MI -- Dearborn -- The Henry Ford -- Museum -- Exhibit: Fully Furnished:
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Description of Pictures: There are many ways to look at furniture from America's past. Designers and makers may have seen it as a way to make money or perhaps as a demonstration of skill. Original owners might have used objects to show off wealth and style. Individuals who first inherited pieces may have thought them too gaudy or unfashionable. Today, owners may see an antique that connects them to America's past. In Fully Furnished, you'll see amazing examples of American furniture dating from 1670 to the present, displayed to encourage you to think of furnishings in a variety of new ways.
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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
HFMFF_160803_001.JPG: Fully Furnished
a fresh perspective on furniture
350 Years of Fashion and Function
HFMFF_160803_010.JPG: Where in the world is the.... "Turkish" Parlor Set?
HFMFF_160803_012.JPG: Portrait of Mark Twain, by Edoardo Gelli, 1904
American author and humorist Mark Twain (1835-1910), whose real name was Samuel L. Clemens commissioned this portrait during his family's extended stay in Italy. Clemens was invited to lecture at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, but was unable to attend, due to his wife's poor health. Instead, Clemens sent this portrait, which he characteristically described as "better than the original".
HFMFF_160803_017.JPG: Table, Used as a Writing Desk by Mark Twain, 1830-1860
This table belonged to Mark Twain (1835-1910), American author and humorist whose real name was Samuel L. Clemens. The author wrote at this table during the later years of his life. Twain's daughter Clara gave it to Henry Ford, along with a portrait of her father.
HFMFF_160803_020.JPG: Portable Writing Desk, Owned by Edgar Allan Poe, 1830-1849
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer known for poetry and short stories. His mystery stories were innovative in American literature. Poe's led and unsettled life traveling up and down the East Coast of the United States, staying in jobs for short periods of time. For someone who earned his living through writing, a portable desk would have been a valued possession.
HFMFF_160803_024.JPG: Rocking Chair, Owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt, 1865-1875
This chair, made of tree roots and branches, was once owned by one of the richest men in 19th century America. Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877), the founder of shipping and railroad dynasties, may have used this chair on his porch, in a gazebo, or other garden structure at his Staten Island, New York home. Many well-to-do Victorians admired rustic furniture that celebrated nature.
HFMFF_160803_029.JPG: Armchair, Owned by Peter Schuyler, 1705-1715
This chair belonged to Pieter Schuyler, a wealthy fur trader and landowner of Dutch descent in colonial New York. He became the first mayor of Albany in 1686. This ornately carved chair was an appropriate piece of furniture for a man of Schuyler's standing. It likely was used in his home on Court Street in Albany.
HFMFF_160803_035.JPG: Armchair Used in the United States House of Representatives, 1857-1873
This chair was part of group made in 1857 for the 262 members of the House of Representatives at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. The architect who designed them, Thomas U. Walter, also designed new north and south wings and a cast-iron dome for the Capitol during the 1850s. The chairs certainly look impressive--but members of the House complained that they were too cumbersome. Many of the chairs were sold two years later. Mathew Brady, famous for his photographs of Abraham Lincoln and Civil War battlefields, bought one of the chairs for his studio and used it in many of his photographs. The matching desks also proved impractical and were finally sold in 1873 along with the remaining chairs.
HFMFF_160803_046.JPG: Armchair Made from Longhorn Steer Horns, 1904-1910
Mr. and Mrs. John Vine saw a display of commercial horn furniture at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. When they returned home to Fayette, Ohio, the inspired couple ordered a large number of steer horns from a packing house in Texas and constructed their own furniture in the trendy style. This armchair was part of the Vines' homemade set.
HFMFF_160803_048.JPG: Armchair, Owned by Mary Todd Lincoln, 1845-1865
In 1866, Mary Todd Lincoln purchased a Rococo Revival style parlor set for her Chicago, Illinois home. This exuberantly carved chair, part of the set, contrasted with the simpler, middle-class furniture the Lincolns had used in their pre-Civil War Springfield home. Mrs. Lincoln, suffering from the tragic loss of her husband and in economic distress, would sell this set a few years later.
HFMFF_160803_057.JPG: Exploded Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, 2006
This artistically suspended piece explores the complex way plywood, leather, and aluminum came together to form Charles and Ray Eames' innovative -- yet classic -- lounge chair and ottoman. The molded rosewood shell and plush upholstery achieve Charles' stated ambition to create the inviting look of a well-used baseball mitt.
HFMFF_160803_070.JPG: Secretary Desk, 1720-1780
This 18th-century desk was owned by the Adler family of Frankfurt, Germany. With the rise of the Nazi regime during the 1930s, harassment increased for this Jewish family until, on Kristallnacht in 1938, their home was ransacked. The Adlers managed to leave Germany with only a few possessions. This heirloom became a symbol of the family's survival as they carved out new lives in America.
HFMFF_160803_085.JPG: Court Cupboard, Owned by Hannah Barnard, 1710-1720
This court cupboard is remarkable because it was made for a woman and prominently features her name. It held newlywed Hannah Barnard's precious household belongings -- silver or pewter, ceramics, and linens. In addition to providing storage space, the gloriously decorated cupboard symbolized Hannah's wealth and status and served as a vibrant work of art in her Hadley, Massachusetts home.
HFMFF_160803_090.JPG: High Chest, Owned by Mary Ball Washington, 1700-1730
George Washington's mother, Mary Ball Washington (1708-1789), owned this finely-made high chest. Mary, orphaned at an early age, inherited land, livestock, or furniture each time she lost a parent or stepparent. This high chest was likely among these legacies. When Mary Ball married widower Augustine Washington in 1731, she moved her belongings into his one-and-a-half story brick house on the banks of the Potomac in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Their son George was born there the following year. Much later in life, Mary lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia. A neighbor bought this high chest at a sale of some of Mary's possessions and it descended in that Virginia family. The family loaned the chest for display at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Fairgoers likely saw it in the Virginia State Building--a reproduction of George Washington's Mount Vernon home--along with other "heirlooms of old Virginia families."
HFMFF_160803_097.JPG: Card Table, Owned by John Hancock, 1760-1790
This card table belonged to John Hancock -- Revolutionary War patriot, statesman, merchant and one of the wealthiest people in America. Hancock inherited an elegant mansion overlooking the Boston Common; and like other wealthy gentlemen of this time, he delighted in playing cards. He could well afford to purchase this fine table to enjoy a game of cards with friends and political associates.
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Wikipedia Description: Henry Ford Museum
Henry Ford Museum began as Henry Ford's personal collection of historic objects, which he began collecting as far back as 1906. Today, the 12 acre (49,000 mē) site is primarily a collection of antique machinery, pop culture items, automobiles, locomotives, aircraft, and other items:
* The museum features a 4K digital projection theater, which shows scientific, natural, or historical documentaries, as well as major feature films.
* A model of the nuclear-powered Ford Nucleon automobile
* An Oscar Mayer Wienermobile
* The 1961 Lincoln Continental, SS-100-X that President John F. Kennedy was riding in when he was assassinated.
* The rocking chair from Ford's Theatre in which President Abraham Lincoln was sitting when he was shot.
* George Washington's camp bed.
* A ten-person safety bicycle made in 1896.
* A collection of several fine 17th- and 18th-century violins including a Stradivarius.
* Thomas Edison's alleged last breath in a sealed tube.
* Buckminster Fuller's prototype Dymaxion house.
* The bus on which Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
* Igor Sikorsky's prototype helicopter.
* Fokker Trimotor airplane that flew the first flight over the North Pole.
* Bill Elliott's record-breaking race car clocking in at over 212 MPH at Talladega in 1987
* Fairbottom Bobs, the Newcomen engine
* A steam engine from Cobb's Engine House in England.
* The Automotive Hall of Fame, adjacent to the Henry Ford Museum.
* A working fragment of the original Holiday Inn "Great Sign"
* A Chesapeake & Ohio Railway 2-6-6-6 "Allegheny"-class steam locomotive built by Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio. The Allegheny was the most powerful steam locomotive ever built.
* Behind the scenes, the Benson Ford Research Center uses the resources of The Henry Ford, especially the photographic, manuscript and archival material which is rarely displayed, to allow visitors to gai ...More...
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I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
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[Museums (History)]
2016 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000.
Seven relatively short trips this year:
two Civil War Trust conference (Gettysburg, PA and West Point, NY, with a side-trip to New York City),
my 11th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including sites in Utah, Nevada, and California),
a quick trip to Michigan for Uncle Wayne's funeral,
two additional trips to New York City, and
a Civil Rights site trip to Alabama during the November elections. Being in places where people died to preserve the rights of minority voters made the Trumputin election even more depressing.
Number of photos taken this year: just over 610,000.
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