A LOOK BACK
FORDSON TRACTOR NO. 100,000
(completed at Dearborn, Feb. 21, 1920) Henry Ford & Son organized on July 27, 1917, to make Fordson tractors. David L. Lewis, author of The Public Image of Henry Ford, explains that the first 7,000 went to England to support British food production during the Great War. Distribution to U.S. customers began early in 1918. Aggressive advertising got the public’s attention, and the tractor’s price — $750 — made it a reasonable investment. It quickly became a bestseller. Just three years after its debut, on Feb. 21, 1920, the 100,000th Fordson rolled off the assembly line in Dearborn, Michigan. In November 2020, this photographic print marking the tractor’s milestone manufacturing moment became The Henry Ford’s 100,000th artifact to be digitized. READ
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Page 11 of this issue of The Henry Ford Magazine for more news on The Henry Ford’s digitization effortsc
JANUARY-MAY 2021
DID YOU KNOW? / The 100,000th Fordson shares the limelight with other historical milestones, including New Mexico’s ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on Feb. 21, 1920, making it the 32nd state of the 36 needed to grant American women the right to vote.
d When line workers
completed the 100,000th Fordson tractor in Dearborn, Michigan, nearly 50% of the U.S. population lived in rural places, either in small communities of 2,500 people or fewer, or they lived on nearly 6.5 million farms, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
THE HENRY FORD ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION