The Henry Ford Magazine Summer/Fall 2024

The Bodies in Motion Issue

Can the way we move shape our way of life?

Innovation in motion.

Committed to making a difference

Thank you to The Henry Ford for the great work you do in our community.

Bank of America’s goal is simple — to help make financial lives better. Whether that means owning a home, starting a business, building savings and credit, or being a great place to work, we connect the people in our communities to the things that matter most.

Matt Elliott President, Bank of America

Michigan bankofamerica.com/detroit

What would you like the power to do?®

PHOTO BY TIM MOSSHOLDER/UNSPLASH

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.

SUMMER/FALL 2024

THE HENRY FORD

18

GREATER THAN THE SUM OF OUR PARTS

Modern prosthetic devices don’t just replace missing limbs, they fill in blanks about societal conceptions of disability

32

MAKING THINGS MOVE A look through The Henry Ford’s transportation collection for the gears, chains and powertrains that have put machines in motion

50 MINING AFFORDANCES

Skateboarding can change how we see and interact with the world

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

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.

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 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

William Clay Ford, Jr.

Sheila Ford Hamp

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.

TO MAKE A DONATION OR A LEGACY GIFT

J. Spencer Medford

Senior Vice President & Chief Advancement Officer

313.982.6016

spencem@thehenryford.org

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

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RESEARCH INQUIRIES

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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

WHAT MOVES YOU?

Our contributors share with us.

LARRY BOROWSKY

Music doesn’t just move me, it transports me — from head to heart, from here to there, from now to then. Stringed instruments yield the best mileage.

Larry Borowsky edits Amplitude, a national lifestyle magazine for people with limb loss and limb difference. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Slate and elsewhere.

Greater Than the Sum of Our Parts, Page 18

ROY CHRISTOPHER

A good idea wellarticulated is what moves me. Sometimes that’s a song, a poem or a movie. Sometimes it’s just a well-formed sentence. There’s nothing quite like a novel thought taking root in a fertile mind. Roy Christopher is an aging BMX and skateboarding zine kid. He has written about music, media and culture for books, blogs, magazines and academic journals. He holds a Ph.D. in communication studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mining Affordances, Page 50

MINJI MOON

Simplicity. I believe in the beauty of simplicity. The less it has, the more it says. It is always fun to have experiments to achieve what I pursue in my work.

Minji Moon is an illustrator who creates bold visuals united in colorful and simplified shapes. She has collaborated with various leading clients such as Samsung, Nike, YouTube and Coca-Cola.

Ask + Answer, Page 10

This year marks the 95th anniversary of The Henry Ford

As we move toward our centennial, we believe the work we are doing today is inspires future generations of thinkers, doers and inventors to dream big and change the world.

That kind of impact is monumental, and why museums, like The Henry Ford, are so important. Every facet of our business has impact, from our mission and vision to our commitment and presence. The programs we present within each of our venues inspire our guests to move the needle, make a difference and create change.

This issue of our magazine is about motion — ideas in motion, bodies in motion, machines in motion and culture in motion. Matt Anderson, our curator of transportation, offers an inside look at The Henry Ford collections that move people, which includes 200 years of innovation in bicycles, steam locomotion and automobiles. We also present the art, science and mindset behind modern prosthetics and reveal the close-knit culture of skateboarding and how some figures in the sport are making connections between mobility and mental health.

I hope you take the time to visit our campus soon. Our new restaurant in Greenfield Village, Stand 44, opened in May to rave reviews. The special event weekends are in full swing and a new traveling exhibition, Dinosaurs in Motion, is now open in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. Sixteen life-size metal dinosaurs have taken over our Gallery by General Motors for our guests to maneuver using levers and pulleys. Created by sculptor John Payne of North Carolina, these works of innovative art are inspired by real fossils and were built using recycled materials.

We are fully immersed in yet another unforgettable summer season at The Henry Ford. See you soon during this beautiful season.

With deep gratitude,

PATRICIA E. MOORADIAN PRESIDENT AND CEO, THE HENRY FORD

PHOTO OF PATRICIA MOORADIAN BY ROY RITCHIE

WHAT ARE WE READING + WATCHING?

A 1989 film for audiences of all ages, Tap serves up exhilarating stylings of tap dance with a turn-of-the-century twist on what it means to uphold tradition, face new challenges and dance with spirit.

Max Washington (Gregory Hines) is looking for an avenue to turn away from his life of crime and stumbles back into his old talent — tap dancing. On the journey back to the stage, he must find the meaning in his steps and regain the confidence to perform without fear. The star-studded cast of Sammy Davis Jr., Suzzanne Douglas and a young Savion “The Tap Master” Glover make this film a classic with a beautiful message of redemption through passion.

This film is one of my favorites, offering dancing, romance, drama and comedy. Director Nick Castle pulls the cast together for an exciting and intriguing performance. Perfect for snacks and a family night in.

Letters from the Stacks

What comes to mind when you think of motion? Is it wheels on a bike turning? Or trees bending beneath the breeze? Many will picture motion as the physical movement of people, animals or objects. Newton’s first law of motion dictates that objects in motion tend to stay in motion, but does this apply to digital objects?

Multimedia artist Lillian Schwartz captured motion digitally at a time when the computer software to design these images was in its infancy. In the late 1960s, Schwartz collaborated with Kenneth Knowlton on the design of the EXPLOR software. She used this program to generate the digital images in her first film, Pixillation. The images gave the effect of pixels moving across the screen. Schwartz sought the connection between art and motion and used this curiosity to fuel her artistic endeavors. In 1971, Schwartz used EXPLOR again to create Olympiad (image below), which focused entirely on human motion. She used layered octagons to create the image of a man, and by using an editing device, she generated the effect of the man running across the screen, mirroring the movements of an athlete.

To view this early interpretation of digital motion, there are digital copies of these films in the collections at the Benson Ford Research Center. Reach out at research.center@thehenryford .org to learn more.

— REGINA PARSELL, PROCESSING ARCHIVIST, THE HENRY FORD

PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES/ MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/HANDOUT PHOTO

X. Alexander Durden

Manager, Theatrical & Musical Experiences

The Henry Ford

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates Ta-Nehisi Coates’ debut novel shares the journey of Hiram Walker and how storytelling and memories, even those that do not belong to us, can move us emotionally and physically. Our protagonist Hiram is a mixed-race young man with an incredible talent — his photographic memory, which also allows him to commute through time and space. Subjected to life on a plantation in the pre-Civil War South, Hiram uses his gift to lead others to freedom on the Underground Railroad and becomes one of its most elite conductors while keeping his gift a secret. A lovely work of fiction, The Water Dancer is filled with heart, courage and a journey that will move all readers.

Paolina Barker Marketing Specialist The Henry Ford

Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies by Elizabeth Winkler

Did Shakespeare really write Shakespeare? How did an uneducated country boy craft literary masterpieces? How did he know so much about Italy if there’s no evidence of him traveling abroad? Who are the real-life people behind the figures mentioned in his sonnets? When journalist Elizabeth Winkler wrote an article for The Atlantic in 2019 discussing authorship theories, she didn’t realize that she was poking a proverbial bear. Scholars, critics and the general internet populace quickly descended to drag Winkler for daring to question the bard. Shocked by the vitriol, she set out on a quest to find out more about what we really know and why some scholars want to keep any doubt about the author buried under 400 years of history. The resulting book is perfect for anyone who enjoys a nerdy mystery or the thrill of questioning what your high school lit teacher taught you.

ASK: What’s the role of digital media in the museum experience?

ANSWER:

The simple answer: to tell a meaningful, engaging and informative story. But we could say the same for any exhibit component. Exhibit labels and signs meet those criteria, as do videos, artifacts and our skilled presenters. For an exhibition designer, the question is more complex and depends largely on the situation. Digital media is just one of many experiential techniques to choose from.

Being informative is easy. A white label with black text stating the birth date of a historical figure provides sufficient information. In some cases, it’s exactly what’s needed. A more challenging task is making the informative engaging and therefore meaningful. To do this, we must find the best storytelling device that allows us to connect to universal ideas where all individuals — within our wide spectrum of guests — can find relevance.

Digital experiences excel in areas where there’s a need to convey complex or layered information, attract through novelty and fun, or respond with flexibility and adaptability. Virtual exploration — by simulation or transportation — has the magical ability to whisk our guests beyond the confines of our campus (or bring them to us) and put them into situations they may never find themselves in, such as walking on the wings of an airplane or working on a racing pit crew. The possibilities are nearly endless, and emerging technologies are ever widening the imagination. I’m sure an AI chatbot would have lots to say on the subject.

Despite the many exciting opportunities with digital, it isn’t always the best choice. Hardware and code evolve at a rapid pace, and keeping up can be costly. We also consider how our museum experiences are unique in 2024 when many of us live entrenched in a digital world already. Our ideal exhibition experience is one where guests don’t notice the methods — and the complex questions feel like they have simple answers.

— WING FONG, DIRECTOR OF EXPERIENCE DESIGN, THE HENRY FORD

SEARCH, WATCH, DOWNLOAD

COMPILED BY RACHEL YERKE-OSGOOD, ASSOCIATE CURATOR AT THE HENRY FORD

Although museums seem to hit pause on time through the objects they collect, that does not mean they stay static and still. Dive into content and collections from The Henry Ford that capture a world in motion.

BIG MOVE

At the end of 2023, The Henry Ford and its partners undertook the massive task of relocating the Jackson House from Selma, Alabama, north to Michigan to await installation in Greenfield Village. Check out this video to hear about how we did it, and visit our website to learn more about the project as a whole.

DINOSAURS IN MOTION IS AT HENRY FORD MUSEUM OF AMERICAN INNOVATION THROUGH SEPT. 8. SEE PAGE 82.

At Menlo Park, Thomas Edison and his researchers developed the kinetoscope — an early way to display moving pictures. One viewer at a time could peek through the slot of the wooden box and see a short film strip playing on a loop. Watch examples in The Henry Ford’s Digital Collectionsc ONLINE

WHAT’S IN STORAGE?

40K objects

objects moved from off-site storage into the new Main Storage Building on The Henry Ford’s campus. Read all about the process in this blog post

Hang It Up

Since the mid-1980s, Hallmark has been adding light, motion and sound effects to certain ornaments. The company’s innovative design and technical staff collaborate as they blend art and technology to bring the ornaments’ stories to life. The staff of The Henry Ford gathered some of these dynamic ornaments from the collection in this expert set

HDC members always save 10% at the Henry Ford Museum and can join for Cars and Caffeine events at the

all

It’s good to be in the club.

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.

CONVERGENCE EDUCATION

IT’S IN OUR DNA

The Henry Ford is helping develop next-generation talent by leading the way for transdisciplinary learning

In November 2022, interagencies of the National Science and Technology Council released a report titled Convergence Education: A Guide to Transdisciplinary STEM Learning and Teaching . That same month, The Lemelson Foundation, which is dedicated to cultivating inventors to create a better world, showcased the federal education initiative to hundreds of educators, researchers, policymakers and advocates at its InventEd Convening event in Washington, D.C.

In the report, convergence education is defined as a transdisciplinary approach to learning that focuses on areas where STEM disciplines converge — climate change, pandemic readiness and prevention, emerging technologies and innovation, and entrepreneurship — and where learners apply knowledge and skills using a blended approach across multiple disciplines to create and innovate new solutions.

Invention education is noted as an established practice of convergence education, as is placebased and problem-based learning models such as The Henry Ford’s Model i and inHub innovation learning portfolio. All of these educational tools showcase The Henry Ford’s leadership in this evolving form of teaching.

THE HENRY FORD MAGAZINE RECENTLY spent time with Lucie Howell, The Henry Ford’s chief learning officer and director of Learning & Engagement, to learn more about convergence education and how The Henry Ford is embracing its role as a leader in providing educators the transdisciplinary teaching resources they need to prepare the next generation of problem solvers, innovators and changemakers.

THF MAGAZINE: What is the significance of the National Science and Technology Council’s published report on convergence education?

LH: This white paper was headed up by some 10 federal agencies that had been looking at STEM education. What they found was that each agency was working on the same things but was talking about them in slightly different ways. So they all came together — and invited non-federal agencies — to talk about transdisciplinary learning.

It’s really simple. Creating transdisciplinary learning experiences is one of the best ways to activate students’ interest in STEM fields. Fundamentally, it’s what we need for talent development in this country.

We [The Henry Ford] were actually in the room when the white paper was shared with the invention education community. When I read it, I thought,

“This justifies our entire portfolio of work. We have been doing this since the beginning. It is part of our DNA.”

THF MAGAZINE: When you say it’s part of our DNA, what do you mean?

LH: Everything we do here is convergence education because The Henry Ford’s stories sit at the intersection of social transformation and technical innovation — they sit at the intersection of STEM and the humanities.

Frankly, if everything we do comes from our stories, we can’t do anything other than transdisciplinary learning — from our invention convention community to our project- and placebased educational resources like our Model i learning framework and our inHub community. Through these, we are hitting more audiences with richer learning experiences.

ONLINE Learn more about Invention Convention Worldwidec

ONLINE Learn more about The Henry Ford’s inHubc

READ The report Convergence Education: A Guide to Transdisciplinary STEM Learning and Teaching released by interagencies of the National Science and Technology Council in 2022c

THF MAGAZINE: Does convergence education differ from more traditional learning approaches?

LH: The white paper uses an ice cream scale that shows you how disciplinary learning looks — like single scoops of ice cream on individual cones — versus what transdisciplinary learning is — represented as a blended milk shake with multiple ingredients. It’s an awesome visual.

What’s clear is that every STEM experience a student has should be transdisciplinary, requiring expertise and understanding in multiple areas. I like to say when it comes to learning, there is no single silver bullet.

THF MAGAZINE: Does this approach encourage students to care more about their education?

LH: My hypothesis is if you have lived a life through a particular lens, you see certain problems, and those are the ones you are going to put out there in your classroom. Through convergence education, we are exposing young people to a wider portfolio of problems they can better identify with. And we’ve learned by providing transdisciplinary learning experiences for young people, they often do feel like they are in more control of their learning, and by giving them control and autonomy, they do tend to care more.

THF MAGAZINE: How do we build awareness of convergence education?

aIn September 2023, The Henry Ford hosted the Invent It Forward Summit for its Invention Convention Worldwide program affiliates to introduce them to convergence education through workshops, relevant panel discussions and networking opportunities.

WORKING TOGETHER

The Lemelson Foundation and The Henry Ford are allies in the convergence education movement

LH: First step is to build the movement, then generate momentum behind that movement and be a leader and partner in the space.

If you want to make a change in education, you have to do it top down, middle out and grassroots up. It takes time to build a movement and gain momentum. That’s where we are now. We are building our network of Invention Convention Worldwide and its affiliates and expanding the number of students engaging in this learning experience.

We are also supporting educators — that’s the “grassroots up.” They are the leaders in their communities and classrooms and need to feel respected and supported. Not every educator wants to do invention education, and that’s OK, so we give them tools through inHub. Some may lean into our edible education programming or maybe they want to approach learning on a broader scale, so we encourage them to explore our Model i innovation learning framework.

Teaching should be a team sport, yet oftentimes teachers feel in competition rather than in collaboration with one another. I think that’s hugely problematic. We should all be thinking about learning as a team — like it’s a baton-carrying relay race where you have different super learning stars in every student’s learning life. That’s why at The Henry Ford, we are committed to contributing valuable resources to the larger convergence education ecosystem.

A longtime champion of invention education, The Lemelson Foundation introduced the 2022 White House publication Convergence Education: A Guide to Transdisciplinary STEM Learning and Teaching at its 2022 InventEd Convening event in Washington, D.C. “The publication’s release allowed us to celebrate the collaborative efforts between the invention education community and federal partners in documenting and disseminating a novel educational approach to the nation,” said David Coronado, senior program officer, The Lemelson Foundation.

Currently, more people and organizations are needed to advocate for this new teaching practice, shared Coronado, who acknowledges that Lemelson’s ongoing partnerships with institutions such as The Henry Ford are critical for success. “This collaboration highlights the importance of teamwork for shaping future generations,” he said. “By combining The Lemelson Foundation’s and The Henry Ford’s educational initiatives, we create a powerful synergy that helps foster a deeper understanding of the invention process and ignites a passion for invention in students who will become the problem solvers and innovators of tomorrow.” Interested in supporting the convergence education movement? The Lemelson Foundation offers steps that individuals and/or organizations can take to help bring these approaches to classrooms.

BE

A CHAMPION

· Develop educational programs that showcase real-world problem solving arising from convergence and invention education. This could involve exhibits, workshops or online resources.

· Partner with educational institutions to offer workshops/training for teachers on how to implement convergence and invention education. This could involve providing resources, lesson plans and integration strategies.

· Become a hub for educators and innovators by hosting discussions and networking events

SUPPORT

TEACHERS

· Partner with school districts to offer professional development for teachers. This could involve providing grants or scholarships for teachers to attend relevant events.

· Share curriculum resources that align with convergence education principles. This could include online modules, lesson plans and activity guides.

· Create recognition programs for teachers. Learn more about The Lemelson Foundation at lemelson.org

PROGRAMMING, RESOURCES + EVENTS

What to watch, read, do to inspire big thinking

RETAIL REFRESH

Greenfield Village Store has new elevated appeal

The Henry Ford is excited to share its newly renovated and refreshed Greenfield Village Store, which was unveiled this spring to members and guests. Taking cues from our past-forward approach, the store reflects an elevated modern look and feel while drawing ties and inspiration from around Greenfield Village and the artifacts it celebrates.

Make sure to stop by during your next visit and see the newest arrivals, including a nod to The Henry Ford’s extensive quilting collection, products featuring artwork by illustrator and graphic designer Humberto Cruz as well as new Detroit Central Market apparel. Many favorites return, like handcrafted exclusives made in Liberty Craftworks, Frozen Custard apparel and some surprises too. Shopping for unique souvenirs and local treats and even a unique selfie opportunity await.

STAND 44 IS OPEN

Greenfield Village’s new restaurant features local, seasonal foods

In the heart of Greenfield Village’s bustling market plaza, next to the Detroit Central Market, visitors to The Henry Ford are discovering just how delicious food prepared from scratch by chefs using local and sustainable ingredients can be. Stand 44 is The Henry Ford’s new restaurant, which opened in May 2024 to positive reviews for its chef-created seasonal dishes and its commitment to sustainability.

The structure’s design is inspired by celebrated industrial architect Albert Kahn, and it is the first building on The Henry Ford campus to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. It is also the first facility in Greenfield Village to compost all of its waste, which is converted into a bio-product that is being used at the four working farms and in the historic gardens of Greenfield Village. The Henry Ford’s edible education programming space, which will help the next generation create healthier, hands-on relationships with food, is also housed in the building.

Learn more about Stand 44 and how it celebrates local chefs and the Great Lakes grower community and incorporates edible education and sustainable business practices.

PHOTOS BY EE BERGER

PHOTO BY VANSEN MEDIA

aThrough The Henry Ford’s Community Outreach Program, Clark Park Coalition families — including (from left) Mario Vaughn, Kiyomi Vaughn, Kaiyion Gonzalez, Daryin Gallegos and Heriberto Gallegos — spent a spring day in Greenfield Village enjoying a 2024 Day Out With Thomas™ event.

THE POWER OF MOVEMENT

Community Outreach Program partners use physical activity, therapy to build skills, resilience

Kids Kicking Cancer’s Heroes Circle and the Clark Park Coalition are partners with The Henry Ford through its Community Outreach Program. Both nonprofits are committed to helping children manage their emotions and learn life skills through different types of physical activity and therapy.

Heroes Circle offers martial arts therapy on-site and online to pediatric patients on a global scale, while the Clark Park Coalition uses recreational athletic programs — headquartered out of southwest Detroit’s Clark Park — to give kids a shared, supportive community outlet.

“Physical activity is critical for youth. It’s what keeps our brains, moods and health in good order,” said Clark Park Coalition’s Anthony Benavides. “That’s why it’s so important we have parks and organized recreational activities where youth can learn to play sports, meet new friends and have positive social interactions — without a phone screen.”

For Sensei Richard Plowden with Heroes Circle, it’s the adaptability of martial arts that makes kids feel like they can participate in movement and be successful. “Individuals with illness and disease are typically told what they can’t do — you can’t play soccer, you can’t play football,” he said. “Martial arts are across the gamut. Age, size and physical ability do not matter. We can teach them a chop and how to block and get inside their heads. We make them feel like they are martial artists that can battle anything in their way. It’s a program where they feel normal, where they learn about accountability for who they are and what they are doing with their life.”

Benavides couldn’t agree more in terms of the self-confidence organized activity and camaraderie can bring. “Youth build confidence as they practice and build skills. They discover they can try new things and be successful. They develop responsibility by showing up on time and being accountable to teammates and coaches. Through sports, youth develop leadership skills as well as learn how to be a team player.”

As Community Outreach Program partners, Heroes Circle and Clark Park Coalition families regularly enjoy complimentary visits to The Henry Ford. Both groups hail these field trips and experiences, such as Hallowe’en, Holiday Nights and special exhibits like last year’s Mandela: The Official Exhibition, as treasured opportunities for those they serve.

“It’s been wonderful,” said Cindy Cohen, Heroes Circle’s global program director, of the association with The Henry Ford. “Our families get to experience the museum, go to the village, attend special events and programming — all opportunities that many of them couldn’t otherwise justify as they face ongoing medical challenges as a family. We are all so appreciative of this partnership and the experiences and resources offered by The Henry Ford.”

ONLINE Learn more about the Clark Park Coalitionc

ONLINE Learn more about Kids Kicking Cancer’s Heroes Circlec

dHeroes Circle, a Community Outreach Program partner of The Henry Ford, offers pediatric patients like (top) Faith McKay; (middle from left) K’Niya Bibbs, Carly Cogan and Leah Vincenzetti; and (above) Destiny Hayman martial arts training designed to help them move and gain selfconfidence regardless of their physical abilities.

Since 2006, The Henry Ford’s Community Outreach Program has grown to include more than 120 nonprofit organizations that provide social services to underserved and underrepresented groups in the metro Detroit area and beyond. By partnering with these groups, The Henry Ford strengthens its local impact, providing free general admission for on-site visits, networking opportunities, access to resources and more.

PHOTO BY MARIO VAUGHN

GREATER THAN THE OUR PARTS SUM OF

Modern prosthetic devices don’t just replace missing limbs, they fill in blanks about societal conceptions of disability

By Larry Borowsky

During

his

seminal TED Talk

titled “The New Bionics,”

Hugh Herr flashed back to a day in 1982, shortly after he had both of his legs amputated.

“I didn’t view my body as broken,” he told his audience. “I reasoned that a human being can never be ‘broken.’ Technology is broken. Technology is inadequate.”

The prosthetic technology available to Herr was considered perfectly adequate at that time, but it had barely advanced since the Civil War era. Even the most sophisticated models restored only a basic level of function, at the cost of significant physical and psychological pain. In addition to rubbing skin, bone and nerve endings raw, these devices were as incongruous as appendages on a dime store mannequin, eliciting stares of discomfort or pity. Most amputees were grateful for the independence these prosthetics bestowed, but they looked and felt as unnatural as something cooked up in Frankenstein’s laboratory.

Herr, a biophysicist who now leads Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s world-class biomechatronics lab, has spent his career developing prosthetics that truly carry the spark of life. Throughout his TED Talk, he effortlessly paced the stage on bionic legs that paired seamlessly with his flesh-and-blood body.

These devices made no attempt to mimic a human limb’s contours — they were proudly and unselfconsciously metallic — yet they completed Herr’s frame more convincingly than a mere anatomical replica could. As he described the evolution of this technology, he rotated his bionic ankle, pointed his carbon fiber toe, walked backwards and ran in place. Then he introduced a ballroom dancer who’d lost a leg in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Wearing one of Herr’s prosthetics, she floated across the stage so nimbly that her disability vanished altogether. The audience simply perceived a graceful performer — an unequivocally whole person.

Such is the promise of modern bionics, which embody what Herr calls “the interplay between biology and design.” These incredible devices go beyond restoration of function to achieve synthesis with the entire organism — body, mind and spirit. They promote something more essential than physical health and well-being: Today’s prosthetics are powerful enough to renew the wearer’s sense of humanity while overturning society’s prejudices and stereotypes about disability.

DID YOU KNOW? / April is recognized as Limb Loss and Limb Difference Awareness Month. According to a recently published study from the Amputee Coalition, more than 5.6 million Americans are living with limb loss and limb difference.

Hugh Herr’s

cBiophysicist Hugh Herr is using modern bionic technology to develop prosthetic devices that do much more than restore physical function. They can also be powerful catalysts, renewing the wearer’s sense of humanity and overriding society’s prejudices.

PHOTO BY WEBB CHAPPELL

BEYOND HUMAN

The first glimmers of this transformation occurred at about the time Herr lost his legs. An amputee named Van Phillips spent most of the 1980s developing a radically new type of prosthesis that would let him resume an old passion: running. “I knew I wasn’t going to create joints or bones or muscles,” Phillips later recalled. “But there had to be a way to create that kind of elastic stretch or spring energy.”

The end result had all the qualities that traditional prosthetics lacked. Phillips’ device was dynamic and flexible rather than inert, able to propel bodies forward instead of merely propping them up. It replaced stiff plastics and wood with sleek, buoyant carbon fiber. Above all, it wasn’t shaped like a sickly imitation of a human leg. This was a new kind of limb entirely, a blade — as exquisite as a piece of modernist sculpture.

Introduced commercially in 1996, Phillips’ invention flew largely under the radar until the 2012 Olympics in London, when South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius captivated a global

audience by competing on two running blades against the world’s fastest athletes — and outracing many of them. He became one of the 2012 games’ most talked-about figures, drawing roars of admiration from the grandstand but howls of protest from rival Olympians who thought his carbon-fiber limbs gave him an unfair advantage. In the process, Pistorius flipped old stereotypes on their head: He was extra-abled rather than disabled, an intimidator on Maserati legs.

Pistorius’ fame would curdle into infamy less than a year after his triumphant Olympic performance, but he nonetheless made an indelible impact on society’s perceptions of disability.

“It took us more than a generation to get away from talking about men and women as ‘handicapped’ or ‘disabled,’” wrote futurist Dominic Basulto in The Washington Post during the London Olympics. “Pistorius is the most visible member of the new generation of super-athlete made possible by breakthroughs in medical science and technology. ... That, in turn, is leading to radical breakthroughs for everybody.”

EXTRA-ABLED

Athlete Oscar Pistorius (opposite page) wowed audiences at the 2012 Olympics in London, competing against the world’s fastest individuals wearing Össur Flex-Foot Cheetah carbon-fiber running blades (at left)

OSCAR PISTORIUS PHOTO BY PAUL GILHAM/GETTY IMAGES; CHEETAH BLADE COURTESY OF ÖSSUR

A FORMIDABLE FUSION

In the 12 years since London, running blades have become fairly routine sights at high school track meets, community 5Ks and fitness facilities. And vastly more elaborate prosthetics have become commonplace for routine day-to-day use. While no one will liken these devices to sports cars, they’ve given amputees a level of ease and capacity that would have been unimaginable at the dawn of this century.

One example, the microprocessor-enhanced prosthetic leg, continuously monitors the wearer’s gait and center of gravity, then course-corrects automatically. If you step off a curb, the leg stiffens to absorb the impact. If you stumble, it reflexively throws itself forward to keep you upright. And when you traverse stairs, side slopes, rocky trails or other uneven terrain, the leg adjusts without you needing to break stride.

Parallel innovations are built into the most advanced bionic arms and hands. Using intricate sensors and artificial intelligence, these marvels feature dextrous fingers with enough motor control to facilitate cooking, driving, writing, carpentry and even (in a few famous cases) piano playing. At the most recent running of the Cybathlon (an international assistive-technology competition), entrants in the upper-limb division had to use prosthetic hands to fold laundry, hang clothes

on a line, erect a pyramid of paper cups and perform other tasks.

The emerging class of prosthetics promises to engineer ever-tighter fusions between human and machine. Neuroprosthetics — hard-wired to the nervous system, controlled by the wearer’s thoughts and endowed with a sense of touch — are well into the prototype stage. Another new technology, osseointegration, anchors the prosthesis within the skeleton — the living bone in the residual limb literally grows around the device. Powered prosthetics, with onboard motors doing the work of absent muscles, are also visible on the horizon. Over time, it will become increasingly hard to say where the person ends and the prosthesis begins.

“Full integration is where we are headed,” said prosthetist Erik Schaffer, who owns New Yorkbased A Step Ahead Prosthetics. “We will be building people fully integrated with computers and Bluetooth. We are going to be able to produce a total restoration of life.”

There’s a bionic Achilles’ heel built into these miraculous innovations: Most amputees can’t afford them. High-end prosthetic limbs routinely cost more than $50,000 and occasionally top $100,000. Most insurance plans either deny coverage entirely or routinely reject initial claims, forcing patients to file appeals and justify their need for advanced devices.

FULLY INTEGRATED

New York-based A Step Ahead Prosthetics is using emerging technologies and engineering advancements to help patients with a wide range of prosthetic needs, from fitting individuals with (clockwise from far left) Ottobock X3 microprocessor knees to a myoelectric belowelbow prosthetic, a knee-amputee device using osseointegration technology and (opposite page) a Paralympic-ready Össur Cheetah Knee.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF A STEP AHEAD PROSTHETICS

DID YOU KNOW? / The international 2024 Cybathlon assistivetechnology competition will take place near Zurich, Switzerland, on Oct. 25-27. More than 100 international teams from the world of academia and industry will compete in eight disciplines, from leg and arm prosthetic competitions to wheelchair and exoskeleton races.

UNLIKELY CANVAS

Advocates have made some headway in broadening access to top-notch prosthetics. But no matter what class of device an amputee uses, most have benefited from the rising technological tide. Conventional (i.e., non-computer-enhanced) prosthetics are vastly more functional and comfortable than the ones available to Hugh Herr back in 1982. Of equal or greater importance, nextgen technology has emboldened amputees at every point on the socioeconomic spectrum. Instead of concealing their disability, they’re increasingly apt to turn their artificial limb into a vehicle for self-expression and celebrate their membership in the prosthetic tribe.

The patron saint of this trend, Peggy Chenoweth, got the ball rolling in 2011, the year before Oscar Pistorius made prosthetic legs cool. Writing at her blog, “Tales of an Amputee Mommy,” Chenoweth urged fellow amputees to flaunt their devices on April 30, which she proclaimed National Strut Your Stuff Day. “It is time to make our presence known!” she wrote. “Wearing shorts and showing your prosthetic with pride will be one of the best ways to bring the amputee community out of the shadows.”

The event (later rechristened Show Your Mettle Day) remains an annual highlight each April, now designated Limb Loss and Limb Difference Awareness Month. But for a growing number of amputees, every day is Show Your Mettle Day. An entire industry now offers colorful, creative ways to turn a prosthesis into a canvas for body art. Manufacturers of

READ Amplitude magazine’s cover story about Oakland Orthopedic Appliances’ prosthetic technician Nick Harrier and his commitment to provide no-cost, custom-built leg covers to amputeesc

3D-printed, laminated and/or fabric covers offer almost infinite aesthetic possibilities, from superhero garb to sports logos, wilderness themes, album covers and beyond. The effect is profoundly humanizing, deflecting attention from the negative space of a missing limb and toward an affirmation of personal identity.

“It totally changes the nature of the conversation,” said Nick Harrier, a prosthetic technician at Oakland Orthopedic Appliances in Bay City, Michigan. An amputee himself, Harrier started wearing a steampunk-accessorized leg that he whipped up in his spare time. “When I got out in public, people were a lot more comfortable approaching me. Before that, people didn’t always know what to say. You could see there was discomfort. But when I started wearing the cover, it kind of spawned a positive vibe.”

Harrier now makes custom-designed legs for amputees all over the country, working on his own time — and without monetary compensation. “The only way I’m willing to do this is if people get their leg for free,” he explained, citing the already high cost of living with limb loss. “It’s not a bottom-line thing. I just want to get these things out there so they become normal.”

Indeed, normalization is the crowning achievement of modern prosthetics. From Pistorius’ running blades to Herr’s bionics to Harrier’s artistic visions, the last 30 years have steadily blurred the distinction between disability and ability, enabling amputees to present themselves as regular people — whole and unbroken. l

RESEARCH The traveling exhibition Bespoke Bodies: The Design & Craft of Prosthetics to learn more about the roots of prosthetic limb design and its connection to WWI cc

bProsthetic technician Nick Harrier is changing the conversation around modern-day prosthetics by creating custom-designed limbs (opposite page) free of charge for amputees all over the country. His goal: “I just want to get these things out there so they become normal.”

COURTESY OF NICK HARRIER; PHOTO BY LESLIE GAUTHIER

aVisionary bionic designer Hugh Herr is working diligently to bridge the gap between the brain and his new generation of prosthetics, exploring sophisticated ways to link computer-powered synthetic limbs to the wearer’s nervous system.

COURTESY OF HUGH HERR

Low Tech, High Impact

SMALL COMPANIES ARE CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE OF AFFORDABLE AND FUNCTIONAL PROSTHETICS

Between her mid-teens and early 30s, Nicole Brennan (at right) rarely used a prosthesis. “I wore them all through childhood, but they didn’t help me at all,” said Brennan, who was born without the lower half of her right arm. “They weren’t functional, and they weren’t comfortable. When I turned 15, I told my parents, ‘I’m done.’”

So, when a British startup named Koalaa asked Brennan to beta-test a specialized yoga prosthetic fitting two years ago, she was skeptical, but she agreed to try it.

“I got down on the mat and went through the poses, and I became quite emotional,” she recalled. “It was the first time I could fully participate in a yoga flow.” Brennan offered some design feedback, did more rounds of testing and shaped the final product so heavily that Koalaa called it The Nicole.

That’s one of half a dozen activity-specific arm attachments in Koalaa’s catalog, which also features devices for playing stringed instruments, wielding kitchen utensils and gripping pencils and paintbrushes. And the company is among dozens of small firms (many amputee owned) that are pursuing a low-tech approach to prosthetic innovation, offering products that emphasize practicality and consumer-friendliness over bionic wizardry. Aimed at small niches in the market, these prosthetics are engineered for comfort and priced for middle-class budgets. They don’t require insurance approvals or multiple trips to the clinic. You just click “purchase,” and the product arrives within days.

An emerging leader in this industry segment, Levitate, sells $2,000 running blades (at right) to recreational athletes who could never afford a $25,000 competition-grade model. A Philadelphia startup called Liquid Limbs is developing a waterproof leg that lets amputees stand in the shower. TRS Prosthetics lists arm attachments for photography, rock climbing, gardening, motorcycle riding and more than a dozen other applications. And you can find feet specifically designed for high heels, open-toed sandals, ski boots and all kinds of other footwear.

“I have tremendous respect for anyone who provides things to patients they would not otherwise have,” said Connie Hanafy, who runs on a Levitate blade. “It gives us an opportunity to live the way we want in an affordable way. Being able to run again after my amputation, it changed my life. It just absolutely changed my life.”

cThe Nicole is a specialized yoga prosthetic named after its beta-tester Nicole Brennan (below).

COURTESY OF KOALAA

ONLINE Learn more about Koalaa’s upper-body prosthetics and how inclusivity and accessibility are part of its core missionc

ONLINE Learn more about Levitate and its prosthetics for everyday athletesc

ONLINE Learn more about Liquid Limbs and its waterproof mobility aidsc

ONLINE Learn more about TRS Prosthetics’ high-performance, body-powered technologyc

TOP PHOTO COURTESY OF KOALAA; BOTTOM PHOTOS COURTESY OF LEVITATE

CONSUMER BIONICS

Amputees aren’t the only ones using bionic tech to enhance their lives. These mainstream products fit Hugh Herr’s definition of bionics as “the interplay of biology and design.”

dWhen worn, the titanium Oura Ring can provide accurate readings for biometrics such as heart rate, body temperature, blood oxygen and more.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF OURA RING

FITNESS RINGS

Vital-signs and vascularhealth monitors wrap around a single digit

From The Henry Ford’s Digital Collections: Xbox Adaptive Controller

GLUCOSE MONITORS

Wearable patches continuously log bloodsugar levels in real time

Over 30% of American gamers identify as disabled. For decades, the needs of disabled gamers were not considered by major video game manufacturers, and they were instead left to create their own workarounds, rely on expensive custom options or find an oftenclunky aftermarket solution. But in 2018, Xbox released its Adaptive Controller, which was designed for people with limited mobility. It was the first gaming controller to be comprehensively designed by and for disabled gamers. Organizations like AbleGamers, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation and Craig Hospital provided early-stage input and testing throughout the controller’s design. The controller’s adaptability facilitates the personalization of each user’s gaming setup, according to their need. Its primary features include two oversize triggers and a movement button, along with 19 ports that allow further customization with external controller devices such as foot switches, one-handed joysticks and mouth-controlled “quadsticks” used by quadriplegics.

SMART CLOTHES

Stylish garments with built-in sensors register heart rate, blood flow, body temperature and other vitals

DIABETIC BOOTS

Promote blood flow to help foot ulcers heal before they become limb-threatening

The controller was largely well-received upon its release. Time magazine even named it one of the “Best Inventions” in 2018. More importantly, it brought awareness to the needs of disabled gamers and encouraged other manufacturers to prioritize accessible hardware.

See the Xbox Adaptive Controller in The Henry Ford’s Digital Collections.

— KATHERINE WHITE, CURATOR OF DESIGN, THE HENRY FORD

ECG WATCHES

Wrist-borne earlywarning system for heart attacks and arrhythmias

WATCH Host Mo Rocca show off an inexpensive artificial arm invented by a teen in an episode of The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nationc

Making Things Move

A look through The Henry Ford’s transportation collection for the gears, chains and powertrains that have put machines in motion

Compiled by Matt Anderson, curator of transportation, The Henry Ford

Photos from The Henry Ford Archive of American Innovation

Engineers define “powertrain” as the system in a vehicle that produces and transmits the power to make it go. In a gasoline-powered automobile, this includes the engine, transmission and driveshaft. On a bicycle, it’s generally the rider, gears and a chain. Railroad locomotives have powertrains dependent on whether they’re powered by steam, electricity or petroleum-based fuel. But there’s more than one way to make things move. Inventors have experimented with different ways to create and convey power. Often these new methods are pursued in the interest of efficiency. Sometimes it’s a quest to reduce cost or complexity. And occasionally, a new powertrain might be developed simply to distinguish a vehicle from its competitors. This timeline showcases some of the more interesting bicycle, locomotive and automobile powertrains in The Henry Ford’s transportation collection.

Making Bicycles Move

Whether for recreation, sport or a short commute to work, bicycles in many forms and variations have been moving humans from A to B for more than 200 years — an invention that drove the building of roads and the development of city planning as much as the automobile.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

— ALBERT EINSTEIN, PHYSICIST

1818

DRAISINE

This early bicycle predecessor avoided a powertrain altogether. Riders simply sat astride the wooden rail and scooted along with their feet.

1866

VELOCIPEDE

Pedals were added to the draisine design in the 1860s. The direct-drive system meant one turn of the pedals caused one rotation of the front wheel.

1878

HIGH-WHEEL BICYCLE

Increasing the front wheel’s diameter let the rider cover more distance with each crank of the pedals, but high-wheel bicycles intimidated new riders.

1885

KANGAROO BICYCLE

Chain drives used differently sized gears to match the highwheel’s efficiency. Britain’s Kangaroo brand used two independent chains on either side of a shorter front wheel. There was no mechanism to disengage the pedals when coasting — hence the separate footrests.

Making Bicycles Move

DID YOU KNOW? / Henry Ford used bicycle technology in his 1896 Quadricycle, his first attempt to build a gasoline-powered automobile. It used commonly available materials: angle iron for the frame, a leather belt and chain drive for the transmission and a buggy seat. For more than a century, the Quadricycle has symbolized the foundation and success of Ford Motor Company.

1886

AMERICAN STAR BICYCLE

High-wheel cyclists feared tumbling over the handlebars — the dreaded “header” accident. American Star reduced the risk by putting the tall wheel in back. Two lever-and-ratchet treadles converted the rider’s foot power into rotary motion.

1889

POPE COLUMBIA SAFETY BICYCLE

Chain-driven gears allowed bicycle manufacturers to avoid high wheels altogether and build “safety” bikes with two wheels of equal size. The accessibility and popularity of safety bikes drove a bicycle craze in the 1890s.

1895

REGINA BICYCLE

Chains were effective, but they were also greasy and prone to falling off their sprockets. Regina bicycles used an American Star-style ratchet mechanism for propulsion, creating a chain-free safety bike.

ONLINE Learn more about Greenfield Village’s annual late summer Twilight Bike Ride A member-exclusive event, this evening of cycling gives bikers the opportunity to ride their trikes, fixies, cruisers and road bikes through 300 years of American history. Twilight Bide Ride 2024 is Aug. 14-15. Ticket requiredc

DID YOU KNOW? / Aviation heroes Orville and Wilbur Wright started their careers in the bicycle business. The brothers repaired, rented, built and sold bikes in their shop in Dayton, Ohio. They also built their earliest flying machines there, including the 1903 Flyer that became the first successful heavier-than-air, powered, controlled aircraft. The actual Wright Cycle Shop is now located in Greenfield Village.

1898

COLUMBIA BICYCLE

On this Columbia Model 60, a rotating shaft connected the pedals with the rear wheels via bevel gears at each end. But shafts were heavier than chains, and they generally weren’t as efficient.

1935

INGO-BIKE SCOOTER

Rather than pedaling, people bounced to make this scooter go. Its eccentric rear hub converted up-and-down motion into wheel rotations. Riders needed a sense of rhythm to make it work well.

2008

Tricycle Used by Kevin Degen

Sometimes a powertrain drives more than a means of transportation. Kevin Degen of Birmingham, Michigan, turned this tricycle into a vehicle for fundraising. At times, he pedaled more than 3,000 miles a year, and he raised hundreds of thousands of dollars on charity rides.

Degen was born with cerebral palsy, and he had difficulty riding commercially available bicycles. Friends and fellow cyclists raised money to build this custom tricycle for Degen, and engineers at the Toyota Technical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, designed it especially for him. Degen cycled using only his left leg and left arm. The tricycle’s seat is offset to accommodate his off-center riding posture, and the shift and brake controls are all on the left handlebar.

Degen, who passed away in 2010, left an inspiring story of determination, support, collaboration and innovation — all with a view toward achieving fulfillment via something many people take for granted: mobility.

TECH & SPECS

Maker: Designed by Brian Scheidewind, Christian Chock, Adam Holstrom and Brady Gambatese, Toyota Technical Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Fabricated by: Energy Return Bicycles, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Speeds: 27

Brakes: Side-pull stirrup in front, single-actuation discs in rear

Height: 42 inches

Width: 28.5 inches

Length: 72 inches

Weight: 55 pounds

Making Locomotives Work

Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick demonstrated the first operational railway steam locomotive in the Welsh mining town of Merthyr Tydfil more than two centuries ago, setting the stage for a transport revolution.

STEPHENSON’S ROCKET (REPLICA)

British inventor George Stephenson’s Rocket used pistons and rods connected to its front driving wheels. Exposed drivelines are a big part of what makes steam locomotives so fascinating to watch.

VISIT The Railroads exhibition in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation to see one of the largest steam locomotives ever built. Designed for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway in 1941, the Allegheny locomotive is 125 feet long, weighs about 771,000 pounds and could pull 160 coal cars, each with a 60-ton load, through the steep grades of the Allegheny Mountains. Then take a scenic trip around Greenfield Village on the steam-powered Weiser Railroad, and visit the Detroit, Toledo & Milwaukee Roundhouse for a closer look at how the Weiser’s operating locomotives and equipment are skillfully maintained by The Henry Ford’s dedicated railroad operations teamc

1927

PLYMOUTH GASOLINEMECHANICAL LOCOMOTIVE

This Plymouth locomotive used a six-cylinder, internal combustion gasoline engine linked to a four-speed gearbox. Easy operation made little Plymouth engines popular with industrial railroads.

1942

GENERAL ELECTRIC DIESEL-ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE

Diesel-electric locomotives combine two power sources. This locomotive’s six-cylinder diesel engine drove an electric generator, which then powered the electric traction motors that turned the wheels.

“For the first time there was constructed with this machine [locomotive engine] a self-acting mechanism in which the interplay of forces took shape transparently enough to discern the connection between the heat generated and the motion produced.”

— CARL LUDWIG, PHYSICIAN AND PHYSIOLOGIST

Making Automobiles Run

Steam locomotives were familiar sights to Americans in the 1860s. But a small steam carriage running under its own power — without horses! — was so startling that people paid to see one driven around a track. It was a curiosity, not transportation. By 1896, innovators everywhere were dead set on transforming these horseless carriages from curiosities into what we now know as practical personal vehicles.

1899

LOCOMOBILE RUNABOUT

This steam-powered Locomobile used a bicycle-style chain drive to transfer engine power to the rear wheels. Its steel-tube frame, spoked wheels and pneumatic tires were borrowed from bicycle design as well.

1903

HOLSMAN RUNABOUT

Instead of a chain, this bare-bones Holsman gasoline car used a manila rope wrapped around two pulleys. But the rope was prone to wear and stretching, and Holsman later adopted a chain drive.

Making Automobiles Run

cThe Ford Model T, in production from 19081927, used a two-speed planetary gearset in its transmission, shown here in a drawing from circa 1917.

1908

FORD MODEL T

Ford’s Model T transmission used a two-speed planetary gearset. Its gears were always in mesh, with bands and drums engaging the different speeds. There was no grinding of gears when shifting, unlike slidinggear transmissions of the time.

1909

SEARS MODEL H RUNABOUT

Sears Motor Buggies used a friction drive. Two wheels, one connected to the engine and one connected to the rear axle, pressed against each other at right angles. Sliding the second wheel along an axle caused it to turn at different speeds, effectively creating a gear-free, continuously variable transmission.

1959

SIMPSON PLANETARY GEARSET MODEL

Planetary gearsets are a key part of automatic transmissions. Three-speed units like this one, designed by Howard Simpson, were common from the 1950s on. Torque converters, which used fluid to connect the engine and transmission, eliminated the need for a friction clutch.

“I will build a motor car for the great multitude ... constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise ... so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one — and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces.”

— HENRY FORD, FOUNDER, FORD MOTOR COMPANY

PHOTO BY EE BERGER

SEARS MODEL H RUNABOUT

bPower from the Sears runabout’s friction drive ultimately reached the wheels via a chain connected to the rear axle.

PHOTO BY EE BERGER

Build a Gear, Make It Move

Gears are those toothed wheels used in many machines, including bicycles and vehicle transmissions, that work together to change the relationship between a driving mechanism and a machine’s moving parts. Construct your own simple set of gears and put them in motion.

MATERIALS

A box made of corrugated cardboard

Ruler

Pencil

Compass

Sharp scissors, box cutter or razor

Glue

Permanent marker

Pushpins or painter’s tape

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

When you turn the 3-inch gear clockwise, the 1.5-inch gear turns counter-clockwise. When you turn the 3-inch gear once, the 1.5-inch gear goes around twice. When you turn the 1.5-inch gear once, the 3-inch gear makes half of a rotation.

DID YOU KNOW? / Gears transmit torque (twisting forces) in predictable ways — this is why they are so useful in machines that require exact movements. When you turn the 3-inch gear, for example, it will always make the 1.5-inch gear spin around twice because the 3-inch gear has twice the circumference.

1

Cut a piece of cardboard that is at least 8 inches by 8 inches for your base.

2

On another piece of cardboard, use a compass to trace at least four circles — with 1-inch, 1.5-inch, 2-inch and 3-inch diameters. Cut out your circles.

3

Making sure to cut along the corrugated edge, cut a long strip of cardboard one-quarter inch wide. Carefully remove the brown paper on one side of the corrugated strip. This will be used to give each gear its toothed edges.

4

Cut pieces of your corrugated cardboard strip to measure for each of your circles.

5

Glue the measured pieces of corrugated cardboard around each circle, making sure the bumps are on the outside. Secure with pushpins or painter’s tape and dry overnight.

6

Mark one tooth on each of your gears with a black marker so you can track each gear’s rotation.

7

Attach the 3-inch and 2-inch gears to your base using pushpins at the center of each and making sure that the gears’ teeth interlock.

8

Arrange the other two gears as you wish, and start rotating them. Use your black marks to keep track of how many times each gear turns the other and in which direction they turn.

Skateboarding can change how we see and interact with the world

By Roy Christopher

I don’t know any casual skateboarders. Everyone I know who’s ever done it has either an era of their lives or their entire essence defined by it — the rebellion, the aggression, the expression.

Inextricably bound up with your being, it’s the way you wear your hair and the way you wear your hat. It’s the kind of shoes you wear and which foot you put forward. It’s the crew you run with and the direction you go. There is something about rolling through the world on a skateboard that changes people forever.

Ever since I first saw Wes Humpston’s Dogtown cross on the bottom of a friend’s skateboard in the sixth grade, I knew it was going to be a part of my world. I first stepped on a skateboard at the age of 11. There are scant few physical acts or objects that have had a larger impact on who I am and how I am. Through the wood, the

wheels and the graphics, skateboarding culture introduced me to music, art and attitude. Like Dischord Records co-founder Ian MacKaye said to journalist Dan Sinker in 2001, “Skateboarding is not a hobby.” More than 20 years later when I interviewed MacKaye myself, he further elaborated. “It was a discipline. It was the way that we learned how to navigate our surroundings, and the world was transformed by this navigation because we suddenly saw everything a little bit differently than it had originally appeared.”

Riding a skateboard fundamentally changes the way you see the world and yourself in it.

DID YOU KNOW? /

The story of the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys was later fictionalized in a film directed by Catherine Hardwicke called Lords of Dogtown

WATCH The 2001 documentary film Dogtown and Z-Boys, narrated by actor Sean Penn and starring members of the former Zephyr Skate team and the Dogtown skaters, including Tony Hawk, Tony Alva, Shogo Kubo, Peggy Oki, Stacy Peralta and othersc

PHOTO BY ADOBE STOCK/JACOB LUND

SPORT VS. LIFESTYLE

Skateboarders have always found their own use for everything in the city. First, it was surfing the open waves of sidewalks and streets, as cited in Iain Borden’s Skateboarding, Space and the City. Then the challenges of the steep walls in empty backyard pools beckoned. Eventually, street skating found affordances in everything: ledges, curbs, stairs, handrails — edges and angles of all kinds.

Even with the proliferation of skateparks, pure street skating remains a true measure of skill and vision. As pro skateboarder John Rattray shared in a Nike SB interview, “It’s been gamechanging for me to learn how and why the actual movement of skateboarding helps us to neurologically regulate.”

Skateboarding culture highlights the inherent adolescent tension between wanting to be an individual and wanting to belong to a group. It’s a brand of cognitive dissonance emphasized in the still-growing pubescent brain that peaks with the rapid growth and nagging confusion of young adulthood. Miki Vuckovich, a photographer and fixture in the skateboarding industry, once told me, “Skateboarding is a rebellion. It’s a sport, an activity, a lifestyle adopted primarily by adolescents, and as an individualistic activity, it gives participants a

sense of independence. It sets them apart from others who don’t skate, and their own particular approach to skateboarding further differentiates them from their skating peers.”

I liken it to the notion that when different innovations and situations exist in your world, your brain changes. New knowledge and new tools physically and chemically alter the makeup of what’s in your head — our brains are different when different inventions come to be. That is, we have different thoughts and dreams after certain ideas and innovations seep into our world. We simply see things through a new lens.

According to Raphaël Zarka’s On a Day with No Waves, riding a skateboard changes how one sees the world generally and the built environment specifically. Where most see streets, sidewalks, curbs, walls and handrails, skateboarders see a veritable playground of ramps and obstacles to be manipulated and overcome in the name of fun. Hills are for speed. Edges are for grinding or sliding. Anything else is for jumping onto or over. Looking through this lens, all one sees are lines to follow and lines to cross. It’s a familiar story to skateboarders, the before and after, because skateboarding redefines everyone who does it as well as the way they see and interact with the world around them.

DID YOU KNOW? / Professional skateboarder Brandon Turner founded Westside Recovery in San Diego, California, which uses skateboarding as part of its therapy and recovery programming to help people overcome addiction and support mental health. Learn more at westsiderecoverysd.com.

READ On a Day with No Waves. A Chronicle of Skateboarding 1779-2009 by Raphaël Zarka for an academic study of skateboarding historyc

READ Palm Angels by photographer Francesco Ragazzi for a definitive look at the fashion, feel and culture of the L.A. skateboarding scenec

READ California Concrete: A Landscape of Skateparks by artist Amir Zaki and find professional skateboarder Tony Hawk’s essay contribution “From Carving to Flying,” where he shares childhood memories of seeing skaters fly in and out of concrete pools and bowls for the first timec

A New Lens on Life

Since the 1980s, skateboarding has been on the leading edge of many aspects of our mediated lifestyles. Documenting feats and falls, skateboarders were ahead of the endless reality show of social media wherein every moment is captured and shared at its peak. Here are a few monuments to skateboarding media.

THE SEARCH FOR ANIMAL CHIN (Bones Brigade, 1987) Though it wasn’t their first video, and they went on to much larger fame, the Bones Brigade peaked out the possibilities of skateboarding home video with The Search for Animal Chin. Two years before, they’d exploded into the thennew home video market with Future Primitive, but The Search for Animal Chin was so much more. Perhaps it hasn’t aged well with its thin plot and acting as wooden as the skateboards, but it remains a landmark in skate video.

SHACKLE ME NOT (H-Street, 1988) While other companies were trying to make bigbudget productions, Mike Ternasky and Tony Magnusson collected street footage with the recently affordable camcorder. Their approach mirrored the rider-owned spirit of the time and cleared the way for the DIY skate videos of the 1990s.

VIDEO DAYS (Blind, 1991) Directed by Spike Jonze and starring Mark Gonzales, one of skateboarding’s most creative duos, Video Days sports skits and low-budget but effective cinematic tricks, hinting at Jonze’s future in feature filmmaking and further skate video innovations (e.g., Yeah Right!, Fully Flared and Pretty Sweet) as well as the street skills of a preHollywood Jason Lee.

MEMORY SCREEN

(Alien Workshop, 1991)

Edited by Chris Carter on a pre-digital rented mechanical video editor, Memory Screen is credited with launching the Alien Workshop brand and inspiring Harmony Korine’s 1997 film Gummo. Where every other company released skate clips loosely set to music, Memory Screen is an abstract visual feast.

FEEDBACK AND THE REASON (Transworld, 1999) At the end of the 1990s, Ty Evans and Jon Holland put together a spate of videos that capture the essence of skateboarding and goofing with your skateboarding friends. Feedback, The Reason, Modus Operandi and Videoradio, among others, made their magic by following crews of pros both on and off their boards.

MENIKMATI (eS, 2000)

Before Spike Jonze and Ty Evans brought big-movie production back to skate video, Fred Mortagne bridged the space between the grainy realness of VHS and the slick clarity of digital production. Combining the jump-cut montage style of most skate videos and the personal background of a documentary, Menikmati marked the beginning of a new decade, a new millennium, a new era.

MINDING THE GAP

Game designer Brian Schrank defines affordance mining as a way of determining a technology’s “underutilized actionable properties and developing methods of leveraging those properties.” An affordance, according to famed American psychologist James J. Gibson, is simply an object’s capacity for use, the operations or manipulations it will support. Schrank mined affordances most famously from computer keyboards, designing games that challenge the use and user of QWERTY keyboards to find new ways of interacting with the common computer. Schrank’s game Hello Zombie Mouth, for instance, involved mashing the keys on a keyboard to control a mouth as it yawns and stutters trying to say “Hello.” For the game, six regions of the keyboard were mapped, each to a phoneme. A few attempts with such a haptic puzzle quickly demonstrate the untapped potential of such everyday devices for not-soeveryday applications.

One can find the same untapped potential when applying these techniques to ourselves — internally as well as externally — as well as to skateboarding. Explained pro skater Rattray, “Skateboarding requires intense focus, even when we’re doing a trick we’ve done thousands of times, there’s a level of focus — what is the ground like, where are the cracks, how can I adjust my weight, how much speed do I need? And you do this all through the physical sensation. It forces us out of our thoughts and into our body.”

After suffering bouts of depression yet not knowing what he was experiencing, and then losing his sister to suicide, Rattray began the campaign Why So Sad? in 2017 to drive awareness, education and fundraising around mental well-being and suicide prevention in the skate community. He continued:

One of my main points of contention with this subject we call ‘mental health’ is the idea that it is somehow separate from physical health. Like it’s some different weird thing that we can’t understand or even see, so we must be afraid of it. And then the toxic idea that if we are tarred with the mental health brush, then we are done for, damaged goods, and we can’t ever heal. This is physical stuff we’re working with here. It’s neurochemicals, your endocrine system, dopamine, cortisol, adrenaline, and all the rest of it.

The reconciling of physical with mental health is paramount, realizing your own physics as a skateboarder, an athlete, a person. Fellow pro skater Nicole Hause flipped it, sharing thoughts in her Nike SB interview, “The more therapy you do, and the more time you spend with it, the more it compounds; you understand it, and it becomes easier. It’s a skill you learn like skateboarding.”

Learning to work through what Hause calls “stuck points,” like you’re trying to kickflip down some stairs or grind a long ledge, is a personal triumph, appropriating the affordances of your own mind in similar ways to that of skateboarding the streets.

“Skateboarders, particularly adolescents, seek identity,” added photographer Vuckovich. “They want to be a part of a community that reflects what they’re feeling or how they see the world.”

Skateboarding changes the world by changing the mind. Skateboarding works constantly against the limitations of the built environment. Skateboarding is where the predictions of design and the desires of humans diverge. Skateboarding is where the body and the brain move together to overcome obstacles. Repurposing terrain made for other things and remolding the mind in the process, skateboarding is a reinterpretation of the affordances of the world. l

RESEARCH England’s Flo Skatepark and Instinct Laboratory. In 2020, the two conducted a small research study together that found a “striking correlation between people who skateboard and their improved mental health”c

“When they engage with this concrete architecture, the skaters immediately find themselves confronted with the hazards of solitude. Despite a powerful feeling of belonging, they must battle first and foremost against themselves to strengthen their resolve, overcome pain, achieve greater heights and face the void. Amid the screeching of wheels and the clanging of axles, each ramp functions like an altar in the celebration of a pagan liturgy. Again and again … It is always after succession of aborted attempts that the Way becomes clear.”

—

JOËL VACHERON, CONTRIBUTOR, PALM ANGELS

About the Board

Disparaged by pedestrians, police and business owners, skateboarders have long reinterpreted the urban landscape with style, grace and aggression. Their instrument of choice, their skateboard, is a humble object of plywood, plastic and metal. A 2-by-4 with roller skates nailed to the bottom, in the 1950s the skateboard was adapted to emulate surfing. The metal rollerskate wheels of the 1950s gave way to the clay wheels of the 1960s, expanding the scope of skateboard maneuvers. Finally, the urethane of the 1970s gave skateboarders the adaptable and durable wheels needed to take on any terrain. Here's a top 5 “innovations in skateboarding.” according to skateboardingmagazine.com.

1 WHEELS

In the 1960s, manufacturers started producing boards with clay wheels, replacing the lumbering metal variations. Then came the polymers. Polyurethane wheels were tough, with good traction and better shock absorption than metal or ceramic.

2 DESIGN

Larry Stevenson invented the kicktail on a skateboard deck, basically an upturned back end that provided a higher level of control over the board. This allowed for a wider range of tricks and a way to “brake.” In 1969, Stevenson patented his double kicktail.

3 THRUST

In 1975, Road Rider introduced the first skateboard wheel to use precision bearings versus loose ball bearings. This equated to cleaner, smoother, more durable bearings and a faster, smoother, more stable ride.

4 FOOTWEAR

In the 1970s, Vans put its wafflecup diamond show pattern on skateboarding shoes, providing superior gripping and foot protection technology with its signature rubber.

5 TRUCKS

The roller skate trucks of the 1950s and ‘60s did not give skaters any turn radius, stability, control or speed. In 1973, Ronald Bennett introduced skateboarders to the Bennett Truck (below left), which gave them the ability to turn and have better control of their skateboards because they could adjust the tension on the bushings by tightening or loosening the kingpin. By 1978, Independent Trucks (below) had an even quicker turning radius.

What do skateboarding’s legendary “professor” Paul Schmitt and industrial designers Charles and Ray Eames have in common? For one, they both built homemade presses in their bedrooms to mold plywood, although Schmitt built his in the early 1980s for skateboard decks while the Eameses’ Kazam! Machine of the early 1940s targeted seating. Despite the decades between them, they were both experimenting with bending plywood and creating complex curves to improve products in their respective disciplines.

Both skateboards and chairs benefit from the properties of plywood. Plywood is flexible — under foot or on the seat of a chair — while maintaining its strength. Plywood is lightweight, facilitating a skateboard’s airborne maneuvering as well as the shipping of furniture across distances. Plywood is also a relatively inexpensive material, well-suited to mass production — an advantage for skateboard decks as well as chairs.

The Eameses’ plywood experimentation was certainly key to their enduring legacy. Likewise, Schmitt reported to Juice Magazine in 2009 that when he began working with the material, it was important for his trajectory too: “Design-wise, I was able to do molds, bends and curves in the concave that were way ahead of the rest of the marketplace … There were doubters and believers. By the next trade show, everyone was following the trend …”

You can see the Eameses’ Molded Plywood Dining Chair, 1947-1953, in the Fully Furnished exhibition in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation as well as online in The Henry Ford’s Digital Collections.

— KATHERINE WHITE, CURATOR OF DESIGN, THE HENRY FORD

Step back into the legacy of over 150 years of American diner culture and experience an eclectic assortment of artifacts including memorabilia, scale models, furniture, fragments and a photographic history of diners at Dick Gutman, DINERMAN

THIS NEW LIMITED EDITION EXHIBITION IS ON DISPLAY IN THE COLLECTIONS GALLERY.

HENRY FORD MUSEUM OF AMERICAN INNOVATION® • THF. org/DINERMAN

Please

OFFICE STAPLE

Designed decades ago, the Aeron Chair remains a wonder of ergonomics

EVEN WHILE SEATED, PEOPLE tend to crave motion. Chairs that move — by rocking, reclining, rolling, revolving or otherwise — are often the most comfortable chairs because they respond to the body. This principle was one of many incorporated into the study of ergonomics, or the science of designing products and environments for compatibility with the human body.

In the 1960s, ergonomics began to gain traction with industrial designers. Bill Stumpf came of age as a designer during this period and became interested in ergonomics in the late 1960s while a postgraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He studied existing ergonomics research by designers as well as the work of scientists, doctors and medical researchers. Stumpf applied these scientific principles in the design of his first office chair for the Herman Miller furniture company. Called the Ergon Chair (short for ergonomic), it debuted in 1976 as the first truly ergonomic office chair.

Perhaps the best-known ergonomic office chair, the Aeron Chair, was also

designed by Stumpf in partnership with Don Chadwick. Office workers spend hours seated at a desk, mainly since the rise of personal computers, and office chairs before the 1970s often did more harm than good to their inhabitants. Stumpf and Chadwick endeavored to design an ergonomic office chair that built on the lessons they learned in developing their previous chairs, especially their Sarah Chair, which was designed for the elderly to mitigate the bodily impact of sitting for long periods.

The Aeron Chair was released in 1994 to immediate acclaim. The seat of the chair uses an elastic plastic mesh, called pellicle, to replace the foam cushions of a traditional office chair. A tilt mechanism, with adjustable components, provides opportunities for movement, even at rest.

Although the Aeron Chair turned 30 years old this year, it is still regarded as the gold standard in office chairs — its ergonomic design continuing to serve the needs of office workers around the world.

— KATHERINE WHITE, CURATOR OF DESIGN, THE HENRY FORD

MORE ERGONOMIC EXAMPLES

Ergon

In developing the Ergon Chair, one of Bill Stumpf’s guiding principles was “a chair should be perceived as comfortable before, during and after sitting upon it.” Through plush, fabric-covered foam, a tilt mechanism and 360-degree rollability, the chair signaled comfort at each moment.

Metaform

Ergonomics extends beyond chairs. Herman Miller’s unrealized Metaform project of the late 1980s aimed to create ergonomic environments to help elderly people age in place.

ONLINE View 24 artifacts that showcase the research and prototyping that led to the distinctive Aeron Chair in The Henry Ford’s expert set “Designing Aeron”c

WATCH Curator of Decorative Arts Charles Sable’s Connect3 video to learn how the Aeron Task Chair, Samuel Gragg’s Elastic Chair and the Centripetal Spring Chair are connectedc

bDesigners Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf studied human sitting habits to create Herman Miller’s groundbreaking Aeron Task Chair. One of the last in a series of experimental prototypes, this 1994 version, which is on display in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation’s Fully Furnished exhibition, incorporates the distinctive skeletal appearance that exemplified the production Aeron introduced later that year.

BY EE BERGER

PHOTO

MASTERPIECE OF MOTION

Our carousel exposed: a simple mechanism with lots of pizzazz

FULL DISCLOSURE: THE HERSCHELLSPILLMAN CAROUSEL has been featured in this magazine before, whether we were speaking to its history, kaleidoscope of whimsical animals or overall fun factor for visitors in Greenfield Village. We’ve also had several The Henry Ford members share in our Member Spotlight (see Page 80) how it’s one of their favorite experiences.

In this issue, we examine what’s at the heart of the carousel — the inner workings that keep the ride in motion and the staff that maintains its motor, gears and bearings so thousands of visitors can go round and round and up and down each year.

Today, a 10-horsepower electric motor runs the carousel. In 1913 when the ride was built, it was likely run by an early Westinghouse electric motor, said Jacob Hildebrandt, manager, historic operating machinery. A fairly simple machine, the carousel’s motor turns a vertical drive shaft that runs up to the crown of the ride. The rotation of that shaft then rotates a large ring gear at the top that turns the carousel round.

“It’s like twirling an umbrella,” said Hildebrandt. “All the power comes from the middle and spreads out.”

Also radiating from the middle are smaller crankshafts with bevel gears, which is what the carousel’s moving animals hang from. The rotation of these shafts and gears — and therefore the up-and-down motion of the animals — is powered by the carousel’s spin.

Marc Greuther, vice president, historical resources and chief curator, who has intimate knowledge of the underbelly of the carousel, likens the transfer of power from a shaft on a vertical axis to a set of undulating animals on a platform as “a quiet masterpiece of motion.”

To keep this masterpiece in motion, Hildebrandt, one other full-time employee and a part-time staffer are on-site daily climbing about the ride lubricating its gears and fittings. “Functionally, the grease we use is one of the most modern things about the carousel today,” he said.

The carousel is equipped with highly durable babbitt-style bearings, added Hildebrandt, rather than the now more common ball bearings. In the early days, these bearings and the carousel’s gears would have been lubricated with a lessviscous oil, which is much messier and ephemeral than the grease now used — which “sticks to everything,” said Hildebrandt.

While some of the carousel’s larger gears have worn and been replaced over the years, for the most part its internal hardware remains original. “It’s a fairly straightforward mechanism underneath the skin,” said Greuther. “An application of very, very practical machinery that’s the result of innovation and applications in industry.”

— JENNIFER LAFORCE, MANAGING EDITOR, THE HENRY FORD MAGAZINE

COUNTS OF THE CAROUSEL

15 bevel gears

1 spur gear

1 ring gear

1 10-horsepower motor

32 jumping animals

8 stationary animals

1 rocking seat

3 seats

1 40-foot platform

48 riders per ride

220,419 total riders in 2023

7 pounds of grease per year +

87 points lubricated each week

4,500 imaginary number of miles the carousel’s hop-toad “hopped” in 2023 (that’s the distance from Dearborn, Michigan, to Vienna, Austria)

DID YOU KNOW? / The Herschell-Spillman Carousel’s electric motor is connected to a gearbox with an electric brake and torque converter similar to a vehicle so the motor can run before the carousel begins to spin, avoiding jerky, sudden movements. The brake can bring the ride to a complete stop within two revolutions.

bEach week, Jacob Hildebrandt, manager, historic operating machinery, climbs atop Greenfield Village’s Herschell-Spillman Carousel to properly lubricate its gears and fittings. During the season, The Henry Ford staff also do daily safety inspections of the carousel, listening for squeaks and grinding noises, inspecting for loose boards and bolts, putting pressure on every animal and many other checks.

PHOTO BY EE BERGER

INDUSTRY EVOLUTION

2024 marks two milestone anniversaries for the Ford Rouge Complex

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, in 1924, Henry Ford opened the massive Ford Rouge Complex for the public to see and experience the manufacturing process. By 1936, a memorable phase of Rouge tours began. The Ford Rotunda — originally designed for the 1934 World’s Fair — reopened as a visitor center and starting point for tourgoers who boarded glass-roofed buses to see the massive complex. Some of today’s guests still remember walking through the steel operations plant.

After a 1962 fire destroyed the Rotunda, Ford Motor Company opened a building called the Spirit of Ford directly across from Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and bused tour attendees from there to the Rouge. In the early ’80s, Ford stopped offering factory tours for various reasons.

In the late ’90s, Bill Ford, then chairman of Ford’s board, began to reimagine a Rouge Complex of the future. He brought on architect and designer William McDonough to help make the Rouge more efficient and sustainable. Together, they envisioned a site that could become

a model of industrial production and environmental redesign. The complex saw many transformations — including new approaches to stormwater management, landscaping, waste minimalization and lighting, as well as the creation of one of the world’s largest “living roofs.”

With this redevelopment came the opportunity to build a visitor center and reopen the factory to the public. The visitor center project came to life through a collaboration between Ford Motor Company, The Henry Ford and UAW Local 600.

Twenty years ago, on May 3, 2004, the Rouge reopened to the public, this time with tours managed by The Henry Ford. Today, Ford Rouge Factory Tour guests are bused from Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation to be immersed in the past, present and future of American manufacturing as they get an inside look at where the Ford F-150 is assembled.

Since 2004, the Ford Rouge Factory Tour has welcomed more than 2 million guests from all over the world.

— PAIGE GILBERT, SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER, THE HENRY FORD

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN Ford Motor Company turned to architect and designer William McDonough to revitalize the Rouge Complex. A leader in sustainable design, McDonough’s constructions incorporate nature, daylight, fresh air, life and creativity. You can watch an extended interview on THF.org to learn about McDonough’s design philosophies, key projects including the Rouge redesign, and hopes for an “environmentally intelligent” future.

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

ONLINE The Henry Ford’s Digital Collections includes several Ford Rouge Plant souvenir brochures spanning decades. Explore the Ford Rouge Plant of the past in this souvenir brochure from 1935c

DID YOU KNOW? / Ford Motor Company, The Henry Ford and UAW Local 600 marked the 20th anniversary of the reimagined Ford Rouge Factory Tour on May 3, 2024, with a private celebratory gathering of core current and retired tour “champions.” Said Cynthia Jones, director of museum experiences & engagement at The Henry Ford, of the event: “This tour, the stories we share and the information students receive about great careers in manufacturing is only possible through powerful collaboration.”

bMillions of people have taken different tour iterations of the Ford Rouge Complex (seen here circa 1955) since Henry Ford first opened it to the public 100 years ago in 1924.

PHOTO FROM THE HENRY FORD ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

MOVING BOLDLY

Dancer Martha Graham was formidable

in her work, art and life

BORN IN ALLEGHENY, PENNSYLVANIA, in 1894, Martha Graham first became captivated by dance when, at 17 years old, she saw Ruth St. Denis — known even then as a pioneer for drawing influence from Asian dance forms — perform in Los Angeles. In 1916, Graham joined the Denishawn dance troupe (co-founded by St. Denis and her then-husband and dance partner, Ted Shawn), and began a performance career that would continue until her retirement from the stage at age 74.

In 1926, Graham founded the Martha Graham Dance Company with herself as principal choreographer. Her work would come to define modern dance, with her technique creating the first teachable methodology. Eschewing the delicate, airy aesthetic of traditional ballet, Graham’s choreography was grounded, focusing on the contraction and release of the body, originating in the solar plexus. Sharp, sometimes harsh movements, interrupted by moments of spiraling fluidity, were used to convey an emotional reality in each performance. Early in 2024, The Henry Ford acquired five color slides documenting the creative

collaboration between Graham and designer Isamu Noguchi. Noguchi designed sets for over 20 of the company’s performances (including Graham’s most notable work, Appalachian Spring), his spare but innovative designs pairing perfectly with Graham’s choreographic style. The images capture dancers in action among Noguchi’s set pieces, evoking the energy and reality of the performances in a way that programs or other ephemera would not.

Martha Graham’s importance lies not just in her choreography; the same thread of boldness ran throughout her life. Years after her death in 1991, she is remembered for her forceful personality — she was known for pushing herself and those around her, inspiring in many an intense devotion to her and her teachings — and her unflinching commitment to telling feminist stories through her works, which often included unvarnished depictions of female power and sexuality.

Collecting her work — even in the smallest of images — allows The Henry Ford to explore more of Graham’s dynamic story.

— RACHEL YERKE-OSGOOD, ASSOCIATE CURATOR, THE HENRY FORD

ISAMU NOGUCHI

Martha Graham shared what she called “an unspoken language” with Japanese American designer Isamu Noguchi. In addition to his work with Graham, Noguchi spent six decades working in product and furniture design, lighting, sculpture and landscape architecture. His work was known for blending the traditions of Japanese culture with abstract modernism, evoking an element of the sculptural in everything he touched — from baby monitors to public parks, including Detroit’s Hart Plaza. Learn about Isamu Noguchi and how his work is represented in the collections of The Henry Ford.

DID YOU KNOW? /

The Henry Ford also acquired a first edition of Martha Graham’s autobiography, Blood Memory: An Autobiography.

Learn more about the New York-based Martha Graham School, the oldest professional school of dance in the United States and the only school primarily focused on the Martha Graham technique and repertoryc

NOGUCHI TABLE FROM THE HENRY FORD ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

BY EE BERGER

dIn 2024, The Henry Ford acquired five slides that showcase the collaboration between visionary choreographer Martha Graham and celebrated Japanese American designer Isamu Noguchi. Included are images from performances of (clockwise from bottom) Acrobats of God (1960), Seraphic Dialogue (1955) and Frontier (1935).

PHOTO

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

WHAT’S YOUR SPARK?

For member Shannon Moore, The Henry Ford is a generational family tradition

SHANNON AND HER SISTER ASHLEY began their fascination with The Henry Ford during elementary school field trips. Years before, their mother, Patricia, and Aunt Marlene formed their relationship with the institution in much the same way. Now, Shannon watches as her 6-year-old nephew Dru experiences exhibitions and events such as the recent PAW Patrol: Adventure Play in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Day Out With Thomas™ in Greenfield Village. He now adores The Henry Ford as much as the rest of his family. For this group, warm summer afternoons in Greenfield Village almost always conclude with a creamy frozen custard and a listen as the Sir John Bennett clock chimes. Winter evenings culminate at special events like Holiday Nights, a now-treasured family tradition, where “the village comes alive with Christmas,” shared Shannon. The real reward of The Henry Ford, she added, “no matter the season, activity or event, is the time spent together — priceless.”

NAME:

Shannon Moore

NUMBER OF YEARS AS A MEMBER:

MUST-DO EVENT:

The 1760s Daggett Farmhouse in Greenfield Village’s Porches & Parlors district to see the farm’s daily activities

FAVORITE

MEMBER PERKS:

Unlimited access to

The Henry Ford, early ticket sales to special events and exhibitions, and the new Member Shopping Night — ”We were able to get started on our shopping for the holidays.”

— Shannon Moore

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

aShannon Moore (left) with her nephew Dru and sister Ashley

PHOTO BY EE BERGER

2024 EVENTS

LIMITED-ENGAGEMENT EXHIBITIONS ARE FREE FOR MEMBERS AND INCLUDED WITH MUSEUM ADMISSION

HENRY FORD MUSEUM OF AMERICAN INNOVATION, THE GALLERY BY GENERAL MOTORS

Dinosaurs in Motion

Open: Through Sept. 8

The Henry Ford’s newest exhibition is equal parts delight, development and dinosaurs. Experience prehistoric animals like you’ve never seen before at Dinosaurs in Motion, where you can move or engage with 16 life-size metal dinosaurs. Delight your family by making a T. rex’s jaw open and chomp by using levers and pulleys, or make a Plesiosaur swim using a touch screen controller. Go beyond the limits of natural history and meet these metal dinosaurs inspired by real fossils and built using recycled materials. This limited-engagement exhibition is designed to be highly interactive.

Discover the art and science on display in Dinosaurs in Motion, including sketching, metalworking, biomechanics, kinetics and the robotics that breathe life into these sculptures. Explore how your favorite dinosaurs lived and moved, including Ouranosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Diplodocus and many more. Get hands-on with innovation and have fun with this fascinating mix of engineering and sculpture.

The dinosaurs are the work of sculptor John Payne of Asheville, North Carolina, who wanted not just to create scientifically accurate sculptures of dinosaurs, but also to infuse them with kinetics and creativity. He enlisted the help of paleontologist Dr. Mark Norell to confirm the authenticity of the sculptures’ biomechanics. Watch videos about Payne’s artistic vision throughout the exhibition.

ONLINE To learn more about all upcoming exhibits, visit THF.dinosaursc

HOCKEY: FASTER THAN EVER IS AN EXHIBITION PRODUCED AND TOURED INTERNATIONALLY BY FLYING FISH IN COLLABORATION WITH THE MONTRÉAL SCIENCE CENTRE AND SUPPORTED BY THE © NHL AND THE © NHLPA.

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.

Other Premier Exhibitions + Events

HENRY FORD MUSEUM OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

Dick Gutman, DINERMAN

Open: Through March 16, 2025

A carefully curated selection of The Henry Ford’s Richard J.S. Gutman diner collection is now on display in the museum’s Collections Gallery. See photographs, menus, printed matter, rare business ephemera and other curiosities, including furnishings and tile fragments salvaged from endangered or now-demolished diners.

ONLINE To learn more, visit THF.org/dinermanc

READ Dick Gutman’s own words about the origins of his diner collection in the winter/spring 2024 issue of The Henry Ford Magazinec

HENRY FORD MUSEUM OF AMERICAN INNOVATION

HOCKEY: Faster Than Ever

Member Preview: Oct. 11-12

Open: Oct. 13-Jan. 5, 2025

HOCKEY: Faster Than Ever takes you on an exciting journey through the evolution of ice hockey, showcasing the remarkable technical advancements and scientific breakthroughs that have shaped the sport over time. From cutting-edge technologies to the physics of play, the exhibition will leave you amazed by the fusion of science and sport.

Test your skills and knowledge like true hockey pros with a variety of exciting interactives. You can also snap a selfie with a real ice resurfacer and explore displays showcasing the evolution of skates and gear from the 19th and 20th centuries.

In the hockey Science Lab, unleash your inner hockey player through hands-on challenges in a replica rink. This exhibition also features an impressive locker room outfitted with jerseys and more from NHL star players.

ONLINE To learn more, visit THF.org/hockeyc

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.

OVERNIGHT VACATION PACKAGES

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

Our partners offer great overnight rates, plus exclusive discounts of 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.

LIMITED SERVICE

COMFORT INN NEAR GREENFIELD VILLAGE

20061 Michigan Ave. Dearborn, MI 48124

313.380.3146

choicehotels.com/ michigan/dearborn/ comfort-inn-hotels/mi385

Location: Dearborn

Drive time*: 4

Sleeping rooms: 116

Pool: Indoor

Pets: No

Meeting rooms: 1

Meeting space (sq. ft): 250

SEE AD ON PAGE 88

LIMITED SERVICE

HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS & SUITES ALLEN PARK

9000 Enterprise Drive, Allen Park MI 48101

313.383.9790

Ihg.com

Location: Allen Park Drive time*: 10

Sleeping rooms: 106

Pool: Indoor

Pets: No

Meeting rooms: Yes

Meeting space (sq. ft): Varies

SEE AD ON PAGE 95

LIMITED SERVICE COMFORT SUITES SOUTHGATE

18950 Northline Road Southgate, MI 48195

734.287.9200 comfortsuitessouthgate.com

Location: Downriver (I-75 corridor)

Drive time*: 15

Sleeping rooms: 78

Pool: Indoor

Pets: No

Meeting rooms: 1 (50)

SEE AD ON PAGE 90

LIMITED SERVICE THE LEO COLLECTION DETROIT, ASCEND HOTEL COLLECTION 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 95

BEST WESTERN

GREENFIELD INN

3000 Enterprise Drive

Allen Park, MI 48101

313.271.1600 bestwestern.com

Location:

Dearborn (I-94 corridor)

Drive time*: 10

Sleeping rooms: 209

Pool: Indoor

Pets: Yes

Meeting rooms: 4

Meeting space (sq. ft): 1,047

SEE AD ON PAGE 88

WESTIN BOOK

CADILLAC

1114 Washington Blvd. Detroit, MI 48226

313.442.1600 marriott.com/dtwcw

Location: Detroit

Drive time*: 18

Sleeping rooms: 453

Pool: Yes

Pets: Yes

Meeting rooms: Yes

Meeting space (sq. ft):

Varies, with the largest 7,830

SEE AD ON PAGE 92

SERVICE

THE HENRY, AN AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION

300 Town Center Drive

Dearborn, MI 48126

313.441.2000 behenry.com

Location: Dearborn

Drive time*: 5

Sleeping rooms: 308

Pool: Yes

Pets: Yes

Meeting rooms: Yes

Meeting space (sq. ft):

Varies, with the largest 12,642

SEE AD ON PAGE 89

24555 Michigan Ave.

Dearborn, MI 48124

313.562.8900

choicehotels.com

Location: Dearborn

Drive time*: 4

Sleeping rooms: 100

Pool: Yes

Pets: No

Meeting rooms: Yes

Meeting space (sq. ft): 1080

LIMITED SERVICE COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT DEARBORN 5200 Mercury Drive Dearborn, MI 48126

313.271.1400 dearborncourtyard.com

Location: Dearborn Drive time*: 10

Sleeping rooms: 147

Pool: Indoor

Pets: No

Meeting rooms: 2

Meeting space (sq. ft): 1,274

SEE AD ON PAGE 91

SEE AD ON PAGE 89

SERVICE HAMPTON INN DEARBORN

22324 Michigan Ave.

Dearborn, MI 48124

313.562.0000 hilton.com

Location: Dearborn

Drive time*: 4

Sleeping rooms: 102

Pool: Yes

Pets: No

Meeting rooms: Yes

SEE AD ON PAGE 93 LIMITED SERVICE COUNTRY INN & SUITES BY RADISSON DEARBORN

Meeting space (sq. ft): Varies

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 where innovation sets the stage for unforgettable experiences. From 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:

• Henr y Ford Museum of American Innovation®

• Greenfield Village®

• Lovett Hall

• Ford Rouge Factor y Tour

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

• Free Hot Breakfast

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

• Free Wi-Fi

• Heated Indoor Pool and Fitness Center

• Complimentary Business Center

• All Rooms Have Refrigerators and Microwaves

• Irons and Hair Dryers

• Conveniently Located Just Minutes From The Henry Ford

GREENFIELD INN

• Featuring O’Henry’s Restaurant and Squire’s Pub

• Large indoor pool, whirlpool, sauna and fitness center

• AAA 3-diamond rating!

• Complimentary shuttle to and from The Henry Ford

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

• Group rates and specialized group menus available

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

• Enjoy our 600+ automotive print gallery

• TRIA

• Discount

• Close

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.

Redefine Your Detroit Experience

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.

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

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

• Indoor heated swimming pool

• Free business center

• Free internet/Wi-Fi access in every room

• Gym/fitness center

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

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. Take a step inside our boutique hotel.

A LOOK BACK

ONLINE Explore more adventures with the Jolly Jump-Ups on the farm in The Henry Ford’s Digital Collectionsc

ONLINE See other movable and pop-up books in The Henry Ford’s Digital Collectionsc

The Jolly Jump-Ups on the Farm, 1940

Books in motion. Authors, artists, designers and paper engineers have added motion and threedimensional depth to the flat pages of books for hundreds of years. Their ingenious use of revolving discs, flaps, folds, tabs and other devices creates elements that move, change or rise from the page. This innovative rethinking of the two-dimensional pages of a book entices children and adults into a world of learning and discovery.

Geraldine Clyne and her husband created the Jolly Jump-Up series of pop-up books from the late 1930s into the 1950s. The series follows the adventures of the Jump-Up family as they move into a new house, take a family vacation, go to the zoo and the circus, or spend an idyllic summer on the farm.

— ANDY STUPPERICH, ASSOCIATE CURATOR, THE HENRY FORD

MAGAZINE

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