations, drivein restaurants, parking garages and railroad depots. Then, using scale dioramas, forcedperspective techniques and his iPhone camera, Schmidt makes the little vehicles appear as though they are part of our full-size world.

The resulting photos are incredibly convincing.

It’s all thanks to Schmidt’s attention to detail, which his mother, Ramona Schmidt, credits to his autism. She writes in the book that her son processes information differently than is typical, perceiving everything in a scene all at once.

This attentiveness extends to his die-cast cars.

Schmidt details each model himself, whether polishing it to a factory finish or aging it with artificial patina. His 3,500-piece collection includes everything from an 1885 Benz PatentMotorwagen to a 2020 Tesla Model S, allowing him to re-create various time periods in his photos.

Schmidt’s photographs have appeared on social media (where they drew praise from Apple CEO Tim Cook), in books, on calendars and in museum exhibits. Yet even with all that he has accomplished, one suspects this talented young man is only getting started.

READ

Small Cars, Big Inspiration, Anthony Schmidt’s first coffee-table book of his model-car photographyc

ONLINE Take a deeper look at Anthony Schmidt’s forced-perspective photography by following him on YouTube, TikTok and Facebookc

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANTHONY SCHMIDT

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Letters from the Stacks Archives and libraries themselves can be community spaces, providing ways for anyone to investigate the past, explore the unknown or research a question. But today, we’re looking at materials relating to one of the ultimate community spaces — parks.

Saige Jedele

Associate Curator The Henry Ford Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America by Marcia Chatelain We often hear about fast food and the American diet, the environment or the commercial landscape. Marcia Chatelain takes a different, eye-opening approach in Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, examining the interplay between fast food and community.

Through detailed research, Chatelain presents fast-food franchises as sites of profit and protest, revealing their complex and often surprising role in the struggle for racial and economic justice.

Paige Gilbert

Social Media Manager The Henry Ford Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

by Gabrielle Zevin Spanning the course of 30 years, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow explores themes of friendship, love (both romantic and otherwise), creativity, grief and growing up, all set against the backdrop of video game innovation at the turn of the century. Prodigies Sam and Sadie are best friends, collaborators and platonic soulmates wound in one of the most authentic love triangles I’ve read in a long time. The book’s video game references will evoke particular nostalgia for Gen Xers and millennials, but you don’t have to be a gamer to enjoy the read.

Take a stroll through 1860s Central Park by looking through Pennsylvania artist Lewis Miller’s sketchbook of drawings. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn at the turn of the century, photographer Jenny Young Chandler captured many images of children of the area playing in parks around town, including Prospect Park. Maybe you’d like to make your way through what was advertised as “the world’s largest landscaped municipal park,” Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, in 1974 — if so, we’ve got a guidebook for you. If you are looking for both city parks and national parks, be sure to check out the Detroit Publishing Company’s vast array of photos from across the United States. Speaking of national parks, you can learn more about Edsel Ford’s work on the park commission from 1931-1940 to make Michigan’s own Isle Royale a national park. And what would a park be without a playground? We have playground equipment sketches from designer Robert Propst that include a child volcano.

We’d be happy to help you research parks or any other questions you have, so please email us at research.center @thehenryford.org to start your research today.

— KATHY MAKAS, REFERENCE ARCHIVIST

thf.org

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ASK + ANSWER

Questions and Replies about Today’s Trends, Talk

ASK:

Why should museums diversify their library collections?

ANSWER:

I like to think of museum collections like most parts of society, in that they are always growing.

The Henry Ford is a history museum that talks about innovation on a wide scale, which should mean all types of people can see themselves in our collections. For me, that translates to collecting books that tell stories for everyone, for both our research library and our rare book collection. Recently, I worked with one of our associate curators to add more pop-up books to the collection, which allows us to talk about both paper arts and childhood experiences. Other times, it might mean adding LGBTQ+ reference texts to the research library so our teams can tell communities’ stories in a sensitive and accurate manner.

It is important for us to see gaps in the collection as opportunities for growth and learning. Whether these gaps are related to different racial identities, age groups, abilities or orientations, filling them is what makes a museum an inclusive place. While such changes are not always easy, we know as a museum we’re only as strong as our collections — that what we choose to collect and care for has meaning for us as stewards but also for our guests, who expect us to tell their stories and want to see themselves represented in history.

— SARAH ANDRUS, LIBRARIAN, THE HENRY FORD

ILLUSTRATION BY NEKA KING

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Interact with The Henry Ford’s Expanding Digital World

SCREEN TIME

SEARCH, WATCH, DOWNLOAD COMPILED BY SAIGE JEDELE, ASSOCIATE CURATOR, THE HENRY FORD

Communities depend on support from within. Explore The Henry Ford’s Digital Collections and content to uncover stories of people who innovated, organized and acted to improve the everyday lives of their neighbors and meet new needs in times of crisis.

NEW FRONTIERS Through the Frontier Nursing Service, founded in 1925, nurse-midwives delivered lifesaving health care to remote areas of eastern Kentucky — places that were often only accessible on horseback. Follow their journey through photographs in The Henry Ford’s Digital Collections.

WATCH The Henry Ford’s YouTube channel to learn how one frustrated local architect turned to shipping containers for safer, more sustainable housing solutions after Hurricane Maria destroyed 70,000 homes in Puerto Rico in 2017. Hear her story and see how other innovators have addressed housing issuesc

FOOD FOR THOUGHT d In 1970s Detroit, community advocates worked to document,

highlight and address food insecurity in the city and surrounding region. Meet these and other “food soldiers” in a blog post outlining the history of nutrition and race activism.

Full-Circle Festival

Community organizers started the Juneteenth Festival of Buffalo in 1976 to bring people together and spark revitalization in Buffalo, New York’s Black business district. The annual festival grew to address changing needs in the community — for 1997, as advertised on this poster, organizers added a health fair, job fair and book swap.

PHOTOS FROM THE HENRY FORD ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

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Protect your ride, 365 Accidents don’t just happen on the road. At home or in storage, mishaps like fire, theft or falling paint cans can cause serious damage. So whether a nice winter day calls for a drive, or you want to make sure your favorite vehicle is safe while it’s tucked away, a policy through Hagerty keeps your car protected all year long.

+1-800-922-4050 hagerty.com

Some coverage not available in all states/provinces. This is a general description of coverage. All coverage subject to policy provisions, exclusions, and endorsements. Hagerty determines final risk acceptance. US policies underwritten by Essentia Insurance Company. Canadian policies are underwritten by Elite Insurance Company. Hagerty International Limited are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA Firm Reference Number 441417). All third party makes, models, and vehicle names are property of their respective owners. Their use is meant to reflect the authenticity of the vehicle and do not imply sponsorship nor endorsement of Hagerty nor any of these products or services. Hagerty is a registered trademark of The Hagerty Group LLC, ©2023 The Hagerty Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The Hagerty Group, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hagerty, Inc.

Profiles of people curious enough to challenge the rules and risk the failures

INNOVATION GENERATION The Henry Ford is committed to ALL audiences and to inspiring the next generation of inventors, entrepreneurs and innovators, regardless of backgrounds or barriers. Our Archive of American Innovation serves as the cornerstone for all of our innovation learning experiences, programs and curricula, which are designed to accelerate the innovative mindsets of all learners from across the globe.

Invention Convention Worldwide 14 Programming, Resources + Events 16

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INNOVATION GENERATION

INVENTION CONVENTION WORLDWIDE

CRITICAL THINKERS THRIVE

The Henry Ford’s invention education program is growing a community of student innovators The Henry Ford leads the Invention Convention Worldwide program, which includes a coalition of program affiliates in more than 25 states and Mexico. In partnership with these organizations, the Invention Convention program prepares K-12 students for the needs of the 21st century by challenging them to be problem seekers and solvers and by empowering them to be a new generation of critically thinking innovators.

Through hands-on, real-world, projectbased learning approaches delivered in school, after school or through independent study experiences, we have helped cultivate hundreds of young inventors. Many have won school- and state-level invention competitions and showcased their ideas at the RTX Invention Convention U.S. Nationals event held at The Henry Ford, where we gather as a community representing the brightest future innovators and entrepreneurs in the world.

ONLINE Learn more about Invention Convention Worldwidec ONLINE Learn more about The Henry Ford’s inHubc

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MORE THAN 160,000 K-12 innovators and entrepreneurs take their ideas, inventions and products to school- and state-level events every year as part of The Henry Ford’s Invention Convention Worldwide education program, all with the hopes of winning these competitions and gaining a shot at competing against their peers at RTX Invention Convention U.S. Nationals in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. Over the past six years, nearly 2,500 students have competed each spring for this culminating showcase, presenting their projects, networking with other young innovators and strengthening the ever-important community of next-gen doers and thinkers.

While the participation numbers certainly speak to the ongoing success of Invention Convention Worldwide, it’s the students who make up this community and their inspiring stories that demonstrate the true success of the program.

Meet a few of these students (all RTX Invention Convention U.S. Nationals 2023 winners) at right — their innovations focused on community and personal safety and sustainability.

DID YOU KNOW? / Tarun Batchu (above) is a serial inventor who has competed in the Ohio Invention League program for nine years.

It took him seven years to make it to the statelevel competition, where he would move on to Invention Convention U.S. Nationals and Invention Convention Globals in 2022 and to U.S. Nationals and Invention Convention Americas in 2023.

PHOTOS BY NICK HAGEN

READ

The January-May 2019 issue of The Henry Ford Magazine for additional background on Invention Convention Worldwide and more profiles of past convention winnersc

d William Susskind (left) and Rohan Kumar NAMES: William Susskind and Rohan Kumar INVENTION: DoorBully STATE: Georgia EVENTS: Georgia Tech K-12 InVenture Prize, Invention Convention U.S. Nationals AWARDS: Third place in the 11th-grade category and a Patent Application Award presented by WilmerHale at RTX Invention Convention U.S. Nationals 2023 William and Rohan were 16 and 17 years old and juniors in high school when they entered DoorBully into the Invention Convention Worldwide competitions.

DoorBully is an easyto-use security system designed to quickly and securely lock doors in schools, offices and other establishments during emergencies. Featuring a magnetized cast-steel mechanism that attaches to metal door frames, the DoorBully keeps doors unlocked for regular use while allowing fast activation with a single action in case of a threat.

This innovative solution provides enhanced safety while complying with fire codes and safety regulations, offering a reliable option for institutions looking to improve safety measures.

NAMES: Rebekah Huang and Katherine Cho INVENTION: Step-byStep Hand Holder STATE: Massachusetts EVENTS: ICW Independent Inventor Program, Invention Convention U.S. Nationals AWARDS: Third place in the third-grade category and a Patent Application Award presented by WilmerHale at RTX Invention Convention U.S. Nationals 2023 Rebekah and Katherine created a device that helps children walk down stairs more safely and can prevent them from falling too.

Addressing statistics that show a child goes to the hospital every six minutes for falling down stairs, the two developed the Step-by-Step Hand Holder, which hooks over a banister and allows a child to hold on to it, like holding a hand. It also includes a band that wraps around a child’s wrist and is attached to a clamp on the banister.

If a child starts to fall, the wristband activates the clamp to lock around the banister, preventing the child from falling further down the stairs.

SAVE THE DATE NAME: Mahi Patel INVENTION: Analyzing Lung Cancer Using AI STATE: Florida EVENTS: Tampa Bay Invention Convention, Invention Convention U.S. Nationals AWARDS: First place in the fifth-grade category and Best Display Board at RTX Invention Convention U.S. Nationals 2023; first place in the grades K-5 band at Invention Convention Americas 2023 presented by RTX.

NAME: Tarun Batchu INVENTION: Trident STATE: Ohio EVENTS: Ohio Invention League, Invention Convention U.S. Nationals AWARDS: Community/ Societal Benefit Award, presented by The Lemelson Foundation, at the RTX Invention Convention U.S. Nationals 2023; first place in the grades 9-11 category at Invention Convention Americas 2023 presented by RTX.

Mahi was 11 years old when she entered Analyzing Lung Cancer Using AI into the Invention Convention Worldwide competitions.

An impressive artificial intelligence model, it can help detect lung cancer, providing patients early diagnosis as well as greatly reducing the chance of misdiagnosis.

Lung cancer has a misdiagnosis rate of 28%. Mahi’s model was able to detect lung cancer with 95% accuracy in her tests.

Tarun (opposite page) was a 14-year-old freshman when he entered Trident in the Invention Convention Worldwide competitions.

Seeking to mitigate pollution caused by synthetic plastic in the atmosphere and marine environments, Trident is a device that converts plastics into biofuels. It captures air at a cryogenic state to complete cold plasma pyrolysis (converting plastic into fuel) at a much higher efficiency than current industrial devices.

JUNE 5-7 RTX INVENTION CONVENTION U.S. NATIONALS 2024 Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation Learn more and how to participate

INVENTION CONVENTION WORLDWIDE MISSION: We provide innovation, invention and entrepreneurial learning to instill problemidentification, problem-solving, entrepreneurship and creativity skills for life. Our purpose is to inspire young people to become innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs over the course of their K-12 careers.

a Rebekah Huang (left) and Katherine Cho

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INNOVATION GENERATION

PROGRAMMING, RESOURCES + EVENTS What to watch, read, do to inspire big thinking

INNOVATOR SHOWCASE

The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation features teen inventions with community impact As we examine inclusive community spaces in this issue of The Henry Ford Magazine and celebrate young inventors contributing to the cause, the magazine team took a look at The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation for source material. It didn’t disappoint. Young innovators and entrepreneurs are featured throughout the show’s 10 seasons, showcasing everything from their distracted driving and anti-bullying solutions to a portable solar-powered shelter for the unhoused.

Look through Innovation Nation’s entire episode guide to find out more about a community of young innovators who have tapped into their can-do spirit and are working to make the world a better place for future generations.

REACHING FAMILIES WITH AUTISM

Sensory-friendly programming thrives at The Henry Ford The Henry Ford has spent more than 20 years working to provide a safe, unique and engaging environment and experience for its members and guests on the autism spectrum and their families. A substantial grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in 2020 promised to further those efforts.

And it has.

Today, The Henry Ford has at least two sensoryfriendly events per month, including a “lights up, sound down” movie at the Giant Screen Experience.

The other specialized event might be a virtual program or an on-site opportunity, such as an early preview to see an exhibit or a designated evening for Hallowe’en or Holiday Nights in Greenfield Village.

According to Caroline Braden, accessibility manager on the Guest Services team, The Henry Ford continues to broaden its sensory-friendly programming’s scope so it can reach and support an even larger portion of this important community. “We have significantly increased the number and variety of sensory-friendly events for our guests with autism and sensory processing disorder over the past few years,” said Braden. “For example, we now have a program designed specifically for teens and adults. This type of programming is quite unique to a museum, where programs are more often for younger individuals.”

Learn more about The Henry Ford’s sensory-friendly programming.

READ

d Teens Kassandra Salazar (center) and America

Hernandez (right) share the design process (photo at top) for their solar-powered tent for the unhoused with correspondent Alie Ward for an episode of The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF HEARST MEDIA PRODUCTION GROUP

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This blog post for the history behind The Henry Ford’s sensoryfriendly programmingc

SAVE THE DATE PAW Patrol: Adventure Play Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation Feb. 18-April 28

AAA SCHOOL SAFETY PATROL

Artifacts recognize young patrollers’ commitment to the safety of others The animated children’s TV show PAW Patrol takes over The Gallery by General Motors in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation with the traveling exhibition PAW Patrol: Adventure Play in February (see Page 68). We decided to do a bit of digging in our own collections to see if we could make any worthy connections to the popular cartoon that follows a group of rescue pups on a mission to keep communities safe.

The real-life AAA School Safety Patrol has a similar mission. Established by the American Automobile Association in 1920, the program’s core purpose — to encourage safety awareness among young people — remains unchanged.

As part of this patrol, upper elementary, middle d Above: AAA School Safety and junior high school students are trained in traffic Patrol Lieutenant badge, safety and stationed near schools at crosswalks, 1950-1965; at right, members of Detroit’s bus unloading areas and carpool drop-off locations Houghton School safety to ensure that their fellow students remain cautious patrol listen attentively near motorized traffic. Working together with adult to traffic safety officer crossing guards and traffic officers, these patrollers Anthony Hosang in 1950. play an important role in keeping students safe.

PHOTOS FROM THE HENRY And they learn early and important lessons about FORD ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN responsibility too.

INNOVATION The Henry Ford’s artifact collection includes armbands and badges worn by AAA School Safety Patrol members over the years. The archival collection also includes a copy of the sheet music for “The Official Song of the Safety Patrol,” written by Lucille Oldham in 1937.

Said Matt Anderson, curator of transportation, “We salute these conscientious students working tirelessly throughout the school year to keep their classmates safe. Thanks to the program, these students are empowered with a sense of responsibility and leadership as they protect their classmates going to and from school each day.”

READ

Curator Matt Anderson’s complete blog post on the AAA School Safety Patrolc

DID YOU KNOW? / Former AAA School Safety patrollers include Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and notable Michiganders like Gov. William Milliken, Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca and Detroit Tiger Al Kaline.

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Comfort Zones Platforms on site and online are building communities and fostering connection

By Randiah Camille Green

a Artist KESSWA performs a hybrid

vocal/DJ set as part of the 2022 Allied Media Conference (AMC) in Detroit.

The event was one of many held during the multiday 2022 AMC that showcased individuals working at the intersection of art and social change.

PHOTO BY KENNY KARPOV

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COMFORT ZONES

C

Connection is essential to the human condition. We need each other to thrive, build, play, live and love.

In metro Detroit, several organizations work to provide “safe containers” for diverse communities, encouraging individuals to come together with other like-minded people to interact, create and support each other. Their arsenals of connectivity include platforms both physical and virtual — all designed to inspire people of all backgrounds, abilities and ages to reach out and find ways to relate to one another.

The Progressive Arts Studio Collective (PASC) and Allied Media Conference (AMC) are two such entities serving metro Detroit. Both are creating their own unique and innovative communities for marginalized groups. PASC equips artists with developmental disabilities and mental health differences with studio space — on site and online — as well as the support to build their art and design careers. For more than 20 years, AMC was an idea incubator and hub for social justice and radical healing, mostly for queer and BIPOC communities.

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ART WITHOUT ABLEISM At PASC, adults with developmental disabilities and mental health differences can explore their creativity as part of a vibrant and fluid art community. PASC has three physical studios in metro Detroit — in the city of Detroit, Westland and Southgate. It also has an exhibition gallery and virtual studio program with sessions held over video conference weekly.

The organization has more than 170 artists who use the open studio spaces at their leisure.

They can paint, draw, do collage or create in whatever medium they’re interested in that day.

Rather than teachers, PASC program manager Anthony Marcellini explained that staff act more like assistants, helping artists develop their own vision instead of guiding them toward a specific established style or technique.

“Our model is based on developing confidence within a population that is not always given opportunities to be independent

and to make their own choices,” said Marcellini.

“There’s no single perspective that people are being taught. We want them to be comfortable, trusting and confident. Once that is established, the artwork becomes amazing.”

The studio proves that disabled adults have a place in the art world and shouldn’t be excluded from the creative landscape. Marcellini said Detroit has a high per capita population of people living with disabilities. This population is often placed unfairly in institutional environments that leave them feeling isolated and disconnected from their peers and the able-bodied world around them. “[PASC is] giving a space for people with disabilities to be understood as creators — as producers of culture within Detroit — and that’s not always something this population is

given,” he said. “Nor are they always provided opportunities where they can be independent, make their own choices, create whatever and however they want, and really express themselves. [Through PASC], people see that their artwork is absolutely novel ... unique things that people want to buy and have in their art collections next to their Andy Warhol.”

Being around a community of peers is important for anyone, but Marcellini added that it is especially critical for disabled adults who often don’t have many opportunities to make friends or explore the world around them. “For people with disabilities, we run into a lot of situations where they’re not really doing much because their families, for whatever reason, are worried about them being out in the world, or maybe they are worried about them being

d Artist Sherri Bryant is one

of more than 170 creators who use the metro Detroit area studio spaces provided by the Progressive Arts Studio Collective, which is dedicated to giving adults with developmental disabilities a creative outlet.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PROGRESSIVE ARTS STUDIO COLLECTIVE

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taken advantage of,” he said. “But this program feels, to me, like when I first went to art school, so excited, like, ‘Oh my God, these are my people!’

We really get a sense of that excitement from the community of artists who are in our program.”

Soon, PASC is moving its headquarters to the Library Street Collective’s forthcoming art hub called LANTERN, which is in Detroit’s East Village.

LANTERN will host studio space, workshops and a gallery for PASC artists to exhibit their work.

The building will also house letterpress printing nonprofit Signal-Return, along with additional READ

The June-December 2017 issue of The Henry Ford Magazine to learn more about letterpress shop Signal-Return and view items from the nonprofit in The Henry Ford’s collectionsc

studio spaces, an art gallery and creative retail.

Marcellini said PASC’s presence in LANTERN will allow the collective’s artists to integrate more into Detroit’s larger art community. “That’s great news not just for our population but for the entire arts community and population of Detroit that will engage with our studio,” he said of the pending move. “The sorts of barriers to inclusion — from other people having predisposed notions about what persons with disabilities are capable of, or even people being afraid of disabilities — I think they will get broken down once things open up.”

ONLINE Explore the Progressive Arts Studio Collective’s digital archive of current and past exhbitionsc

d The Progressive Arts Studio Collective (PASC) is soon moving its headquarters to

the art hub LANTERN (proposed rendering above) in Detroit’s East Village. Opposite page: Artists Randy Rodriguez (left) and Marquise Rucker are free to choose their preferred artistic medium at PASC’s studio in the Detroit suburb of Southgate.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PROGRESSIVE ARTS STUDIO COLLECTIVE; COPYRIGHT OMA AND LUXIGON

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ONLINE Learn more about the Library Street Collective and its new LANTERN art hub in Detroit’s East Villagec

PHOTO COURTESY OF PROGRESSIVE ARTS STUDIO COLLECTIVE

FIRST OF ITS KIND Dedicated to supporting artists with developmental disabilities and mental health differences, the Progressive Arts Studio Collective (PASC) is the first art and design studio of its kind in Detroit. PASC program manager Anthony Marcellini ran a similar program through an organization called Friendship Circle until the summer of 2020, when he reached out to Services to Enhance Potential (STEP), a nonprofit disability support organization, with the idea for an art collective in Detroit.

With the support of STEP, PASC launched in January 2021 as in-person programming began to resume following the COVID-19 pandemic. It started with just one studio and about seven artists participating at a time. Today, PASC has three physical spaces across metro Detroit with each studio hosting more than 20 artists daily and over 170 a week. along with weekly virtual studio programming.

Since PASC programming is offered under STEP, all studio time is offered at no out-of-pocket cost to members, who can use funds provided by the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network or Medicaid dollars to pay for it. The studio covers all material costs and gallery representation that members need to help them land exhibitions and build their résumés.

ONLINE Learn more about the Progressive Arts Studio Collective, its locations and virtual programmingc

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BE THE REVOLUTION While PASC is creating a community where artists living with disabilities can converge and explore their creative process, Allied Media Projects (AMP) is holding space for social and personal revolution. For 23 years, AMP hosted Detroit’s Allied Media Conference (AMC), where thousands of social justice organizers and radical healing practitioners converged to share knowledge and strategies.

It wasn’t always this way, however. AMC started as the Midwest Zine Conference in 1999.

Back then, it was more focused on how to share anarchist and radical feminist stories through independent media-like zines — self-published publications often photocopied in small batches.

Always a conference of community, over time AMC evolved from DIY punk to represent an inclusive, eclectic mix of queer, disabled and BIPOC populations. AMP’s co-executive director Toni Moceri said AMC moved its operations to Detroit in 2007 as more of the city’s youth and women of color began attending the conference.

Related workshops and panels also changed annually to better align with emerging ideas within the social justice movement.

As AMC became more participant-led, it also became more BIPOC-centered. “We were engaging with communities that otherwise did not have a space, and we started experimenting with what does it mean to center the most marginalized,” explained Moceri. “So it was about centering disability justice and healing justice. How do we create spaces for people to rest or be quiet and be supported? Oftentimes we’re talking about really challenging, emotional experiences and systems of oppression, [and] when we talk about resisting systems of oppression, that is often triggering and people need support.”

Moceri said the mission of AMP has always been to provide shared infrastructure to independent media projects in addition to producing the conference, but the organization has always been committed to reflecting the community. In recent years, that has translated to hosting workshops rooted in environmental justice, queer liberation, Black power and operating outside a white supremacist, capitalist framework. “We like to reference activist Grace Lee Boggs, ‘What time is on the clock of the world?’” Moceri said. “What do our movements need? What is AMP’s best position to provide?

RESEARCH

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The late Charity Hicks, a beloved Detroit community leader and international advocate for the environment, water, social justice and food securityc

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And how does that inform how we evolve the infrastructure that we’re providing our network?”

As more people began to prioritize mental health and alternative healing modalities outside of modern medicine, the conference included a healing justice room where practitioners would offer attendees things like Reiki, massage and acupuncture. Recent conference workshops and events featured a disability justice and neurodiversity dinner, with session titles such as “Surviving Impossible Times: Herbal Strategies for People of Color,” “Blackness and Afro Latinidad: Brujas Healing the Diaspora,” “Repetition Is Sacred: Group Poetry as Ceremony for Change” and “Oracles, Divination Practice and Portrait Making.”

In 2023, AMP announced it was putting AMC on hold for the foreseeable future to focus more on providing financial support for independent media and community organizations. Last summer, AMP also moved its headquarters into the LOVE Building, a nonprofit in Detroit’s Core City neighborhood that houses groups like Detroit Disability Power, the Detroit Narrative Agency, Detroit Justice Center, Detroit Community Technology Project and Paradise Natural Foods. (See the story “Let’s Tech Together” in the January-May 2021 issue of The Henry Ford Magazine for more on the Detroit Community Technology Project.)

The LOVE Building will be a central hub where residents of the Core City neighborhood can come for free legal help, Wi-Fi, support with housing and disability advocacy, and plant-based meals. All the organizations housed in the building will host workshops, panel discussions and events much like those at AMC. Moceri called it “AMC 24/7,” focusing on the needs of Detroiters.

AMP’s first event in its new location included a panel discussion between the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition and organizers fighting against a cement crusher facility coming to Core City. The participants shared equitable solutions to ensure the safety of Detroiters while “waging love,” the call to action inspired by the late Detroit water warrior Charity Hicks.

“We’re bringing this kind of content and conversation right here physically in Detroit, versus four times a year when people from all over the country are descending on the city,” Moceri said. “This is a more permanent way of engaging and making sure that we’re centering and prioritizing the folks here in Detroit.”

ONLINE Explore the network of people, media programs and transformative events that make up Detroit’s Allied Media Projectsc

a Detroit’s Allied Media Projects (AMP) has spent decades

encouraging social change and personal growth. In 2022, its Allied Media Conference explored discussions around emerging futures at the intersection of art, technology, education and media (left). In 2023, the group hosted the AMP Seeds Series, which included a screening at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit of the foodways film Gather and panel discussions with Gather chefs, farmers and food sovereignty activists (at top and above).

PHOTOS AT TOP AND ABOVE BY KENNY KARPOV; PHOTO AT LEFT COURTESY OF ALLIED MEDIA CONFERENCE 2022

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d Experimental musician Serpentwithfeet owns the stage during a series of live performances hosted as part of the 2022 Allied Media Conference in Detroit.

PHOTO BY KENNY KARPOV

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“How do we create spaces for people to rest or be quiet and be supported?”

— TONI MOCERI, CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALLIED MEDIA PROJECTS

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DON’T DISMISS DIGITAL Outside of the metro Detroit area — and any city limits and physical spaces, in fact — is the digital world. In this virtual arena, social media groups, websites and apps can also provide a gateway for people searching for more inclusive communities — where they can explore hobbies, passions, career paths and more with others who have similar interests and needs, no matter how niche they might be. Through platforms such as Facebook groups, Twitch channels, membership-based Patreon, Reddit online conversations, smartphone apps and other online formats, everyone with every possible interest — from female video gamers and vegan content creators to middle schoolers crusading against bullying — can connect, collaborate and create community.

The Twitch channel Brown Girl Gamer Code, for example, is an inclusive global digital community so women who game and who are entrenched in tech industries can interact with each other and share their experiences in what are typically male-dominated spaces. It was started in 2017 by Brandii JaVia when she and a friend began to take a hard look at the lack of representation of Black and Indigenous women in these spaces. They decided to create an online community where women could come

together, talk about their love for gaming safely and identify ways to break the barriers that they face. A similar online space for Black women interested in video games is Black Girl Gamers created by Jay-Ann Lopez, a British author and blogger. Lopez’s Facebook group started small in 2015 and has since grown to a global mass of nearly 10,000 members who see the need for less sexism in the gaming community. Beyond just a Facebook group, Black Girl Gamers has had a real impact on the gaming industry, partnering with brands for content across Google, Facebook, Netflix and more to increase Black women’s visibility in the industry.

Virtual culinary spaces are also highly diverse and specialized. On one side of the spectrum you’ll find Turnip Vegan, aka Todd Anderson. He’s a Black vegan food creator who shares plant-based recipes. His mission is to help others recognize and appreciate the beauty of plants. By directly interacting with his followers — responding to their comments, taking recipe requests and sending daily messages through Instagram channels — he creates a bond with his followers and helps them understand how a plant-based diet can benefit.

Meanwhile, the Facebook group World Carnivore Tribe is some 90,000 members strong, hosting online gatherings, sharing meal plans and living by the motto “saving the world one steak at a time.”

ONLINE Learn more about Black Girl Gamers, a multiplatform, LGBTQIA+, inclusive online gaming community with thousands of membersc

ONLINE Find Brown Girl Gamer Code on multiple social media platforms, including Twitch, Facebook, Instagram and TikTokc

c Author and blogger Jay-Ann Lopez created Black Girl Gamers to give Black women interested in video games access to a safe and inclusive online community.

PHOTO BY CHANEL MOYE

ONLINE Learn more about Turnip Vegan, Todd Anderson (above), who Ebony magazine listed as one of five influencers that will inspire you to adopt a plant-based lifestylec PHOTO BY ISRAEL PALACIO

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WATCH Teen inventor Natalie Hampton’s segment from The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation on YouTubec

“I believe that no one should have to eat alone at lunch, and I want to promote a school community that is warm and inclusive for everyone.”

— EXCERPT FROM THE SIT WITH US AMBASSADOR PLEDGE

To combat bullying in schools and help create safe community spaces for students, teenager Natalie Hampton created the free Sit With Us app. Hampton appeared on The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation television show in 2017 describing her app, which promotes inclusion on school campuses and helps kids find peers to sit with in the lunchroom. At the time of her TV appearance, she was 16 years old. Relentlessly bullied in middle school, Hampton said one of the worst things she faced during the school day was having to eat lunch alone. Sit With Us connects students with other students and posts featured lunch events that everyone is welcome to join. Her app is now available in 30 countries and has hundreds of ambassadors.

Said Hampton about developing her app and the online community it created: “I’ve seen how people use social media to connect but also do harm, so I wanted to create an app that would take things in a positive direction and bring people together who were willing to open up their table and reach out and make new friends.

I think tech has the power to do a lot of good

because now more than ever there are more users, more people online. So we need to harness that because tech has the power to change the way that people interact with one another.”

FINDING COMMONALITY Regardless of the chosen platform, community spaces provide a comfort zone where individuals can gather, connect and support each other. Maybe it looks like an art studio, where you make things and gain independence like the artists of PASC. Or it might appear more like containers for ideas, where radical thinkers convene to share strategies of collective healing like AMC. Or is it an extended family from around the world that’s sitting in the “cloud,” available wherever and whenever you need them with a simple login or tap of a smartphone screen?

However accessed, these community spaces are an integral part of our understanding of where and how we belong in the world — that there are other people out there like us to inspire and reassure us of what’s possible. l

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“There’s no single perspective that people are being taught.

We want them to be comfortable, trusting and confident. Once that is established, the artwork becomes amazing.”

— ANTHONY MARCELLINI, PROGRAM MANAGER, PROGRESSIVE ARTS STUDIO COLLECTIVE

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What Is Digital Citizenship?

Digital citizenship is the ability to safely and responsibly access digital technologies as well as be an active and respectful member of society, both online and offline.

According to statista .com, as of October 2023, there were 5.3 billion internet users worldwide, which amounts to 65.7% of the global population.

Of this total, 4.95 billion, or 61.4% of the world’s population, were social media users. With those types of figures, a case for responsible digital citizenship seems apparent.

A good digital citizen is someone who is informed about the various issues that come with the incredible benefits of technology and takes care to understand basic rules of engagement, working to ensure they are contributing to a positive culture online.

Here are the five competencies of digital citizenship, according to the International Society for Technology in Education.

1 INCLUSIVE I am open to hearing and respectfully recognizing multiple viewpoints, and I engage with others online with respect and empathy.

2 INFORMED I evaluate the accuracy, perspective and validity of digital media and social posts.

3 ENGAGED I use technology and digital channels for civic engagement, to solve problems and be a force for good in both physical and virtual communities.

4 BALANCED I make informed decisions about how to prioritize my time and activities online and off.

5 ALERT I am aware of my online actions and know how to be safe and create safe spaces for others online.

FROM WITHIN

The Henry Ford offers support, service and opportunity to partners and populations across metro Detroit and beyond The Henry Ford as an institution thrives on community. And there are so many different groups and populations that make it a success — from its leadership and staff of experts to its generous donors, corporate partners, hundreds of volunteers and loyal members. Not to mention the growing community of educators from within the on-site Henry Ford Academy and outside that are now part of The Henry Ford’s inHub global learning platform.

Helping to strengthen the institution’s local impact is the Community Outreach Program. Since its launch in 2006, the program has grown to include more than 120 nonprofit organizations that provide social services to underserved and underrepresented groups in the metro Detroit area.

(Those services range from after-school tutoring and mentoring to job training, veterans services, foster care and child welfare.) By partnering with these organizations, The Henry Ford provides things such as free general admission for on-site shared family experiences, networking opportunities and access to resources.

One of the newest partners to the Community Outreach Program is the InterFaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit, which brings people of many faiths together to work toward a harmonious community. Through its Religious Diversity Journeys program, the organization allows students to experience visits to different houses of worship, along with cultural journeys. In January 2023, Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation welcomed the group for its “Lift Every Voice” event, which included interactive workshops and activities in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Last fall, the InterFaith group returned to the museum, helping The Henry Ford host a visit to Mandela: The Official Exhibition for some 35 guests. An intimate conversation about inclusivity, diversity and creating community followed with john powell (who prefers his name not be capitalized), a law professor who leads the University of California, Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute.

“We have been working with InterFaith for some time. They are a great organization that does amazing work to bridge the gap of understanding what it means to belong and to celebrate and learn from one another,” said Anita Davis, The Henry Ford’s program manager, Community Outreach & Engagement, who added that InterFaith became an official Community Outreach Program partner in summer 2023.

Late last year, The Henry Ford debuted new spotlight videos showcasing Community Outreach Program partners. Created to increase internal and external awareness of the program, the two- to three-minute spots demonstrate how these collaborations are helping support a more just and equitable world. View the first two videos spotlighting partners Brilliant Detroit and Congress of Communities.

— JENNIFER LAFORCE, MANAGING EDITOR, THE HENRY FORD MAGAZINE

ONLINE Learn more about The Henry Ford’s Community Outreach Programc

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Lifelong Companions Animals — real, imagined and animatronic — play significant roles in the fabric of our lives, communities and cultures

By Sassafras Lowrey • Illustrations by Estudio Santa Rita

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Throughout our lifetimes, animals, especially pets, often help form some of our closest connections.

Across cultures and geography, the relationship we have with earth’s creatures big and small is a unique part of the human experience.

When asked why animals are so important to us, Alan Beck, professor emeritus of animal ecology in the Department of Comparative Pathobiology at Purdue University, noted that “pets have a place in almost all cultures. It’s not just an American thing or a European thing.”

Beck, who centered his work and career on the role of animals in our lives, calls out our obsession with pets and our connection to animals as a universal human phenomenon.

What helps make this animal-to-human association so unique? It is nurtured early on in our development, whether there is direct contact with animals or not. From fairy tales about talking bears with chairs, porridge and beds to Sesame Street’s iconic Big Bird and today’s popular children’s shows like Peppa Pig or Bluey and her lovable Australian cattle dog family, animals are often central figures in the stories and oral histories children consume in large quantities from an early age. Dating back to the 18th century, in fact, the earliest stories published specifically with children in mind featured animals in key roles. Classics like Winnie-the-Pooh, The Velveteen Rabbit and Charlotte’s Web, or more contemporary Disney movies or modern-day animated TV shows like PAW Patrol, all aim to help children learn important life lessons via anthropomorphized animals as they grapple with friendship, love, grief, loyalty and belonging. Children see themselves, their families and their friends through these lovable characters as they grow and crave understanding of their own emotions.

According to Beck, animals, and in particular pets of all kinds, are often a child’s most important confidant, giving them an outlet to talk aloud to about things they might otherwise keep bottled up. He also explained that for children without siblings, pets often become

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a critical connection. And this remains true regardless of what type of pet — small animals like fish or hamsters can teach kids about companionship and responsibility just as well as a dog or cat can.

Even something as distant as a classroom critter can have similar effects and benefits.

In a 2020 survey conducted by the nonprofit founders of the Pets in the Classroom program, 98% of teachers surveyed saw an increase in empathy and student responsibility when there was a classroom pet. These teachers also observed improvements in student social skills, decreased anxiety, increased attendance, less need for disciplinary measures and an increase in student self-esteem.

MANY ROLES Obviously, close and meaningful relationships with animals are not specific to children.

Adults have them as well. In past generations, dogs and cats, for instance, were even seen as “starter children’’ for people contemplating whether they were ready to have babies — a societal trend that now seems to be shifting as some people actually consider their pets or “fur babies’’ to be their children. In particular, many millennials today are choosing having pets over having kids altogether, increasingly involving their four-legged friends in aspects of their daily lives and cultural traditions — celebrating their pet’s birthday or adoption day and giving their pets holiday gifts. A recent Harris poll found that 33% of millennials cited their dog as the primary reason for purchasing a home.

In modern-day society, not only do adults treat their animals like family members, but they actively depend on them to perform important duties that help keep them safe and make their lives easier.

98%

of teachers surveyed in a 2020 Pets in the Classroom study saw an increase in empathy and student responsibility when there was a classroom pet

Since their domestication, and as they have evolved with humans (see sidebar on Page 38), dogs have often worked alongside people, protecting and herding livestock, guarding property, pulling carts, rescuing people and assisting with hunting. Search-and-rescue dogs use their heightened sense of smell to locate missing people, searching the rubble of natural disasters around the world. Other specially trained dogs use their noses to screen for explosives in airports and at sporting events.

Service dogs are trained to perform tasks that assist people with disabilities, including guiding people who are blind, pulling wheelchairs, alerting to seizures and providing support to people with autism or PTSD. These dogs often accompany their handlers everywhere they go and allow them to live more independent lives.

Animal-assisted therapy programs have also become increasingly common. Therapy animals, often dogs (though cats, horses, rabbits, pigs, guinea pigs and other animals are used as well), are trained and then certified to support people in need by visiting hospitals, nursing homes, schools, airports and other high-stress environments. Interacting with these animals reduces the psychological indicators of stress, loneliness, depression and anxiety. In addition, these interactions encourage social connections with new individuals, something that can be especially difficult for people who are sick, struggling or have survived trauma.

Pilley Bianchi is an author and the co-owner/ trainer of Chaser, the border collie hailed as “the smartest dog in the world.” The founder of The Chaser Initiative, she has dedicated a portion of her career to educating children (K-12) about the power of play and praise by bringing dogs into the classroom. She offers some perspective on this innate human-animal bond, saying, “Dogs show us that we all want the same things — to wake up in the morning with an enthusiastic partner, have some fun, enjoy the messy parts in the middle and end the day with a cuddle at night. They give us so many opportunities to experience the purest forms of love and loss. What a magnificent gift.” She added, “If we do not take a page from their playbook, we are truly the lesser of the two species.”

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SUPPORTING SENIORS As we age, loneliness and social isolation can sometimes become prevalent, even posing serious health risks. Although it’s hard to scientifically measure the effects of isolation and loneliness on a person, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quote recent studies that found social isolation and loneliness were associated with a 29% increased risk of heart disease and a 32% increased risk of stroke.

Not to mention their documented connection to higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicide.

Older adults are often at an increased danger for these feelings because they are more likely to face situations such as living alone, the loss of a loved one or chronic illness. Providing senior communities with the opportunity to engage with animals can not only alleviate these feelings of loneliness and isolation but improve overall quality of life.

As evidence, Purdue University’s Beck described his recent study where goldfish were introduced into an environment with advanced Alzheimer’s patients. Many of these individuals couldn’t recall their own names, and doctors and staff struggled to find mind-stimulating exercises that would engage them or generate spatial and mental awareness — that is, until fish tanks were brought in.

“Patients were less agitated and ate more,” said Beck of the introduction of the aquariums, emphasizing that significant weight loss is a common side effect of Alzheimer’s. Patients were so enthralled by the fish swimming inside the tanks that they were more willing to sit and eat if they could continue to watch the fish during meals. “We had significant weight gains, less agitation and patients were aware of the fish,” stated Beck. In some instances, patients might not have any idea who the people around them were, but they were hyperaware of the fish, even mentioning if one didn’t look right on any given day or appeared to have discolored scales.

ROBOT ROVER The calming and healing aspects of such simple animal interactions and pet ownership are so profound that high-tech players are stepping

ONLINE Ageless Innovation was founded in 2018 and owns the Joy for All brand and business. Learn more about its history and products providing joy, play and comfort to aging individuals, their families and caregiversc READ

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Pilley Bianchi’s For the Love of Dog: The Ultimate Relationship Guide with illustrator Calum Heath. It is devoted to offering insight, inspiration and information regarding “everything dog”c

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up to make sure this form of companionship is all inclusive — not forgetting individuals and seniors who may be feeling severe isolation but are no longer in living situations that allow for pets or are no longer able to care for one.

Robotic therapy pets such as PARO the seal and the family of Joy for All cats and dogs can be an appealing option. Providing realistic animal-like interaction, these animatronic wonders respond to the sound of someone’s voice and their touch similar to the ways that a real animal would. Equipped with revolutionary sound technologies and built-in motion and touch sensors, they can do things like purr, bark, squeal and smile, and have real-feel fur coats and pseudo heartbeats.

Ted Fischer, CEO and co-founder of Ageless Innovation, the creators of Joy for All Companion Pets, explained, “This two-way interaction helps create a personally rich experience that can bring fun, joy and friendship — ultimately providing comfort, connection, companionship and an increased quality of life for older adults.”

Although the robotic replacements aren’t “real,” their users often form a real bond with these smart stuffed animals. “Those who are able to enjoy the companionship that pet ownership provides should absolutely do so,” acknowledged Fischer.

“Our interactive companion is for those who may not be able to care for a real pet due to a living situation or the added responsibility.”

He added, “Many of our older adults create meaningful connections with their new ‘friend,’ even choosing to name them.”

Throughout the stages of our lives, animals — those real, imagined or animatronic like the Joy for All therapy pets — often take on the role of trusted companion. They can teach us responsibility and empathy, provide comfort and help us learn more about ourselves and our emotions. The best part: Animal companions do not care what we look like, how rich we are, what job we hold or how successful and popular we might be. At any given moment, they are just happy to be with us, eager to help us be the best version of ourselves that we can be. l

DID YOU KNOW? / The Comparative Cognition Lab at the University of California, San Diego is currently studying whether and to what extent domestic animals can communicate with their humans/owners.

Learn more about their Dog Cognition Project.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES/SMRM1977

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CHOSEN ONES Pilley Bianchi, author and co-owner/trainer of Chaser, the border collie touted as the smartest dog in the world, said that when it comes to dogs and people, “There is significant scientific evidence that dogs were valued as family members as far back as 33,000 years ago. We are the only two species on the planet among millions and millions of different species that have shared an evolutionary path for 40,000 years. They have chosen us and we them.”

Undoubtedly, this relationship has deep evolutionary roots. Purdue University’s animal ecology authority Alan Beck explained that when it comes to domestic animals, from dogs and cats to even cows, they appear more like juvenile versions of their species.

This domestication occurs as humans selectively breed these animals for docility and a willingness to be handled. As domestication occurs, selected animals maintain a more juvenile appearance, exhibiting characteristics such as big eyes, big faces and a general roundness — traits that incline people to want to name and care for them.

How does that translate? Looking at our pet’s cute, round, soft features and petting animals releases feel-good chemicals — oxytocin, serotonin and dopamine — in our brains, improving our mood.

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“Dogs show us that we all want the same things — to wake up in the morning with an enthusiastic partner, have some fun, enjoy the messy parts in the middle and end the day with a cuddle at night.”

— PILLEY BIANCHI

PHOTO COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES/ AMANDAFOUNDATION.ORG.

HAPPIER+ HEALTHIER Scientific theory helps demonstrate why animal interactions can lessen stress Not only can animals make us happier, they can help us be healthier. Studies show that spending time with our pets can reduce stress and lower blood pressure and cholesterol.

Purdue University’s Alan Beck helps explain why: “There is a real feeling of security when you come home and your animal is behaving normally. You are more relaxed than if you came home to an empty house because then, unconsciously, you have to make sure everything is OK.” This sense of safety that pet guardians experience is rooted in the scientific Polyvagal Theory developed by neuroscientist Stephen Porges. This theory outlines how the nervous system responds to stress. According to Porges, our nervous system can be divided into three states: Immobilized, Mobilized and Relaxed (see right).

Our ability to regulate our emotions is especially hard if we feel trapped in Porges’ dorsal vagal or sympathetic activation states. Interacting with pets, according to Beck, can help us self-regulate our emotions, which can give us the boost we need to transition from an aroused state to a more regulated ventral vagal calm and safe emotional state.

Animals can literally help us feel better. It’s no wonder we turn to them for comfort during hard times.

Learn more about the Polyvagal Theory and its key principles at polyvagalinstitute.org.

IMMOBILIZED The Dorsal Vagal Pathway: Our heart rate is low, and we can freeze and shut down

SAVE THE DATE MOBILIZED Sympathetic Activation: Our heart rate and hormone flow increase, our blood pressure rises and the fight-or-flight response can kick in

ONLINE Who is neuroscientist Stephen Porges?c

RELAXED The Ventral Vagal Pathway: Our heart rate is normal, and we feel relaxed, calm, engaged, safe

HENRY FORD MUSEUM OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

PAW Patrol: Adventure Play Feb. 18-April 28 Based on the hit preschool series PAW Patrol, this interactive exhibition gives visitors an opportunity to run rescue missions with their favorite cartoon pups Marshall, Chase, Skye, Rubble, Everest, Rocky, Zuma and Tracker. A great opportunity to explore lessons in bravery and heroism with the family as you problem-solve to save the day.

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Dishing on Diners The world’s expert on diners shares his start, describes his discoveries and explains his connection to The Henry Ford

Editor’s Note: In 2019, The Henry Ford acquired the largest collection of diner materials — amassed by Richard J.S. Gutman — helping position the institution as a primary source for roadside architecture and design in the United States. Starting this spring, a carefully curated selection of the Gutman collection, which includes thousands of 2D and 3D artifacts, will be on display in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation’s Collections Gallery (see Page 68). Dick Gutman, Dinerman opens late May 2024.

By Richard J.S. Gutman

Many a meal was served on these utilitarian plates representative of classic c diner dishware. All were collected from across the U.S. by diner expert Richard J.S. Gutman and donated to The Henry Ford. The dishes shown sit on a tabletop from New York City’s Empire Diner, built in 1949 — another artifact from Gutman’s collection.

PHOTO BY BILL BOWEN

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DISHING ON DINERS

My half-century immersion in the world of diners began with poached eggs on toast in the middle of the night at Bud’s Diner, hard by the railroad tracks, in Ithaca, New York.

It was 1970, and I was on a break with classmates from an all-nighter at Cornell University’s School of Architecture. Seeking sustenance, I substituted a swiveling stool at the counter for an equally uncomfortable drafting stool up on the Arts Quad.

An authentic diner — a long, low structure built in a factory and hauled to a site equipped with cooking equipment, dishes and silverware — is a particular type of informal lunch counter restaurant, which in its heyday during the 20th century frequently appeared to be like an immobile railroad car, but a resemblance was the only connection to a train.

Diners had been one of my family’s go-to restaurant options in the 1950s and ‘60s in Allentown, Pennsylvania. There were four within walking distance of our house near the town’s fairgrounds and 22 in and around the AllAmerican City of 100,000 at the time.

When I was a youngster, I was unaware of the unique design and architecture of diners.

We just went there for a good meal. When I was at Cornell, though, we had a rotating crew of British design critics visiting. Eating in diners was their eureka moment, having 42

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never experienced one before. Seeing diners through their eyes sparked my interest.

For my Bachelor of Architecture, I proposed a thesis on the diner as an archetypical manifestation of vernacular design: a clearly defined prefabricated fast-food outlet that was the product of self-taught designers and craftspeople. I planned to document the changing styles of the roadside diner over its 100-year history. In New England and the Mid-Atlantic, ubiquitous gleaming stainless steel and porcelain enamel buildings beckoned customers with their glowing neon signs. Yet these incredible places had no written history of their 100-year past. There was no book written about diners, just the occasional newspaper story and article in a popular magazine.

As I began to scratch the surface of the subject, I sought inspiration from a few noted observers of American life. It was a red-letter day when I received a handwritten note in return from American author Tom Wolfe; his suggestion to seek out trade publications from the fast-food industry led me down a road that I am still following.

Richard Gutman c

(shown here at Wilson’s Diner in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 2023) is lovingly known in academia and among historians, authors, diner devotees and the like as the "Dinerman." He has spent more than 50 years amassing the country’s largest collection of diner artifacts, which he donated to The Henry Ford in 2019.

PHOTO BY KEVIN GALIÈ

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DISHING ON DINERS

Wolfe examined and elaborated on aspects of pop society that others hadn’t noticed or were deemed too insignificant to ponder, namely California custom cars, in his book The KandyKolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.

Following Wolfe’s advice, I discovered the existence of The Diner magazine, a monthly publication devoted to “the dining car world,” launched in 1940 and ending its run in December 1959.

I learned that the John Crerar Library, then at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, had extensive holdings of The Diner. Over Christmas break in 1971, I traveled there for an in-person look. It turned out that the magazines had been slated for deaccession and were awaiting disposal. The librarian at Cornell arranged to acquire them, and they ended up with me, forming the core of my collection. They remain an invaluable contemporary window into the diner world of the midcentury, and I could literally find something new to me each time I picked one up.

I soon learned that this business could be traced to a handful of family enterprises that began in the 19th century, manufacturing mobile lunch wagons at first and then expanding into larger permanent, yet movable, buildings constructed in factories.

VISIT BY VISIT I unearthed the history of diners by visiting and photographing them and talking to the people who owned them and the people who built them. The buildings are uniquely American but were mostly conceived and constructed by immigrant craftspeople or first-generation Americans. Irishmen like Patrick J. Tierney and Jeremiah O’Mahony were preeminent in metropolitan New York. French Canadians formed most of the workforce of the Worcester Lunch Car Company of Massachusetts.

German sheet-metal workers and Italian tile setters and cabinetmakers combined their talents to form the melting pot inside the

A LIFE’S WORK The Gutman diner collection is an eclectic assortment of artifacts, ranging from periodicals and memorabilia to vintage paper coffee cups, scale models of diners and a photographic history of diners throughout time. Still in Gutman’s private collection is the personal letter he received from author Tom Wolfe (top center). The correspondence is what Gutman considers the impetus for his deep dive into diner history and its cultural significance.

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factories that produced these quintessential eating places.

In a 1932 article, Jerry O’Mahony asked “Who Runs These Dining Cars?” as part of a sales promotion. A survey revealed that this community of entrepreneurs had switched careers from a wide range of jobs: bus drivers and bond brokers, clerks and college professors, bookkeepers and salespersons, housewives, and service station and garage workers as well as hoteliers and restaurant workers.

Greeks first got a toehold behind the counter of diners in the 1920s. James Georgenes bought his first restaurant from the Worcester Lunch Car Company, and by 1936, he and his brothers, along with some friends and cousins, had a chain of five diners in the greater Boston area.

Over time, many Greek families entered the diner business, often starting as dishwashers and working their way up to ownership.

Many of the owners I got to know shared their stories and gave me old snapshots, matchbooks, menus, placemats and postcards, which they used for advertising but which also helped me to construct a timeline of the diner industry.

One of the first postcards in my collection, published in 1938, was of customers standing at the takeout window of the “Night Owl Lunch, Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan.” I knew I had to see this in person — if it still existed — and when I gave a diner lecture at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan, I did so. (See sidebar on Page 52.)

In 1979, my first book, American Diner, was published. This was followed over the years with three others, including the only book ever written about one diner company: The Worcester Lunch Car Company. Along with the books came lectures, restoration projects, museum exhibitions and new diner consultations. As the Chicago Tribune quipped in 1993 when I was on tour with my second book, “Richard J.S. Gutman led a fairly normal life. Then he discovered diners.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF RICHARD GUTMAN

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AT THE COUNTER It’s been said that everyone feels welcome at a diner; it’s the most democratic of places.

But this wasn’t always the case. The clientele of diners has changed over time.

The earliest night lunch wagons catered to the working class, mostly men. Word-of-mouth regarding the tasty, affordable chow started to entice women office workers as customers. As the mix at the counter expanded to include everyone and diners advertised “Tables for Ladies,” it was said that “Men and women in evening dress swap jokes with men in overalls,” in an observation in The New York Times Magazine on Oct. 19, 1941.

In one rare instance, a young waitress captured the customers over and over in a series of more than 200 snapshots. Joan Hepner started working at the Pole Tavern Diner at Pittsgrove Circle in Salem County, New Jersey, when she was a junior in high school in 1952. Four years later, she married Smoky Wentzell, the owner.

One day, Joan brought her camera to work, leaving it at arm’s length on a shelf behind the counter. When friends and regulars came by, she would snap their pictures. Farm families, local business people and state police packed the place. Groups of kids hung out after school or after the auto races at the nearby Alcyon Speedway, which also hosted their high school football games, boxing and wrestling matches, and semipro baseball.

The Pole Tavern Diner was a scheduled stop for the Baltimore-Atlantic City bus route on Route 40. Passengers, and people in their cars headed to and from the shore, filled the diner regularly throughout the year, and Joan caught much of the action.

CHANGING LANDSCAPE The diner business has had its ups and downs as changing tastes and competition became forces to reckon with. More families ate in diners after World War II as the baby boom generation came of age in a more affluent society. At the same time, fast-food chains began to muscle in to the restaurant roadside, and this pushed the diner

into uncharted territory design-wise and led to a broadening and expansion of the food offerings.

Diners grew in size, added dining rooms to accommodate larger groups and outgrew the “vehicle look” that had been standard for nearly a century. After experimentation with a futuristic image, the builders turned to colonial and historic revival styles that were a radical break from the norm.

Even though the look of the diner shifted over the years, the idea of good food, fairly priced, in a friendly environment remains a constant. Simply put, diners serve the food people want to eat.

Some favorite places are lost each year for a variety of reasons, including aging out of the operators, lack of family interest in continuing the business, real estate pressures and, most recently, the pandemic. When a diner goes out of business, we lose an interesting building, a community gathering place and an entrepreneur’s struggle to succeed.

FINAL THOUGHTS In 2005, I spotted the always-recognizable Tom Wolfe at a collegiate squash tournament at Harvard, where his son was playing for Trinity College’s perennially winning team. I approached him and introduced myself, saying I wanted to thank him for the good advice he gave me more than three decades earlier. He did not recall the content of his letter but did remember his stationery with “Wolfe” in a psychedelic interpretation embossed on it.

I anticipated that he might be standoffish — he was anything but, with an “incongruously gracious off-page persona,” as mentioned in a New York Times review of the recent film documentary Radical Wolfe. We conversed for 20 minutes about diners and roadside vernacular, among other things.

With four diner books under my belt, and having acquired the moniker “the world’s expert on diners,” I felt meeting Wolfe in person was a wonderfully serendipitous and gratifying encounter with the mythical figure I had always credited with giving me my start. l

Richard Gutman didn’t just read up on diners c

during his 50-plus-year exploration of these eating establishments. He experienced them firsthand: Gutman sampling poached eggs at the Kitchenette Diner (top) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, circa 1974 and visiting the Elgin Diner Restaurant in Camden, New Jersey, in 1993.

PHOTO AT RIGHT FROM THE HENRY FORD ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION; TOP PHOTO BY JOHN BAEDER

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This menu board was salvaged in 1975 from the Black and Gold Diner in Roslindale, Massachusetts, before the demolition of this 1942 Worcester Lunch Car. It bears the prices from that year.

PHOTO BY BILL BOWEN

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IN THE DETAILS Richard Gutman’s diner collection demonstrates a special attention to detail, from the thousands of slides and images taken of diners like Tops Diner (left), built

by Jerry O’Mahony Inc. in 1950 and operated in Mountainside, New Jersey, to the embossed toothpicks, matchbooks and postcards meticulously preserved — even the tile fragments salvaged from diner floors.

A Collector’s Notes on His Collection The 14,000 slides I took of diners over the years are the backbone of my collection, along with archival photographs given to me by diner builders, artworks, postcards, matchbooks, menus and more.

Diner blueprints from many eras are a treasure trove of details that illuminate the specifics of materials, furnishings and fixtures specified when the building was still in the factory. I collected product literature for china and mugs, coffee urns and creamers, pie cases and milkshake mixers — all the better to properly equip old diners during restorations.

Manufacturer’s catalogs are as scarce as hen’s teeth. After I was profiled in Yankee magazine in the 1980s, a New Hampshire man sent me a letter offering a Worcester Lunch Car Company catalog, with a price list, that he’d kept for a half century.

He’d written to Worcester thinking he might buy a diner. The copy he gave me is the only one known to exist.

As diners were remodeled or demolished, it was possible to acquire architectural fixtures and fragments.

Some of these pieces helped in restorations or as prototypes for reproduction.

READ

PHOTOS OF TOOTHPICKS AND FLOOR FRAGMENTS BY BILL BOWEN; ALL OTHER PHOTOS FROM THE HENRY FORD ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

Toothpicks with embossed names are the smallest and most curious items in the collection. A 3-foot by 4-foot section of a 1920s tile floor, now used as a hearth for the wood stove in our studio, is certainly the heaviest artifact I rescued. In fact, it never made it out to The Henry Ford, but smaller mosaic tile fragments did.

The one piece I never managed to find is a flash-glass lunch wagon window with the menu etched on the glass: Sandwiches, Pies, Coffee, Milk and Cigars.

— RICHARD J.S. GUTMAN

This blog post to learn why diners are a uniquely American innovationc

ONLINE Visit The Henry Ford’s Digital Collections and type in Collection Title: Richard J.S. Gutman Diner Collection to view hundreds of diner-related artifactsc

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Diner Radar

DISHING ON DINERS

A perfect match that put diners on the map

In 1978, my friend the photorealist painter John Baeder (below) was asked by an Associated Press reporter how he found the diners he painted. He said, “My greatest addiction is going to a small town I know nothing about in hope of finding a diner.

Naturally I like to find them, but sometimes they find me. It’s kind of a psychic thing. It’s as if they knew I was there and they draw me to them.”

John and I are birds of a feather.

John read about me in “The Talk of the Town” feature in the Sept. 30, 1972, issue of The New Yorker.

I had a slideshow about food preparation in diners in the exhibition Objects for Preparing Food at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York City. He reached out by sending me some of his artwork.

When his first book, Diners, was published in 1978, The New York Times art critic John Russell said, “He lives diners, thinks diners, dreams diners and paints diners.” That’s my kind of guy.

We sent postcards to each other, wrote letters, gabbed on the phone, swapped slides and went on countless diner-hunting road trips together. To this day, when discussing a certain place, John asks, “Were we together when I photographed that place?”

Often, the answer is yes. More importantly, together we put diners on the map.

AT THE HENRY FORD Richard Gutman’s input helps museumgoers and village visitors enjoy historic food experiences The Owl Night Lunch (below and far right) is a survivor, a horse-drawn wagon where Henry Ford had eaten early in his career at the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit. He acquired the rundown wagon and rebuilt it. When Greenfield Village opened in 1929, the wagon’s hamburgers and hot dogs were the only food available for visitors to purchase.

In the 1980s, I told the staff at The Henry Ford that the Owl was the last remaining authentic horse-drawn lunch wagon in existence; there was great enthusiasm to return it to its former glory. So I designed a new, from-thechassis-up reconstruction. For the last four decades, the gaily painted Owl Night Lunch, again bearing its founder’s name, John M. Colquhoun, has been on display, either in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation or Greenfield Village, where it currently dispenses food truck fare such as historic-style hot dogs to eager visitors.

The Henry Ford made a second investment in preserving diner history when Lamy’s, a 1946 Worcester-built streamliner, was purchased in 1984. Moved 850 miles by truck from Hudson, Massachusetts, the diner underwent a three-year restoration that returned it to the way it looked when it rolled out of the factory just after the war. Initially a walk-thru in the museum’s exhibition, The Automobile in American Life (the forerunner exhibit for what is now Driving America), the diner has now been serving food to museumgoers since 2017.

— RICHARD J.S. GUTMAN

ONLINE Discover more about American painter John Baeder’s body of work and his close association with the photorealist movementc

PHOTO FROM THE HENRY FORD ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

READ

PHOTO COURTESY OF RICHARD J.S. GUTMAN

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This blog post to learn more about the history of the Owl Night Lunch and see photographs of customers being served over the years in Greenfield Villagec

“My longstanding relationship with The Henry Ford led me to the conclusion that this was the place where I wanted my collection to reside. The scope that it represents — there are so many ideas and countless connections waiting to be discovered.”

— RICHARD J.S. GUTMAN

DID YOU KNOW? / Lamy’s Diner has a menu authentic to a 1946 New England diner, including chicken salad sandwiches and frappes (the original Northeastern milkshake), which are prepared in their original style.

TOP PHOTO BY KMS PHOTOGRAPHY; MIDDLE AND BOTTOM PHOTOS BY EE BERGER

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Please visit thf.org, subscribe to our eNews or follow us on social media for the most up-to-date information on venues, upcoming exhibits, events, programming and pricing.

INSIDE THE HENRY FORD Flip through the following pages to find out what’s happening inside this mind-blowing cultural institution and how to make the most of your annual membership.

Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation 58 Greenfield Village 60 Ford Rouge Factory Tour 62 Acquisitions + Collections 64 Member Spotlight 66 2024 Events 68

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HENRY FORD MUSEUM OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

RELEVANCY REMAINS

In Your Place in Time, guests explore past technology, examining how it connects generations both present and absent

SINCE 1999, VISITORS TO Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation have experienced the Your Place in Time exhibit — and have increasingly found it challenging to find their place within it. The original concept for this exhibit was to use artifacts and immersive vignettes in such a way that our guests could learn how everyday technologies shaped the social and cultural values of various generations that came of age in the 20th century. Your Place in Time addresses five such moments: the Progressive or “Greatest” Era, the War or “Silent” Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and the Next Generation — now more commonly referred to as millennials.

But how does this exhibit remain relevant, given the fact that we are now almost two-and-a-half decades into the 21st century? And how does it serve visiting Gen Y millennials and Gen Z “zoomers,” born on the cusp of the two centuries?

Or even more so, the current generational cohort — born between the early 2010s and mid-2020s — that social researchers have dubbed Generation Alpha?

In Your Place in Time, these eras are segmented into consensus viewpoints to explore a variety of cultural, social and political milestones. Common technologies are used as launch points for inspiration that led to new forms of popular culture, designed objects and media platforms, filtered into a

ONLINE In 1973, AT&T partnered with Henry Dreyfuss & Associates to create a collection of specialty “Design Line” telephones. View some of these devices in The Henry Ford’s “Design Line Telephone” expert setc 58

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somewhat sweeping and generalized idea of the American experience.

An underlying idea in this exhibit that is worth considering, however, is how many of the technological building blocks on display were used by people to find, access and establish communities. The communication networks that defined earlier generations — telephones, radios, broadcast media — began to stack up. They became much more ubiquitous as Gen Xers, for example, found access to home computers and tiptoed into the early internet. Meanwhile, many zoomers and all alphas are “born digital” and raised with internet 2.0, smartphones, social and streaming media.

As visitors today try to find their “place in time,” whether they are of a generation represented — or absent — there is a shared common behavior that stays true.

By engaging with networked technologies and popular media, we also engage and bond with one another, maintaining and sometimes even expanding our communities: whether by writing a letter, picking up a landline phone or sending a text message, reading a newspaper or sharing a social post, watching a movie at a theater or at home, listening to a radio receiver or a playlist from a smartphone.

— KRISTEN GALLERNEAUX, CURATOR OF COMMUNICATIONS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF DIGITAL CURATION AT THE HENRY FORD

READ

Curator Kristen Gallerneaux’s blog post about the evolving color palette of the personal computerc

THE CURIOUS + EVERYDAY See some of the amazing — and curious — inventions and everyday technologies that have shaped past generations in Your Place in Time in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, including: The Cassette Player More portable than vinyl records — and way before digital music — the cassette tape and player once dominated how we digested our favorite tunes.

MTV The channel launched in 1981 was all about the music video and changed the landscape of how music was promoted and consumed. Put yourself in front of a green screen and get immersed in a popular ‘80s music video.

The Personal Computer Popular opinion was that the personal computer would never be small enough or cheap enough for anyone to own one. Statistics today show that almost half of private households worldwide are estimated to have a computer at home.

b Mid-20th-century home

entertainment technology included must-haves such as televisions, radios and stereos. In Your Place in Time, see how the television evolved in appearance and functionality after it became a mainstream household item — often hidden by casework and acting as a piece of furniture in the ’60s and ’70s.

PHOTO BY BILL BOWEN

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GREENFIELD VILLAGE

GATHERED ON THE GREEN Greenfield Village’s “commons” is a careful creation by founder Henry Ford IT’S TRUE THAT ONE of Henry Ford’s earliest visions for his historic Greenfield Village was to create a “commons,” an open piece of land within a village or town designed for flexible use by everyone in the community. It’s often a green space — known as a “village green,” in fact — that townspeople use for gatherings and celebrations.

Enamored with the village greens he had seen in New England, Ford envisioned Greenfield Village’s commons to be flanked by structures meant for public gatherings, such as a place of worship and a town hall.

And if an example of an existing building ready for transport to Dearborn, Michigan, couldn’t be found, he just had originals designed and built on site.

Greenfield Village’s Martha-Mary Chapel and Town Hall are both examples of originalbuilt structures on the Greenfield Village village green. The chapel, which is based on a Universalist church from Bedford, Massachusetts, has been holding wedding ceremonies since 1935. Patterned after New England-style public meeting halls of the early 1800s, the Town Hall is often the site of crowd-pleasing theatrical vignettes.

Other buildings Ford decided to put on

ONLINE For more information, hours and pricing for Greenfield Village, visit thf.org/villagec

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his village green include the restored oneroom Scotch Settlement School, which Ford actually attended in the 1870s; the 1830s-era inn now known as the Eagle Tavern restaurant; and the J.R. Jones General Store. When operated by James R. Jones from 1882-1888 in Waterford, Michigan, the store was a central stomping ground for residents and passersby, selling everything from coffee and sugar to fabrics and farm tools.

Greenfield Village’s courthouse is also on the village green. And it’s not just any courthouse. From 1840-1847, Abraham Lincoln was one of several lawyers who practiced law there as part of the 8th Judicial Circuit in Postville (later renamed Lincoln), Illinois.

And completing the list of historical buildings located on the village green is country doctor Alonson B. Howard’s office, which was originally from Tekonsha, Michigan, and moved to its current location in Greenfield Village in 2003.

Interestingly, even the buildings originally constructed in Greenfield Village are now old enough to be considered historic structures themselves.

— JENNIFER LAFORCE, MANAGING EDITOR, THE HENRY FORD MAGAZINE

READ

The blog post “Henry Ford’s Village Green: The Heart of Greenfield Village” to learn more about the structures located on the village greenc

OTHER SOCIAL SPACES The buildings on Greenfield Village’s village green are not the only examples of common historic structures where people would gather, socialize, communicate and participate in their town’s commerce and celebrations. Also in Greenfield Village: Phoenixville Post Office In the 1800s, the local post office was the epicenter for community events, functioning as both a town hall and gossip center. It was moved to Greenfield Village from Connecticut in 1929.

Smiths Creek Depot A railroad station was a central hub of 19th-century small-town life. More than a place to catch a train, a depot was where customers sent and received packages and telegrams, caught up on the latest news and shared gossip.

Built in 1858, Smiths Creek Depot once stood on the Grand Trunk Western Railway about nine miles southwest of Port Huron, Michigan.

Detroit Central Market From 1861 to 1892, farmers, market gardeners, florists and nurserymen sold their produce in the Detroit Central Market vegetable building from rented stalls, marking over 30 years of commerce. Today, visitors of Greenfield Village can explore Detroit’s restored historic public market as it comes to life with local vendors, including farmers, growers and makers, during Detroit Central Market Weekends.

DID YOU KNOW? / During the peak spring and summer seasons, Games on the Green is a daily activity visitors can partake in on Greenfield Village’s village green. Take your turn at playing timeless outdoor games from the early 1900s, including graces, skittles, hoop-rolling, stilts and croquet.

b The Martha-Mary Chapel (top) and

Scotch Settlement School are two of several buildings that make up Greenfield Village’s village green or commons. Henry Ford had the chapel built from scratch on the site, while the one-room schoolhouse, where Ford once attended class, is a restored structure.

TOP PHOTO BY ROY RITCHIE; BOTTOM

PHOTO FROM THE HENRY FORD ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

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FORD ROUGE FACTORY TOUR

INVESTING IN HELPING OTHERS Ford’s disaster relief efforts grow, serving more communities in need LAST YEAR, FORD MOTOR COMPANY and its philanthropic arm, the Ford Fund, announced a five-year commitment to Team Rubicon, a veteran-led humanitarian organization that provides no-cost services to vulnerable communities in the wake of crisis and natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and wildfires. The new Team Rubicon Powered

by Ford builds on a long-standing relationship between the two organizations. And it builds on nearly 25 years of disaster relief efforts by Ford.

“At the heart of Ford is our commitment to help out our communities in times of need and make it possible for our employees to volunteer their time and talent to help others,” said Bill Ford, Ford’s executive chair, in a press announcement. “The reality is weather-related disasters in the U.S. are becoming more frequent and more severe.

That is why we are significantly expanding our relationship with Team Rubicon.”

Along with a monetary investment and ongoing employee volunteerism, Ford donated a fleet of vehicles to the new disaster relief initiative, including 10 Ford F-150 PowerBoost hybrid trucks and three Ford F-150 Lightning trucks. These vehicles were built at the Rouge Complex in Dearborn, Michigan. Every year, thousands of guests visit this legendary location as part of The Henry Ford’s Ford Rouge Factory Tour, where they can see F-150s being built on the assembly line. Through the tour experience, visitors can also explore a number of informative displays, including a mock kitchen and living room powered by a Ford F-150 Lightning, helping to demonstrate one of the many ways hybrid and electric vehicles can provide aid in emergency situations.

IN SERVICE The fleet of vehicles Ford Motor Company and the Ford Fund donated to Team Rubicon will increase the veteran-led organization’s ability to power, tow and haul tools, equipment and machinery. Along with the 10 Ford F-150 PowerBoost hybrid trucks and three Ford F-150 Lightning trucks built at the Rouge Complex, Team Rubicon also received two Ford Super Duty F-350 trucks and two Ford Broncos with a Sasquatch off-road package.

The fleet of trucks are all equipped with varying Pro Power Onboard capabilities, enabling Team Rubicon to provide essential services to communities without electricity. All the donated vehicles also feature a unique, co-branded wrap design inspired by the quick maneuverability and responsiveness of an aircraft.

— JENNIFER LAFORCE, MANAGING EDITOR, THE HENRY FORD MAGAZINE

COURTESY OF FORD MOTOR COMPANY

ONLINE For the most up-to-date information, hours and pricing for the Ford Rouge Factory Tour, visit thf.org/rougec

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ONLINE Visit teamrubiconusa.org to volunteer, donate and find more informationc

DID YOU KNOW? / Ford Motor Company has a long history of offering vehicles to help serve communities in charitable ways. In 1941, for example, Edsel Ford presented the 29-millionth Ford vehicle, a Super De Luxe station wagon built at the Ford Rouge Complex, to the Detroit chapter of the Red Cross.

b Team Rubicon is a veteran-

led organization that helps communities with emergency response services during crises and natural disasters. It recently received a five-year investment from Ford Motor Company and the Ford Fund, which included the donation of a fleet of vehicles built at the Rouge Complex.

PHOTO BY JOEL MORALES FROM TEAM RUBICON

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INSIDE THE HENRY FORD

ACQUISITIONS + COLLECTIONS

FROM DAYTON TO DEARBORN

Rare collection of correspondence reflects the process of relocating Wright brothers’ buildings to Greenfield Village BOTH THE WRIGHT BROTHERS’ cycle shop and family home in Greenfield Village are popular spots for the thousands of guests that visit The Henry Ford each year. During spring and summer, it’s not uncommon to see crowds surround the structures as they listen to presenters talk about Wilbur and Orville Wright, their bicycles and aircraft.

The Henry Ford recently acquired correspondence that helps bring to light how the buildings came to be in Greenfield Village in the late 1930s. It’s a collection of letters and other materials from former The Henry Ford staffers Fred Black and Fred Smith. Close liaisons to Henry Ford, Black and Smith are considered legendary in The Henry Ford’s early leadership, both acting in varying managing and director roles.

“This is the kind of thing you don’t expect to come out of the woodwork,” said Matt Anderson, curator of transportation.

“Anything associated with Orville and Wilbur Wright would be of interest to us, but the fact that these were letters generated by our own staff as they were in the process of bringing these buildings here fills in a hole that was otherwise in our archive and institutional collections.”

The rare find, discovered as family managed the estate of the late Carol Schulman, Fred Smith’s daughter, is a three-ring binder of 70-plus items

ONLINE View The Henry Ford’s expert sets showcasing the early years and later successes on land and in the air of the Wright familyc

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reflecting the relocation process of the Wright buildings from Dayton, Ohio, to Dearborn, Michigan, and the participation of Orville Wright in the reconstruction and interpretation efforts.

“We now have an original hand-drawn sketch by Orville on paper that says ‘From the desk of Orville Wright,’ but the type appears upside down. He must have been in a hurry,” quipped Anderson. The sketch is of a bookcase that sat in the office of Bishop Milton Wright, Orville’s father, in their family home. “It’s cool to see him drawing from his own personal memory, which I feel gives these buildings more credibility — the fact that somebody who was there was actually part of the process of bringing it here,” added Anderson.

While it’s unclear why this institutional correspondence was with the Smith family — Anderson said recordkeeping was a bit porous in those days — The Henry Ford couldn’t be more pleased to have it back. Next step: Share it with the public.

“My hope is to pick out some of the best material and request that it be added to our Digital Collections,” said Anderson.

“Here’s a great window into the process of how these two historically significant buildings came to be in Greenfield Village.

That’s a question we get all the time.”

— JENNIFER LAFORCE, MANAGING EDITOR, THE HENRY FORD MAGAZINE

THE WRIGHT STUFF After Henry Ford had the Wright brothers’ cycle shop and family home moved to Greenfield Village in the 1930s, he proceeded to furnish both structures with as many authentic items representing the period when brothers Orville and Wilbur lived and worked in them.

At the time, Ford had a good deal of help from a direct source — Orville Wright himself. Several items currently on display in the buildings in Greenfield Village were donated by Orville Wright, including a roll-top desk, three parlor rockers, two washstands, two bookcases, a chest of drawers, a Victorian office chair and a mantel clock. Wright also assisted in locating machine tools used by him and his brother Wilbur in their cycle shop, from a drill press and lathe to a band saw.

DID YOU KNOW? / Charles Taylor, the Wright brothers’ original mechanic who built the engine for their 1903 flyer, volunteered in Greenfield Village in the late 1930s. He could often be found at the Wright cycle shop, speaking about the historic aircraft and the shop’s authenticity.

d The recent acquisition of decades-old communications (above) from former

The Henry Ford staffers Fred Smith and Fred Black demonstrate the lengths to which Henry Ford went to ensure the Wright family structures he brought to Greenfield Village looked authentic. Presumably after Orville Wright provided a hand-drawn sketch of his father’s bookcase (at right) to Henry Ford, Wright helped track down a similar bookcase that he then donated to The Henry Ford in 1938. The bookcase (opposite page) still sits on the second floor of the Wright family home in Greenfield Village today.

PHOTOS FROM THE HENRY FORD ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION thf.org

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INSIDE THE HENRY FORD

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

NAMES: The Schooleys — Don, Kristin, Joslyn & Shelby

NUMBER OF YEARS AS MEMBERS:

8

MUST-DO EVENTS: Visiting the 1952 Oscar Mayer Wienermobile in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, Model T and carousel rides, plus Holiday Nights in Greenfield Village

FAVORITE MEMBER PERK: “My kids are incredibly happy that I added the ride pass to our membership! I also enjoy being able to get discounts every time we visit.” — Kristin Schooley

PHOTO COURTESY OF KRISTIN SCHOOLEY

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

WHAT’S YOUR SPARK? Kristin Schooley grew up loving time spent at The Henry Ford and now shares the gift of membership with her family

THINKING BACK TO FAVORITE childhood memories, Kristin calls to mind her days as a summer discovery camper at The Henry Ford, playing capture the flag in Greenfield Village after hours and spending the night in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, along with endless train rides on the Weiser Railroad and Hallowe’en in the village in the fall with her family. Now Kristin and her husband Don, watch as their daughters, Joslyn and Shelby, awe over the dollhouses on display in the museum and run with excitement to visit their must-see artifact, the 1952 Wienermobile, which they lovingly call the “hot dog car.” As their children grow older, the Schooleys are also witness to the beautiful beginnings of self-discovery as their girls start to grasp the threads of history all around them. “I feel like every time we are here, we find another thing to enjoy,” observed Kristin. “I know they will grow up and remember the time they spent here — just like I do.”

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Take It Forward as a Member Enjoy benefits like free admission and parking, discounts on events and tours, exclusive member previews and more.

ONLINE thf.org/ membershipc

EXPLORE MORE WITH OUR FREE APP Download THF Connect to transform your visit to Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village. Enjoy curator-led audio tours, augmented reality experiences, interactive maps and more.

Unlock stories that cross exhibits. Find your way to your favorite buildings and artifacts. Explore our collections, and even create your own virtual innovation.

thf.org/ConnectApp

ESPECIALLY FOR MEMBERS: Download the app to access your digital membership card — the best way to activate your membership benefits from any place at any time.

INSIDE THE HENRY FORD

EVENTS

2024 EVENTS

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HENRY FORD MUSEUM OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

Collections Gallery: Dick Gutman, Dinerman Open: Late May 2024

Other Premier Exhibitions + Events

In 2019, The Henry Ford acquired the largest collection of diner materials in the United States, assembled by Richard J.S. Gutman, a leading expert on diner architecture and its cultural footprint. Starting this spring, a carefully curated selection of the Gutman collection will be on display in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation’s Collections Gallery.

Co-curators Marc Greuther and Kristen Gallerneaux have created a story from the thousands of items in this collection, centering the importance of Gutman’s lifelong dedication to document and preserve diners as a core form of architectural, design, social and entrepreneurial histories within the United States. Greuther noted: “Behind the diner’s emotional resonance and architectural appeal are entrepreneurial manufacturers and operators — all hustling in competitive businesses. Diner owners served customers seeking quickly served, affordable sustenance. In short, diners have been — and continue to be — woven into people’s lives. They are not static things, frozen in a historical moment or period, they’re part of a much broader texture of everyday life.”

In the exhibit, you will see photographs, menus, printed matter, rare business ephemera, models and even furnishings and tile fragments from now-demolished diners — the diners “that got away.”

HENRY FORD MUSEUM OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

READ

The story authored by Richard J.S. Gutman on Page 40 of this magazine to learn more about his unprecedented diner collection, his motivations behind his collecting and his collaborations with The Henry Fordc

ONLINE To learn more about all upcoming exhibits, visit thf.orgc

DID YOU KNOW? / The exhibition Lillian Schwartz: Whirlwind of Creativity is on display in the Collections Gallery through March 2024, with the Richard J.S. Gutman exhibition to follow in May.

PAW Patrol: Adventure Play Open: Feb. 18-April 28 Step into the world of the hit children’s series PAW Patrol in this hands-on, play-based exhibit. Families will join Marshall, Chase, Skye, Rubble, Everest, Rocky, Zuma and Tracker as they explore their unique abilities, overcome challenges and help friends.

There’s no job too big and no pup too small!

ONLINE To learn more, visit thf.orgc

HENRY FORD MUSEUM OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

To Establish the Rule of Justice: 60 Years of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Open: Feb. 22 In 1964, the passage of the Civil Rights Act culminated decades of grassroots activism from people of all colors and backgrounds.

A comprehensive rebuttal of Jim Crow racism, the act deemed race-based discrimination unconstitutional, naming integration in all public aspects — employment, accommodations, federal programs — the word of law. In this pop-up exhibit, explore the act that changed the course of America, its origins and the legacy and call to action that it has for us all today.

ONLINE To learn more, visit thf.orgc

All programs and dates are subject to change. For the latest updates and more information on special events and programs, call 313.982.6001 or visit thf.org. thf.org

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How to make your travel plans to The Henry Ford quick and easy

PLAN YOUR VISIT

At The Henry Ford, you’ll discover America — its culture, inventions, people and can-do spirit — and hundreds of ways to explore it, enjoy it and be inspired by it.

Maximize your visit — whether it’s for three hours, three days or throughout the year — and see for yourself why The New York Times called The Henry Ford one of the world’s coolest museums.

OUR PARTNERS

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OVERNIGHT VACATION PACKAGES The Henry Ford offers overnight packages through several lodging partners that meet a variety of needs, including full service, limited service and campground.

Our partners offer great overnight rates, plus exclusive discounts of 5%, 10% or 15% on packages for your choice of two or more venues — Museum, Village, Factory Tour and Giant Screen.

Don’t wait; book your date at America’s Greatest History Destination today at thf.org/vacations.

Contact hotel directly for room availability.

Packages and pricing vary by hotel.

FULL SERVICE

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Location: Dearborn (I-94 corridor) Drive time*: 10 Sleeping rooms: 209 Pool: Indoor Pets: Yes Meeting rooms: 4 Meeting space (sq. ft): 1,047

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Location: Taylor Drive time*: 10 Sleeping rooms: 78 Pool: Yes Pets: No Meeting rooms: Yes Meeting space (sq. ft): 500

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THE LEO COLLECTION DETROIT, ASCEND HOTEL COLLECTION

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WINTER/SPRING 2024

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1805 John A Papalas Drive, Lincoln Park, MI 48146 theleocollectiondetroit.com Location: Lincoln Park Drive time*: 12 Sleeping rooms: 82 Pool: Indoor Pets: Yes with restrictions Meeting rooms: 1 Meeting space (sq. ft): Holds 100 guests

SEE AD ON PAGE 81

*Drive time in minutes to The Henry Ford.

Photo by Stackwood Studios

What if your next big event could inspire the next big idea?

Imagine an event that could truly change people’s perspectives. One that could open minds and widen eyes as guests stand in awe of the power of unlimited inspiration. Make your event stand out in a place awards galas to product launches, we’ll make sure your vision is fully realized and your event is completely inspired.

Book your next big event at: • Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation® • Greenfield Village® • Lovett Hall

Take it forward.®

where innovation sets the stage for unforgettable experiences. From

• Ford Rouge Factory Tour

See why The Henry Ford is the most awarded venue in Michigan. thf.org/privateevents

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• Free Hot Breakfast

• Complimentary Business Center

• Complimentary Shuttle to Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village for Families

• All Rooms Have Refrigerators and Microwaves

• Free Wi-Fi NEAR GREENFIELD VILLAGE

• Heated Indoor Pool and Fitness Center

• Irons and Hair Dryers • Conveniently Located Just Minutes From The Henry Ford

20061 Michigan Avenue • Dearborn, MI 48124 • 313.436.9600 • www.comfortinn.com/hotel-dearborn-michigan-MI385

GRE E N FIE LD IN N • Featuring O’Henry’s Restaurant and Squire’s Pub

• Groups of all sizes, from students to seniors, love our hotel!

• Large indoor pool, whirlpool, sauna and fitness center

• Group rates and specialized group menus available

• AAA 3-diamond rating!

• Our red carpet service includes a step-on group welcome and expert luggage service

• Complimentary shuttle to and from The Henry Ford

• Enjoy our 600+ automotive print gallery

Conveniently located within blocks of Michigan’s famous historical attraction, The Henry Ford. Minutes away from downtown Detroit and Windsor, Canada

3000 Enterprise Drive, Allen Park, Michigan 48101 Located on I-94 at Oakwood Boulevard, Exit 206A Call 1-800-342-5802 or visit bestwestern.com for reservations or more information.

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BECOME A MEMBER TODAY • 308 Guest Rooms and Suites • Indoor Swimming Pool and Fitness Center • TRIA Restaurant for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner • Discount Tickets available at the Front Desk • Close to Shopping and Area Restaurants.

Support the mission of The Henry Ford and be a part of our community—plus, you’ll enjoy FREE GENERAL ADMISSION, FREE PARKING and exclusive perks like MEMBER PRESALES for ticketed events.

Visit the Welcome Center or A thf.org/membership to learn more.

FAIRLANE PLAZA, 300 TOWN CENTER DRIVE DEARBORN, MICHIGAN BEHENRY.COM | 313 441 2000

NEWLY UPGRADED AND REMODELED!

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ENJOY A COMFORTABLE STAY WITH OUTSTANDING HOSPITALITY!

A ME N I TI E S I N C LU D E

At the Comfort Inn & Suites of Taylor, we specialize in package rates including tickets to Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

• Popcorn and %OXH 7LPH WLI Cookies (Monday-Thursday)

• Free Hot Deluxe Breakfast

• Dry Cleaning Services

• Free Wireless Internet Access

• Guest Laundry Facility

• Board Room

• Premium Bedding

• Indoor Heated Pool and Fitness Center • 40” Flat-Screen TVs and Premium Cable

We’re centrally located within a few miles of The Henry Ford, downtown Detroit and Windsor, Canada.

• Each Room Contains Refrigerator, Microwave, Ironing Set, Hair Dryer, Coffee and Coffee Maker, In-Room Safe

COMFORTINN.COM • (PHONE) 313.292.6730 • (EMAIL) GM.MI189@CHOICEHOTELS.COM thf.org

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MORE PLAY IN YOUR PRIVATE EVENT STAY SPACE

Can accommodate groups up to 200

With ideal comfort and accommodations, we’ll help you craft the ultimate getaway. Located just minutes from the Henry Ford Museum and offering our own Henry Ford Package, you’ll experience a weekend to remember.

Transport young learners through the stories of American innovation for an unforgettable week

SUBMIT YOUR

Book your roomEVENT or REQUEST package by visiting DearbornCourtyard.com

June 24-August 2 | Grades 2-7 Registration opens in March 2024.

Capacities will be limited. inhub.thehenryford.org/summer-camps

Courtyard by Marriott Detroit Dearborn 5200 Mercury Drive Dearborn, MI 48126 313.271.1400 DearbornCourtyard.com

fordsgarageusa.com/dearborn

Southgate, MI

Your Comfort Is Assured ...

• Free Deluxe Hot Breakfast Buffet • Free Wi-Fi • Fitness Center • Indoor Swimming Pool/Sauna/Steam Room • Large HDTVs with HD Channels • Luxury Spacious Suites with Choice of 1 King or 2 Queen Beds

The Region’s Only Hotel with On-Site Renewable Energy 18950 Northline Rd., Southgate, MI 48195 • 734.287.9200 • comfortsuitessouthgate.com 76

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Power your passions during your stay at our Dearborn hotel.

Embark on a seamless trip at Courtyard Detroit Dearborn, where convenient amenities and comfortable accommodations will propel your productivity. Ideally located along I-94, our Dearborn hotel boasts quick access to destinations such as Ford Motor Company World Headquarters, The Henry Ford, Comerica Park and Little Caesars Arena. Unwind in our spacious rooms and suites featuring complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi, plush bedding, mini-refrigerators and ergonomic workspaces.

Start your day with a satisfying breakfast and Starbucks® coffee from The Bistro. With our 24-hour fitness center and indoor pool, it’s easy to maintain your gym routine during your stay. If you’re planning a brainstorming session or small seminar, our two flexible event venues boast catering options and AV equipment to inspire innovation. Whether you’re traveling to Michigan for business or leisure, Courtyard Detroit Dearborn will exceed your expectations.

5200 Mercury Dr., Dearborn, MI 48126 | marriott.com | 313.271.1400

THE BIRTHPLACE OF

Detroit-Style Pizza

Built the Buddy’s Way Square Pan

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Topped with Buddy’s classic tomato sauce.

visit buddyspizza.com for locations thf.org

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T:7”

Redefine Your Detroit Experience T:4.625”

To make a reservation, visit Marriott.com/DTWCW or call 313.442.1600

©2019 Marriott International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All names, marks and logos are the trademarks of Marriott International, Inc., or its affiliates.

Communities.

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QC/QA

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Studio Artist Q.C. Client

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B:4.875”

Explore a revitalized downtown at The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit, conveniently located near restaurants, nightlife and casinos. A 1924 landmark restored to its former grandeur, our hotel offers modern furnishings, enriching amenities and unique layouts. Relax in one of our 453 guest rooms, including 35 suites, featuring our signature Heavenly® Beds and Heavenly® Baths.

Dine at one of our five award-winning restaurants, including Motor Bar or Roast from celebrity chef Michael Symon. With the rejuvenating Spa 19 and AAA Four Diamond service, every stay with us is a refreshing experience.

Stop by and see the BRAND-NEW Detroit/Dearborn location for yourself. You’ll see why travelers love Hampton, with amenities like our hot breakfast, free Wi-Fi, and our clean and fresh Hampton bed.

• Complimentary breakfast • Complimentary shuttle within 5 miles of the hotel • Easy access to businesses, Detroit attractions, malls, casinos and sports venues • Walking distance to many local restaurants Hampton Inn Detroit/Dearborn 22324 Michigan Ave. Dearborn, Michigan 48124 313.562.0000 www.detroitdearborn.hamptoninn.com

• Indoor heated swimming pool • Free business center • Free internet/Wi-Fi access in every room • Gym/fitness center

nourish your noggin Proud Supporter of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

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Featuring over 100 artifacts, Lillian Schwartz: Whirlwind of Creativity is a career-retrospective exhibition that explores three core themes across the artist’s life and career, including rarely shown mixed-media works, studio equipment, and large-scale film and video projections.

OPEN THROUGH MARCH 2024 HENRY FORD MUSEUM OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

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Welcome to the Holiday Inn & Suites Allen Park MI, an IHG Hotel!

We are delighted to have you as our guest and are committed to providing you with a comfortable and memorable stay.

We offer complimentary breakfast in the morning, which includes a variety of items to help you start your day off right, and free Wi-Fi access throughout the hotel. Our hotel has implemented enhanced cleaning and sanitation procedures to ensure the health and well-being of all our guests and staff. Throughout your visit, please do not hesitate to reach out should you need anything. Our friendly staff members are available night or day to assist you. We hope this is just the first of many visits and that you will feel at home with us. Thank you for selecting our Holiday Inn & Suites Allen Park MI for your stay.

HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS & SUITES ALLEN PARK

9000 Enterprise Drive | Allen Park, MI 48101 | 313-383-9790 ihg.com/holidayinnexpress/hotels/us/en/allen-park/dttap/hoteldetail

The Leo Collection Detroit, Ascend Hotel Collection 1805 John A. Papalas Drive | Lincoln Park MI 48146 | 313.381.5600 theleocollectiondetroit.com

Take a step inside our boutique hotel.

Detroit is a place full of rich history, where thousands of stories can be told, but many are yet to be created.

Make our boutique hotel home base to have the comfort and luxury of The LEO Collection at a price you can afford.

Located only 10 minutes from downtown Detroit, the hotel is designed so you can enjoy the perks of a truly special destination. Our all-suite hotel offers free Wi-Fi, parking and an EV charging station. All guest accommodations have a refrigerator, microwave, flat-screen TV and coffeemaker in modern rooms that offer the luxury of a boutique stay. When you want to feel rejuvenated, relax in the indoor heated pool or book a suite offering a hot tub and spa amenities. Plus, the fitness center is available so you can stay on top of your workout routine.

When you’re looking for a hotel that offers local charm with a boutique vibe, The Leo Collection Detroit, Ascend Hotel Collection in Lincoln Park, has you covered.

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A LOOK BACK

Circus Poster, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West And Rough Riders, 1908 The “Wild West.” The phrase seems to spark something almost mythological in people’s minds across the United States and the world. Untamed. Savage. After the concept of the Wild West was tamed, there remained a longing for the “good ol’ days,” so across the country, shows — almost theaterlike — popped up and began to depict the West in a way that played with the imagination. But what we see with the inception of these types of performances is a myth born of the Indigenous peoples who lived on these lands. They are depicted as bloodthirsty savages and the settlers as the victims, but more often than not, it was the other way around. Shows like Buffalo Bill’s and posters like this one help to perpetuate a stereotype of Indigenous peoples and the West that just isn’t true. We must see past the myth to get to the real story, sometimes more interesting than the fairy tale.

—H EATHER BRUEGL, M.A. (ONEIDA/STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE), CURATOR OF POLITICAL AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

FROM THE HENRY FORD ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

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@ITCHoldingsCorp @ITCGrid ITC Holdings Corp

POWERING COMMUNITY In our increasingly electrified communities, that’s where a resilient grid matters most.

ITC is working every day and investing in our state’s infrastructure to modernize the grid.

That means safe, secure, reliable electricity to power our energy future. At ITC, we’re always powering our communities. Learn more at www.itc-holdings.com.

MAGAZINE For access to past issues of THF Magazine, please visit issuu.com/thfmagazine.