Incredible Ingenuity: Discover Innovation and History at The Henry Ford Museum

While visiting the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village as a child, Cynthia Jones felt transported through U.S. history.

“It was like walking into a time machine,” recalls Jones, now the director of museum experiences and exhibitions at the Henry Ford — which includes both attractions — in Dearborn, Michigan.

At the 9-acre indoor innovation museum, see seminal national artifacts like a rare early copy of the Declaration of Independence — one of 50 known copies from the 1820s — the presidential limousine John F. Kennedy was riding in when he was assassinated in 1963, the rocking chair President Abraham Lincoln sat in when he was assassinated in 1865 and the bus on which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in 1955.

“The story that we tell goes far beyond Rosa Parks — it really talks about the Montgomery bus boycott and the fact that people working together are the engine of change,” says Jones of the latter artifact. “When we think about innovation, we think about it both as technical or technological innovation, but also social innovation.”

Rare vehicles include the first car Henry Ford ever built: the quadricycle. It is made of bicycle tires, a tiller and more. Ford built it in 1896 while he was an engineer for Thomas Edison. “It’s very experimental and the only car of its kind,” she says. Plus, view a 1931 luxury Bugatti Type 41 Royale Convertible, a circa 1940 Texaco “Fire Chief” gas pump and more.

Don’t miss the “Driven to Win: Racing in America” exhibit, with 22 cars, including the Goldenrod, a long, skinny 1965 car that held the land speed record for decades. There are six racing simulators, as well as a hands-on pit crew experience on weekends. Enjoy a multisensory theater showing a film that follows five racers, including NASCAR driver Josef Newgarden.

“When they rev the engines, you feel the engines,” Jones says. “When you’re racing down the track or you’re setting a land speed record, you feel the wind.”

Step inside the Dymaxion aluminum round dome home by architect R. Buckminster Fuller. “It’s a home that hangs off a single, central mass point,” says Jones, adding that Fuller only made two and that it laid the groundwork for similar ideas. “Modular homes or mobile homes — they became popular after this.”

See rotating exhibits as well, including “DaVinci: The Exhibition,” featuring drawings detailing his innovations, model inventions and real-size replicas of his paintings through May 3. From March 21 through Jan. 18, 2027, experience “Handmade: The Crafting of America” featuring 100 artifacts from the 1700s through today — including 1800s pottery by free Black ceramicist Thomas Commeraw and a 2023 Jean-Marcel St. Jacques wooden quilt made out of remnants of a home destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Look out for the “Fabric of America” exhibit, featuring over 500 artifacts, from June 7 to Sept. 13. From July 9 to 26, witness the “Documents That Forged the Nation” exhibit, highlighting original founding 1700s documents, including an early Constitution copy and more rare pieces from the National Archives in honor of America’s 250th anniversary.

Greenfield Village opens April 11. Starting the week of June 9, tour a home that’s arriving from Selma, Alabama, where Martin Luther King Jr. stayed. It joins a campus of over 80 historic structures Ford had moved to Greenfield Village, including the Wright Brothers’ home and workshop. Don’t miss a rare Model T ride.

“You’re going to learn something. You’re going to be impressed,” Jones says. “You’re going to have a great conversation.” //KP

20900 Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn, Michigan, 313-982-6001, thehenryford.org