Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, Michigan

Henry Ford was likely the largest collector of “Americana” ever, and much of his collection is presented in the Henry Ford Museum, located near the Ford Company headquarters in Dearborn. The indoor and outdoor museum includes Greenfield Village, which is a collection of relocated and reconstructed historical buildings.  The indoor museum has an exhibit hall that covers more than 500,000 square feet. Inside is an area called the Museum of American Innovation, which has a mind-boggling collection of artifacts, from a rare example of Dymaxion House, built by Buckminster Fuller, to the chair Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot. On display is a lot of machinery, and, of course, vehicles, including an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, and the car president Kennedy was in when he was killed. Outside, in the 90 developed acres of Greenfield Village, the collection of buildings includes the Wright Brothers bicycle shop (brought from Dayton, Ohio), a replica of the demolished Menlo Park lab of Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford’s birthplace, relocated to the Village from where it was when he was born, a few miles away. The museum and Greenfield Village is one of the largest and most important museums of America, in America.