Photographic Vertical File Series
The Photographic vertical file series is an assembled collection of photographs from a variety of sources. The series contains both original photographs and copy photographs, covering a wide range of topics.
Scope and Content Note
This assembled collection consists of the most often used images relating to Henry Ford and Ford Motor Company. Started in the 1950s, these photoprints were gathered from larger photograph accessions (particularly Accessions 188, 189 and 833) and from...
MoreThis assembled collection consists of the most often used images relating to Henry Ford and Ford Motor Company. Started in the 1950s, these photoprints were gathered from larger photograph accessions (particularly Accessions 188, 189 and 833) and from miscellaneous sources. In many ways this collection forms a synopsis of the larger Henry Ford / Ford Motor Company photographic accessions. This file contains vintage as well as copy photoprints.
Topics covered include an encyclopedic range of subjects concerning Henry Ford and his family from 1890 to 1955; a broad selection of Ford Motor Company products, buildings, activities, and subsidiaries from 1903 to 1955; and a sampling of automotive industry images other than Ford Motor Company (for views of automobiles other than Ford products see Accession 1671). This collection reflects Henry Ford's wide interests, and includes images of famous people such as actors, authors, kings, and scientists as well as his personal friends, John Burroughs, Harvey Firestone, and George Washington Carver (for Thomas Edison images see also Accession 1630). Henry Ford's interest in historic preservation at Botsford Inn and Wayside Inn also is covered (for images of Henry Ford Museum AND Greenfield Village see also Accession EI 1929).
Some cities and towns are documented in this collection, particularly where Henry Ford's Village Industries, farms and homes were located and the sites of Ford Motor Company plants and branches. Michigan is particularly well represented because of the company headquarters in Detroit and Dearborn. Reflecting the activity of the Ford Archives in the 1950s many views of automobiles on city streets, country roads, and camping from the early decades of this century are part of this collection, gathered for Ford Motor Company's 50th anniversary advertising campaign, "The American Road."
Additional topics include automobile exhibitions, Stout and Ford Tri-Motor airplanes, Ford Tractors and World War I and II defense production. Copy photoprints of graphics such as company advertisements and documents are also in the collection (for the original artifacts see Accession 19 for advertisements, and Accession 1, Accession 62, Accession 285, and other manuscript collections for the documents).
The original subject arrangement was based on an idiosyncratic set of subject headings developed for use with the Ford manuscript collections. Beginning in 1986, the subject terms were changed to reflect Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division standards for subject arrangement. In 1987, a large portion of the photoprints in this collection was cataloged in The Henry Ford's collection management system with a concomitant videodisc made of the images.
The accession was previously known as the Archives Print Collection, the Reference Photofile, the Aircraft Subject Boxes, the Automotive Addendum, and the A Series Prints by Subject.
LessCollection Details
Object ID: 84.1.1660.0
Creator: Ford Motor Company. Archives
Creator Notes: Created by Ford Motor Company Archives
Inclusive Dates: 1890-1980
Size: 53.33 linear ft.
Language: English
Collection Access & Use
Item Location: Benson Ford Research Center
Access Restrictions: The collection is open for research.
Credit: From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.
Keywords
United States, Georgia, Richmond Hill
United States, Michigan, Dearborn
United States, Michigan, Detroit
United States, Michigan, Charter Township of Ypsilanti
United States, Michigan, Charter Township of Van Buren
Hotels (Public accommodations)
Carver, George Washington, 1864?-1943
Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931
Digitized Artifacts From This Collection
In many cases, not all artifacts have been digitized.
Contact us for more information about this collection.
Garden at Fair Lane Estate, Dearborn, Michigan, June 1933
Artifact
Photographic transparency
Date Made
14 June 1933
Summary
In the early 1910s, Henry and Clara Ford selected 1300 acres of farmland in Dearborn, Michigan, as the site for a new home. They called the estate Fair Lane. Surrounded by woods, meadows, gardens, and the nature they loved, Henry and Clara found this home a peaceful respite. This image shows one of the gardens created near the house for the couple to enjoy.
Creators
Keywords
Object ID
84.1.1660.535
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.
Location
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Get more details in Digital Collections at:
Garden at Fair Lane Estate, Dearborn, Michigan, June 1933
What is The Henry Ford?
The national attraction for discovering your ingenuity while exploring America’s spirit of innovation. There is always much to see and do at The Henry Ford.
Inkster High School Senior Banquet, May 2, 1940
Artifact
Photographic print
Summary
During the Great Depression, Ford Motor Company made efforts to improve living conditions in Inkster, Michigan, a primarily Black community hit especially hard by the economic crisis. Ford built a high school, repaired homes, established a medical clinic, and opened a low-price commissary. Improvements were funded through involuntary paycheck deductions from Inkster residents employed at Ford's nearby Rouge plant.
Keywords
Object ID
84.1.1660.P.188.27534
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.
Location
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Get more details in Digital Collections at:
Inkster High School Senior Banquet, May 2, 1940
What is The Henry Ford?
The national attraction for discovering your ingenuity while exploring America’s spirit of innovation. There is always much to see and do at The Henry Ford.
Book Display at the Inkster High School Senior Banquet, May 2, 1940
Artifact
Photographic print
Summary
During the Great Depression, Ford Motor Company made efforts to improve living conditions in Inkster, Michigan, a primarily Black community hit especially hard by the economic crisis. Ford built a high school, repaired homes, established a medical clinic, and opened a low-price commissary. Improvements were funded through involuntary paycheck deductions from Inkster residents employed at Ford's nearby Rouge plant.
Keywords
Object ID
84.1.1660.P.188.27537
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.
Location
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Get more details in Digital Collections at:
Book Display at the Inkster High School Senior Banquet, May 2, 1940
What is The Henry Ford?
The national attraction for discovering your ingenuity while exploring America’s spirit of innovation. There is always much to see and do at The Henry Ford.
Henry Ford Trade School Students at Great Lakes Exposition, Cleveland, Ohio, 1936-1937
Artifact
Photographic print
Summary
Cleveland celebrated its centennial with the Great Lakes Exposition. For two summers during 1936 and 1937, over seven million visitors came through the gates. Fair officials consigned Ford and the other automobile companies to the Automotive Building -- no separate corporate buildings were constructed. Ford supplemented its vehicle displays with other exhibitions, including demonstrations by students from the Henry Ford Trade School.
Place of Creation
Keywords
Object ID
84.1.1660.P.833.66356
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.
Location
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Get more details in Digital Collections at:
Henry Ford Trade School Students at Great Lakes Exposition, Cleveland, Ohio, 1936-1937
What is The Henry Ford?
The national attraction for discovering your ingenuity while exploring America’s spirit of innovation. There is always much to see and do at The Henry Ford.
Woodward Avenue between Six and Seven Mile Roads, Detroit, Michigan, 1908
Artifact
Photographic print
Summary
Woodward Avenue between Six and Seven Mile Roads in Wayne County, Michigan, was paved in 1909, creating the country's first mile of concrete highway. This copy of a newspaper clipping shows the road's poor condition before paving. Soon, new road construction technologies improved roadways throughout the United States.
Creators
Object ID
84.1.1660.P.B.35447
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
Location
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Get more details in Digital Collections at:
Woodward Avenue between Six and Seven Mile Roads, Detroit, Michigan, 1908
What is The Henry Ford?
The national attraction for discovering your ingenuity while exploring America’s spirit of innovation. There is always much to see and do at The Henry Ford.
Autocar Type VIII Tonneau Crossing a Stream, 1903
Artifact
Photographic print
Summary
In the 1800s, horses carried Americans to places railroads and waterways did not go. The arrival of the automobile in the early 1900s brought a promise for something new -- if not better. Though the earliest cars were only accessible to the wealthy, these well-dressed women crossing a rocky stream with their chauffeur foreshadow an imminent shift in American transportation.
Creators
Keywords
Object ID
P.O.3938
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.
Location
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Get more details in Digital Collections at:
Autocar Type VIII Tonneau Crossing a Stream, 1903
What is The Henry Ford?
The national attraction for discovering your ingenuity while exploring America’s spirit of innovation. There is always much to see and do at The Henry Ford.
Detroit Opera House, Detroit, Michigan, circa 1890
Artifact
Photographic print
Summary
The first Detroit Opera House stands behind a horse-drawn streetcar at Campus Martius, a former military training ground that became the "point of origin" of Detroit's coordinate street system and site of the Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. Electric streetcar lines (note the wires strung above the streets) coexisted with horsecars in turn-of-the-ninteenth-century Detroit.
Creators
Keywords
Object ID
P.O.4337
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.
Location
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Get more details in Digital Collections at:
Detroit Opera House, Detroit, Michigan, circa 1890
What is The Henry Ford?
The national attraction for discovering your ingenuity while exploring America’s spirit of innovation. There is always much to see and do at The Henry Ford.
Glidden Tour 1908 Pathfinder Automobile and Horse-Drawn Road Oiling Tank
Artifact
Photographic print
Summary
In this 1908 photograph, the driver of the Automobile Association of America's (AAA) Official Glidden Tour Pathfinder vehicle talks to a construction worker on the back of a road-oiling tank. The AAA organized Glidden Tours from 1904 through 1913. These grueling endurance runs of several hundred miles brought attention to the poor condition of American roads.
Creators
Keywords
Object ID
P.O.19448
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.
Location
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Get more details in Digital Collections at:
Glidden Tour 1908 Pathfinder Automobile and Horse-Drawn Road Oiling Tank
What is The Henry Ford?
The national attraction for discovering your ingenuity while exploring America’s spirit of innovation. There is always much to see and do at The Henry Ford.
DT& I Railroad Crossing at Eureka Road, Wayne County, Michigan, 1924-1925
Artifact
Photographic print
Summary
One way to make a railroad crossing safer was to eliminate it altogether. Overpasses separated trains from automobiles, but they were expensive to build and required extensive regrading of either the railroad or the roadway -- and sometimes both. As a result, overpasses tended to be built only at the busiest crossings.
Creators
Object ID
P.O.3724
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.
Location
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Get more details in Digital Collections at:
DT& I Railroad Crossing at Eureka Road, Wayne County, Michigan, 1924-1925
What is The Henry Ford?
The national attraction for discovering your ingenuity while exploring America’s spirit of innovation. There is always much to see and do at The Henry Ford.
