MUSEUM

We recently had an opportunity to visit the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village which were founded by Henry Ford in 1929 as The Edison Institute, an independent foundation, and are located in Dearborn, Michigan, near Detroit. This is an extraordinary display of technology and human achievement in the United States. It is even better than those in Washington, DC.

The museum covers about 100 acres and includes extensive sections on most aspects of technology from pioneer days through the present, both in the context of science and engineering and of ordinary American life. There is special emphasis on the inventions involving steam and electric energy which were the foundation of the American Industrial Revolution.

Although the museum contains original models of an amazing array of inventions and the improved models that followed them, it is never boring or tiresome. The displays are beautifully designed to capture and hold the attention of visitors in all age groups especially children. What most museums attempt, this museum actually achieves. Many of the exhibits of original technology are actually operating independently or being demonstrated by museum staff.

Moreover, this fascinating 100-acre exhibit is occasionally punctuated by remarkable special items - the automobiles in which President Reagan narrowly escaped death and President Kennedy did not; the chair in which President Lincoln was shot along with the theatre program he was holding; President Washington's camp chest and equipment such as his bed and eating utensils used during the war for independence; the Wright brother's home and shop in which they built their first airplane; and the entire six buildings of Thomas Edison's Menlo Park laboratory completely equipped and in operating condition along with his working models for patent applications.

Personal depth is extensive, for example, in the displays of the actual homes or birthplaces of educator William McGuffey, Luther Burbank, Stephen Foster, Noah Webster, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and many other remarkable Americans.

This celebration of American science, technology, and free enterprise is a great physical display of the principles and accomplishments which Access to Energy seeks to protect and promote. It is the essence of everything our enemies hate.

Well worth a special two-day trip to Detroit, I doubt that most readers of Access to Energy can get through all of these displays of technological accomplishment without tears in their eyes.

•	Optimism vs. Pessimism
•	*MUSEUM*
•	ENERGY
•	FREE RADICALS
•	MORE FREE RADICALS
•	ADVANCED PLACEMENT
•	AMERICAN TEACHER
•	STARK RAVING MAD
•	GOOD READING

Vol. 22, No. 2

Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
Volume: Issues
Issue/No.: Vol. 22, No. 2

Date: November 01, 1994 02:19 PM
Title: Optimism vs. Pessimism