Through the online virtual tour one can imagine being a fly on the wall as Henry Ford laid out his plans for the Model T in complete secrecy, using a heavy-duty padlock to ensure its confidential files remained hidden from the rest of the workshop. This is a short virtual tour owing to the small size of the building but one packed with provenance to the point where you can almost hear Henry’s footsteps against the creaking wooden floors.
Next stop in the virtualscapes is the Henry Ford Museum in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Michigan, although the artifacts (or relics as Henry called them) of this indoor and outdoor exhibition are not limited to the automobile - despite various iterations of the Quadricycle, among others. The museum showcasing industrial progress began in earnest as Henry Ford's personal collection of historic objects and now represents and preserves America’s defining moments of ingenuity, resourcefulness and innovation – an embodiment of the man himself and the personal objects he felt were important. “I am collecting the history of our people as written into things their hands made and used.... When we are through, we shall have reproduced American life as lived, and that, I think, is the best way of preserving at least a part of our history and tradition,” said Henry Ford.
While there is no exact replica for the real museum experience, the simple accessibility of a virtual museum tour is something worth advocating, especially in the wake of COVID-19 which will likely change the rules and protocols for large gatherings. Being able to educate and inspire far and wide, and safely, will lead to the next industrial revolution, and that’s exactly the legacy that Henry Ford would want to leave behind.