July 9, Henry Ford, transportation

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As you would expect, the Henry Ford museum is heavy on transportation.

I knew that this was called "the iron horse."





When I saw this (something I don't remember ever seeing before), I had an "aHAH!" moment.

Of COURSE the first train cars would tend to look like this -- this is how people had moved themselves over long distances for centuries. And given that the engine above was pulling these, of COURSE it would be called the iron horse.......

Several of these stage-coach-like carriages were hitched behind the iron horse.....





Once people got used to the "train" concept, the shift to a more rectangular train car was fairly quick, I think. (I was so busy thinking aHAH! that I didn't read any of the explanatory materials that would have given me dates.....)

Here is something we'd think of as shaped like a train car, but how fancy! Not only with paintings of scenery, but there was gold leaf on the lettering and other decoration.





Here's something else with a lot of fancy in addition to function.





And here's one that is appealing in its minimalist functionality.





I hadn't thought about the degree to which Ford was involved in aviation.












We have had a little politics in each of these Henry Ford posts. (Speculating that Henry would not have approved......)

Last August I visited this museum, and I showed you the very bus in which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. Her action was one of the sparks of the modern equal rights movement.

The last thing we did before leaving, this time, was visit the bus again.





You may sit in Rosa's seat.







Still fitting into the "transportation" theme.

Going home from the museum, on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. We are right by Detroit Metro airport here, but the plane I was hoping for in my pic didn't materialize at the right time. One had flown over just a moment before, when the camera was turned off and stowed, alas......

I like the repeating shape of the lights, the shiny road, and the pinky-blue monochromaticity.......



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