The Henry Ford history

After Ford's death in 1947, the pace of collecting slowed and the staff struggled to fund the operation.

Full sized dream cars include Ford's X-100 50th Anniversary model from 1953, with an electric shaver and Dictaphone as standard equipment.

The museum would come to display many automobiles, including the first 1958 Edsel driven off the assembly line, a great part of auto history.

In 1966, the institution was reorganized as an independently supported educational organization.

The museum's highest attendance was over 1.7 million in 1976, sparked by the celebration of the American bicentennial.

Unfortunately, the path of auto history, which moves past cars beginning with the earliest models, ends not with a Ford or a Lincoln, but with a 1983 Honda Accord.

In 1992, the staff created a new mission statement with three key words: innovation, resourcefulness, and ingenuity – which still aligned with Henry Ford‘s original vision.

In 1997, the museum opened the Henry Ford Academy, a public charter high school, serving four hundred students from Wayne County, with classes held in the museum and the village.

Dearborn, Mich.: Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, 1999.

In 2000, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village was Michigan's leading cultural attraction with 1.6 million visitors.

The Benson Ford Research Center opened in 2002.

The museum began a massive digitization effort in 2010.

Then in in 2017 the museum accepted that it was, in fact, a museum, and renamed itself, "Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation."