The Henry Ford Museum (Dearborn, Michigan)

 museum, automobile museum

20900 Oakwood Blvd.
Dearborn, MI 48124-4088
(313) 982-6001
www.thehenryford.org/

The Henry Ford Museum began as Henry Ford's personal collection of historic objects, which he began collecting as far back as 1906. Today, the 12 acre (49,000 m²) site is primarily a collection of antique machinery, pop culture items, automobiles, locomotives, aircraft, and other items. Among them:

*George Washington's camp bed.
*The rocking chair from Ford's Theater in which President Abraham Lincoln was shot.
*The 1961 Lincoln Continental in which President John Kennedy was shot.
*An Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.
*Thomas Edison's alleged last breath in a sealed tube.
*The bus on which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
*A replca of Lindberg's "Spirit of St. Louis" used in the movie about the historic flight.
*A Fokker Trimotor airplane that flew the first flight over the North Pole.
*Bill Elliott's record-breaking race car clocking in at over 212 MPH at Talledega in 1987.

The Edison Institute (the official nanme for the Henry Ford Museum, and Greenfield Village) was dedicated by President Herbert Hoover to Ford's longtime friend Thomas Edison on October 21, 1929 – the 50th anniversary of the invention of the incandescent light bulb. Of the 260 people in attendance, some of the more famous were Marie Curie, George Eastman, John D. Rockefeller, Will Rogers, and Orville Wright. The dedication was carried on radio with listeners encouraged to turn off their electric lights until the switch was flipped at the Museum.