Every month our curators spotlight an item from our collections in our Pic of the Month feature.

This month, in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday, curator Cynthia Read Miller looks at images from The Henry Ford’s wonderful, eclectic collection of Lincoln-related photographs. These images span the years from Lincoln’s career as an Illinois legislator during the 1840s to his tragic death in 1865.  Visit November’s Pic of the Month.

We’re excited to announce our newest collection on Flickr:  photobooth portraits, which joins our other historic photos on Flickr in giving new access to our deep photographic collections.   These photobooth shots  give insight into the use of photography in everyday life in the twentieth century, from the 1930s to the 1970s.  The collection includes shots of Harvey Firestone, Jr. and Elizabeth Parke Firestone.*

We’re excited about these photos:  look for a post on the cultural history of the photobooth portrait, coming soon from Cynthia R. Miller, our Curator of Prints and Photographs–and the next time you’re at Henry Ford Museum, take a picture of your own in our photobooth near the IMAX entrance.

*The Henry Ford holds a great deal of Mrs. Firestone’s couture clothing, as well as the Columbiana, Ohio, farm where Harvey Firestone, Sr. was born, among other Firestone artifacts.

In 1929, Henry Ford sent a questionnaire across the country to men and women aged 75 years or older that asked about their childhoods in the early 19th century. Over 100 people responded with detailed accounts of their lives and so collectively created a wealth of memories of one of the most transformative periods of American history.

Historical Resources intern Christine Driscoll has written a series of guest posts on the 1929 questionnaire.

In the 19^th century, politics and campaigns were the focus of debate and discourse in small towns. Naturally, the election of 1860 was particularly exciting as the future of the Union seemed to hang in the balance. Those who saw Lincoln speak recalled feeling an instant connection. At the same time there was vicious contention – some did not believe Lincoln would even survive the election. As it turned out, Lincoln survived, but the Union did not.

Although the 1929 Historical Questionnaire did not explicitly inquire about the Civil War or life during the Civil War, it made an enormous impact on the children in the frontier of Michigan – financially and emotionally, as prices for food increased and fathers or brothers went to war and sometimes did not return. As children, their memories were shaped by what affected them. For instance, one woman recalled that only three days into the school term, the teacher quit to enlist in the Union Army.

The bulk of responses came from Midwestern states and consequently few responses contained any mention of slavery. Virginia Parsons was one of the few respondents born in the South, and her family moved to the North deliberately to leave the environment in which women and children were kidnapped and sold.

Mattie Ford Swope, whose family owned slaves, remembered some men deviously took advantage of the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation:

When the Negroes were freed they were told that they must pay so much to obtain their freedom and I recall plainly how Northern men would set up a little office and how the negroes would line up even down the road to try to get a chance to purchase their freedom. My mother told our people that they need not pay, that Abraham Lincoln had issued the command that they be free. Those men may have been Southern men for all I know but of course we thought it could not be.

As we went through the questionnaires, we hoped to find a response from a person whose memory of slavery would be the most accurate – someone who was born a slave. As we neared the last box of responses, we were certain we wouldn’t find one until a man named Dave Williams began his response with “I was born a slave.”

His letter describes the same things as other children of the period –his childhood home, meals, games they played, and the chores he had. Unlike other children though, his chores were not the duty of a child helping his family, but forced manual labor for the plantation owner.

Most respondents were too young to participate in the Civil War and so only remember their fathers or uncles serving in the Union Army (anyone that wrote of the war and service came from the North). Mary Crook’s grandmother followed the news very carefully while her sons were in the service and held the opinion that “General McClellan ought to be shot.” Although young men were eager to sign up, it was a far more difficult decision for fathers, like Mary Crook’s, to leave their families and farms, especially on the frontier where the head of household was desperately needed. Dorothy Wait remembered her family’s solution.

Soldiers were formed into companies everywhere and we did not know how soon our home would be broken up. The men in our community, who were liable to draft, formed a pool and paid in fifty dollars each so in case they were drafted they could hire a substitute.

The respondents’ perspectives of the Civil War as it happened was limited by the news they could gather in their rural, agrarian towns. Few knew of slavery firsthand and even fewer saw any actual combat. Instead, the children from the west vividly remembered the altercations and conflicts that took place in their small spectator towns when Union Supporters and Southern Sympathizers clashed. Frank Barker witnessed a confrontation between two men at the general store when he was a small child:

An old “copperhead” came in and inquired for the letest [sic] news from the war front. The clerk had a brother in the ranks, and naturally was keen for all the news that could be gained, and replied to the questioner that the latest report was that the South had won a great victory with a heavy loss of life in the Union army. This was good news to the old copperhead and his reply was “good enough for them. If they want to go down there and fight for the wooleys, let them take what they get.” Instantly the clerk leaped over the counter and grabbed the old man by the beard with one hand, and held a cocked revolver in the other hand against his head, walked him to the door headed toward home, and told him, with a swift kick in his rear, “you toddle, look neither to the right or the left, and if ever I see you again I’ll shoot the life out of your worthless old carcus.”

Martin L. Armstrong remembered a Sexton threatening men who wanted to take down the Union Flag:

I remember during the Civil War, on going to church one morning a nice Flag was floating from the top of the church, some went to the Sexton to get him to take it down, his reply was, Gentlemen I would not give much for the life of a man that would attempt to take that Flag down.

The tension between those who believed the South should have been allowed to secede and those who believed in preserving the Union erupted again when Lincoln was assassinated. John McMillan Powers recalled going into the town of Battle Creek after it happened:

From the balcony of the Battle Creek House was hanging a rope, with a noose in it, and I was wondering what caused all these things and the crowd was still yelling and hollering. When the excitement quieted down we found a man who could tell us the cause of it, and he said: “That man in the grocery store, when the news of Lincoln’s murder came, says “I am glad of it, I am glad of it. He should have been killed long ago.” The crowd immediately got a cannon and put a blank cartridge and blew out the store door which he had locked up after he discovered the meaning of the words he had used.

Following Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson became President and the process of Reconstruction, which aimed to build a new egalitarian South, was dismantled. Living in the North, few, if any, respondents noticed this change. It is only brought up in Dave Williams’ response to question 15, an open-ended question that asked the respondent to record what they wanted to pass on for posterity. Williams, who was born a slave, did not write about slavery but disenfranchisement:

After we were set free it was several year before we were allowed to vote, the white people said we had no right to vote and caused much trouble. Often negroes were turned back at the poles [sic], or persuaded to vote like the white man wantid [sic] them to vote.

The Civil War has been the subject of countless books, films, and other works of art, but these will always be secondary sources of information and far more comprehensive in their scope than the war was for most Americans. It’s interesting to read about the war from the perspective of someone who lived in the same town that you do, 150 years earlier. More than 100 men and women from all different kinds of backgrounds wrote about their memories of the Civil War in the Historical Questionnaire.

Bob Casey, automotive historian and Curator of Transportation at The Henry Ford, offers up some insight into the many books written on auto pioneer Henry Ford. Two of his favorites – both of which can be found in the Henry Ford Museum Store and the Greenfield Village Store – are The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century, by Steven Watts, and Young Henry Ford: A Picture History of the First Forty Years, by Sidney Olson. “Watts’ book is the best one-volume biography of Henry Ford that I have ever read – despite all that has been written about Ford, Watts still manages to find new insights,” said Casey. “Olson mined the Ford family and business records to create a lively, well-illustrated account of Henry Ford’s first forty years, from his childhood to the initial success of Ford Motor Company.”

Jeff Seeno, intern in the Media and Film Relations department at The Henry Ford, asked Casey some questions recently about Henry Ford and these reflections of Ford’s life.

Many books written about Henry Ford either vigorously attack him, or grant him extraordinary praise for his accomplishments. Do you feel these books in any way distort the picture of the true man?

Both of these books are very balanced accounts of the true Henry Ford. These are also very personal accounts of Henry Ford’s life. For example, Ford did not appreciate the talents of his only son, Edsel, who had a great eye for cars. He loved the way cars looked, and according to Watts, Ford Motor Company could have completely dominated the market if they had harnessed Edsel’s insight. But Henry Ford loved to lap up the acclaim and position himself as an incumbent visionary, and he could articulate his vision so well that everyone wanted to jump on board.

How do these books establish the essential Henry Ford – not only as a social visionary, but as a figure who has a controversial personality?

In Olson’s book, he is not afraid to talk about the mean side of Henry Ford. He mentions that Ford was a prankster, and a mean one at that. He tells the story of a time when one of Henry’s employees, George Flint, who was rather sloppy, would leave his shoes lying about when he changed from his work clothes to his street clothes. In an effort to teach Flint to be neater, Ford nailed Flint’s shoes to the floor.

On the other end, Watts’ book shows that Ford had much strength in regards to charity and the growth of the Ford Motor Company. He was very philanthropic in a quirky way, but after executing his “Five Dollars a Day” plan, his forthright genius and creative power went to his head.

What new insights about Henry Ford can readers expect to find in these books?

Watts tells how Ford felt there was no need to advertise the Model T – it pretty much sold itself. What Ford didn’t take into account was the incredible marketing campaign executed by Norval Hawkins – the accountant and first sales manager of Ford Motor Company – and how his strategy advanced the company into becoming the industry leader. After Hawkins left the company and went to General Motors, Henry Ford still pushed the Model T at a time when people didn’t need it anymore. Ford was behind the times, and Hawkins was instrumental in helping General Motors’ sales surpass Ford Motor Company’s by 1927.

Another little-known story is that Harry Bennett, one of Henry Ford’s executives and a known Union buster, was like a surrogate son to Ford. As mentioned earlier, Ford did not appreciate Edsel’s talents, and Bennett was everything that Edsel wasn’t. Bennett did everything that Henry asked him to, in a very crude and mean sense, and did it quickly. But Bennett seemed to take pleasure in lording his power over other people. If Ford told him to fire someone, Bennett would do it in a manner that was humiliating to that the person. If Ford told Bennett to countermand someone else’s decision, Bennett would go out of his way to make that person look bad. According to Watts, Bennett was the son Henry always wanted.

How would you describe Olson’s illustrated account of Henry Ford’s first 40 years?

This book is based off of the Fair Lane Papers along with other letters and bills from the Fair Lane estate. The Fair Lane Papers are the personal Ford family papers that were left at the Ford estate (called Fair Lane) after Clara Ford died in 1950 (Henry died in 1947). They contain letters, diaries, photos, notebooks, legal documents, checks—all the sorts of paper people accumulate over a lifetime. They formed the foundation on which Olson built his book.

His book draws heavily from accounts on the Ford family farm; and Henry Ford’s life up until the start of Ford Motor Company. It focuses on the people who were most important to Henry Ford.

Olson, who worked as a public relations guy for Ford Motor Company, knew Ford’s history and looked at every single scrap of paper to assemble a collective history that can be read episodically. It is very fun to read, with a great introduction to an excellent story of the early years of Henry Ford’s life.

Overall, how do these books capture the essence of a Michigan farm boy who emerged as one of the greatest American icons?

These are personal rise-and-fall stories. They focus primarily on the first half of the 1920s when Ford was the leader in the auto industry, and eventually into the 1930s when Ford is ranked third behind General Motors. They equally capture the “rollercoaster ride” that is the life of a man who changed the world.

Steven Watts, The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century, $34.95

Sidney Olson, Young Henry Ford: A Picture History of the First Forty Years, $18

Today’s guest poster is Hanan Saab, promotions assistant for The Henry Ford IMAX Theatre.

I was first attracted to The Henry Ford because it is important for me to work with products and people that enrich lives. Now that I am here, it is wonderful to walk through Henry Ford Museum or Greenfield Village and see children’s faces light up with curiosity, or pass a family posing together for a photo.  People make memories here, and I am privileged to be a part of it.  For these reasons, I am pleased to tell you about a film currently playing here at The Henry Ford IMAX^® Theatre. 

 Many of us remember Ibn Battuta from our history classes, but few know the real extent of his travels.  In the film Journey to Mecca: In the Footsteps of Ibn Battuta, we learn of this extraordinary traveler’s first pilgrimage to the Hajj.  As a young man, Battuta felt compelled to leave his home in Morocco and travel to distant lands.  In 1325, he began his journey by traveling to the destination considered the most sacred by Muslims throughout the world, both then and now: Mecca.  Battuta would not return home to Morocco for nearly 30 years.  We often see images of the white-clad masses gathering in Mecca, but only some understand the spirit that motivates the more than three million pilgrims who make this trip each year.  This film brings that spirit into focus.  Through the story of Ibn Battuta, we learn of each ritual’s origin, see how they were performed nearly 700 years ago and how they are still practiced today. 

In Battuta’s time, the journey took much more commitment.  Just getting to Mecca took over a year – but now, people arrive by planes, trains, ships, and even automobiles.  .  Through the film, we’ll follow Battuta as he travels across the North African desert, visits the splendid city of Cairo, and how he is thwarted by war at the Red Sea, turning back and heading north to join the legendary Damascus Caravan with thousands of pilgrims, camels, water carriers, beekeepers, bankers, soldiers, and musicians.

Journey to Mecca marks the first and only time an IMAX^® camera has captured an aerial view of the Hajj – from a helicopter hovering 200 ft above Mecca – and the first time an IMAX^® team has been admitted to this most sacred sanctuary of Islam.  The permission process alone lasted nearly two and a half years.  It took 85 permits for a team of 80 people drawn from 30 nations to embark on the largest and most ambitions production ever to take place in the Gulf region.  The result of these efforts is a fantastic voyage from Morocco to Saudi Arabia.  You’ll fly above the desert as aerial shots capture the largest caravan caught on film since Lawrence of Arabia. 

Narrated by Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley, this remarkable and dramatic story begins and ends in modern day Mecca.  When we first see the pilgrims, we are unfamiliar with their motivations; but after travelling with Ibn Battuta, we better understand the reasoning behind each pilgrim’s journey.  Remarkable time lapse footage captures the constant activity at the Grande Mosque, from sunrise to nightfall.  We see first-hand the tremendous scale of the Hajj and how many people are involved.  And it really hits you that while Ibn Battuta’s story is compelling, he is only one of billions of pilgrims who have made this same journey over hundreds of years.

If you have not yet experienced an IMAX^® film or are simply looking for a reason to experience it again, this film is your chance.  Journey to Mecca encompasses all that IMAX^® has to offer: thrills, drama, action, adventure, emotion – and yes, you might even learn something.  Join us here at The Henry Ford for one of our daily screenings; you will not be disappointed.

For more information on the film please visit:

http://www.journeytomeccagiantscreen.com/

And for a behind-the-scenes look at how this film was made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o79jlw8HtDA

Hope to see you soon!

This is a guest post by Judy Endelman.

Henry Ford may have said “History is bunk,” but he founded one of America’s premier history museums–The Henry Ford

Eighty years ago this month, as the world teetered on the brink of depression, Henry Ford hosted a grand party.  To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb, he assembled an international audience of the “best and the brightest” to celebrate “Light’s Golden Jubilee” and dedicate The Edison Institute of Technology, known today as The Henry Ford.

In 1921, Henry Ford posed by a Model T, the car that changed America and made his fortune

The Model T, which first rolled onto the streets of America in 1908, had made Ford a very rich man.  By 1920, nearly half of all cars on America’s roads were Model T’s.  Ford now turned his tenacity, his attention to detail, and his fortunes to creating a museum that would “show people what actually existed in years gone by.”

The Menlo Park buildings under construction in Greenfield Village

Henry Ford had considered Edison his hero ever since he had met him at an electrical convention in 1896.   Not only did Ford dedicate his new museum to his great friend, but Ford had Edison sign the cornerstone, and the centerpiece of The Edison Institute was Edison’s lovingly reconstructed Menlo Park Laboratory, complete with seven train carloads of New Jersey dirt!

For Light's Golden Jubilee, Thomas Edison reconstructed his invention of the electric light bulb. This photo was taken during a rehearsal

As Ford’s distinguished guests dined by candlelight in the unfinished great hall of the museum–Marie Curie, Herbert Hoover, and John D. Rockefeller were some of the guests; Albert Einstein spoke to the assemblage by radio from Berlin–Ford and Edison repaired to the Menlo Park laboratory in Greenfield Village where Edison “reconstructed” his great invention of incandescent light.  As the successful “experiment” concluded, the millions listening by radio heard NBC broadcast Graham McNamee shout, “It lights! Light’s Golden Jubilee has come to a triumphant climax!”

The Edison Institute of Technology consisted of two elements–an open-air museum–Greenfield Village, the first open-air museum in America–and a museum of technology.  Ford sent agents across the country (he even had an agent in England!), to find and acquire objects to collect and buildings to preserve, after they were first dismantled to be re-erected in Greenfield Village.  The buildings Ford collected fell into four categories: buildings that reflected his life history–his own birthplace; buildings associated with Ford’s personal heroes–the Wright brothers home and cycle shop from Dayton; nineteenth-century industrial and civic buildings–the Hanks Silk Mill; and buildings from southeast Michigan that caught his fancy, often Greek Revival homes like Ann Arbor house.  He plucked a draftsman from the Ford Motor Company offices, Edward Cutler, and made him his personal preservation architect.  Cutler supervised the dismantling and re-erection of dozens of buildings.

Edward Cutler dismantled and re-erected dozens of historic buildings to create Greenfield Village

When Ford wanted something, he didn’t let anything get in his way.  Ford spied a courthouse in central Illinois associated with the law practice of Abraham Lincoln.  When the townspeople tried to protest its removal, Ford’s crew disassembled and moved the building before the citizens could stop them.  Henry and Clara loved the charming stone cottages of the English Cotswolds.  They bought one, along with its out buildings, had the buildings disassembled, and the stones shipped to Dearborn in sixty-seven train cars.

In his haste to collect, he was sometimes misled, as when he erroneously acquired a house he believed to be the birthplace of composer Stephen Foster.  It wasn’t.

Ford acquired objects and “relics” by the train car as well–whole inventories of general stores, machinery, steam engines, stoves, vehicles–nothing was too humble or ordinary, as long as it demonstrated technological progress.  Antique dealer Israel Sack bought him fine furniture, and attended auctions on Ford’s behalf; he bid on the chair in which Lincoln was assassinated, now a museum treasure.  It had previously been offered to Ford, but one of his secretaries had declined it, writing that it was “too gruesome.”

Costs never stopped him from doing anything he wanted in the Village. Whenever I’d bring it up . . . he’d always say, ‘Did  I every speak to you about cost around here?  Did I ever talk to you . . . about something costing too much?

–Edward Cutler

Ford’s primary interest in creating the museum and village was to provide for the education of America’s youth.  A month before the Light’s Golden Jubilee celebration, thirty-two students began classes in the Edison Institute Schools in Greenfield Village.  By the late 1930s, nearly two hundred students, ranging from kindergarten through high school, attended the school.  Most were children of Ford Motor Company management.  Ford believed in “learning by doing,” the way he learned best, and his school emphasized practical learning along with traditional subjects.  Students used the artifacts and historic buildings for practical learning.  Girls learned to cook in Noah Webster’s house while boys learned to fix Model Ts.  Even when the village opened to visitors in 1933, the students’ use of the historic buildings took precedence.

Henry Ford greeted students on the first day of the Edison Institute Schools in September 1929.

When the museum opened to the public in 1933, visitors found a work in progress.  As guides took visitors around, workmen completed the eight acres of herringbone pattern teak floor.  Staff sorted glass and ceramics in the front corridors while other areas of the museum served as staging areas for creating period rooms.  Most of the museum was devoted to rows of artifacts, laid out in chronological order, without labels or barriers, allowing visitors to examine technological progress.  Only the “Street of Shops,” a concept of Edsel, Henry’s son, put objects in context.

The 1940s were quieter years for the museum and village.  As World War II tooled up, activities and personnel were cut back, not as many visitors attended, and the Edison Institute school system was reduced in size.  Henry was becoming less active himself.  The death of Edsel, his only child, from stomach cancer in 1943 was a blow from which he never recovered.  Two years later, Ford suffered a severe stroke and died in 1947.  Ford’s vision and fortune had been the driving force behind The Edison Institute; he named no successor nor left it any funding.  However, he bequeathed to The Edison Institute, now The Henry Ford, an unsurpassed collection that has nourished and inspired The Henry Ford’s leadership ever since.

A new history of The Henry Ford–Telling America’s Story: A History of The Henry Ford–will be published in January 2010.

Judy Endelman

Director, Benson Ford Research Center

Independent museum scholar Kiersten Latham is conducting a study on what it means to experience “the real thing” in a museum.  Contact her if you’re interested in participating!

Can you think of a time when you visited a museum to see something real? How did it feel? What does it mean to you when a museum object is real? How do you know it is real? Does it make a difference in your experience if it is not? Join me in a research study about the meaning of real things in museums.

In previous investigations on museum objects and visitor experience, I have found that a common explanation for a strong reaction to a museum object is that it is “Real.” It left me curious as to what people mean by this. What is it like to experience something real? The issue about “the real thing” is especially pertinent in today’s digital age where the majority of Americans have joined in a lifestyle that involves a large amount of time in virtual and electronic worlds. With technology supplanting many physical things in our lives, how important is it to see the real thing? If you can think of specific encounters with real things and would like to describe these encounters to me, please contact me, Kiersten Latham, at kierator@yahoo.com to learn more about participating in this study.

From the Department of Failed Research Requests.

In my role as reference and research archivist, I search through archival collections looking for answers to the queries that come across my desk.  Some I find the answers to, others I do not, but I never come away from my quests completely empty-handed–even if what I’ve learned isn’t exactly what I was looking for.  Here are some of the serendipitous treasures I’ve unearthed during the process.

Charles Addams, Virginia de Luce, and Jacques Tunick at the “5th Avenue Meet,” New York City, NY, April 24, 1960 (Photo ID Co4879, Album 27, Box 37, Series III:  Photo Albums, Henry Austin Clark, Jr., Photoprint collection, Acc. 1774, Benson Ford Research Center)

Best known for his witty yet macabre cartoons, particularly those which gave birth to the cult favorite “The Addams Family” TV show, Charles Addams was also a motor enthusiast–a collector of vintage automobiles and a fiend for the fast “modern speedster.”

The images shown here, from the Henry Austin Clark, Jr., collection, are two of several that depict Charles Addams and other celebrities participating in an antique car meet in New York City, one that looks not altogether different from our own Old Car Festival, coming up this weekend, September 12-13.  (Henry Austin, Clark, Jr., it should be noted, was quite the car enthusiast himself, being an automotive historian and collector not only of automobiles but of  automobile literature, photographs, and the like–a collection that he donated along with his personal papers to the Benson Ford Research Center.)

Addams remained a car connoisseur to the end.  In fact, if it is not being too morbid to note (I don’t think Addams would have thought so), in 1988 he died of a heart attack in one of his cars, an Audi 4000, right after parking it in front of his home.  Fans like me still feel his loss, but to my delight and I am sure that of my librarian cousins, in lieu of a wake he directed that a party be held in his honor at the New York Public Library (which along with such institutions as the Library of Congress and the Museum of the City of New York hold some of his works in their permanent collections).

Bob Bohaty, Henry Austin Clark, Jr., Ralph Miller, and Charles Addams at the "5th Avenue Meet," New York City, NY, April 24, 1960 (Photo ID Co4883, Album 27, Box 37, Series III: Photo Albums, Henry Austin Clark, Jr., Photoprint collection, Acc. 1774, Benson Ford Research Center)

Bob Bohaty, Henry Austin Clark, Jr., Ralph Miller, and Charles Addams at the “5th Avenue Meet,” New York City, NY, April 24, 1960 (Photo ID Co4883, Album 27, Box 37, Series III:  Photo Albums, Henry Austin Clark, Jr., Photoprint collection, Acc. 1774, Benson Ford Research Center)

This is a guest post by Senior Manager of Creative Programs, Jim Johnson.

It seems an odd notion, but as the days grow shorter and autumn’s colors begin to creep into the trees and hedgerows of Greenfield Village, the geese take wing in to their formations, and the smell of wood smoke fills the air, the connection to the past seems even stronger. For those of us who work in the living history areas of the Village, there is also a strange pressing need associated with this change of the season to begin the preparations for the long winter ahead.

At the two main living history sites in the Village, Daggett Farm and Firestone Farm, the slower pace of the long summer days begins to quicken as the harvest season approaches.  For our visitors, it’s a fascinating view of preparations and work with similar goals, but with very different sets of tools and technology available to achieve these goals.  The colonial Daggett family and the Victorian Firestones both needed to harvest their crops, store away vegetables and fruits, and prepare and preserve a winter’s meat supply.  And, everybody made cider!

The Daggetts would have stored away a variety of root vegetables in stone-lined pits that would have prevented hard freezing for turnips, potatoes, beets and other similar vegetables. The earth is a great insulator, especially a small hillside.  These outside “root cellars,” dug deep enough and lined with stone, provided the protection needed. The stone lining not only insulates, but keeps the items stored away cleaner. The wooden cover/door with added straw insulation made access throughout the winter possible.  A heavy layer of snow would further help to keep the storage area from freezing.  This would normally be in addition to the cellar of the house, also used for food storage.

Cabbages would have been pulled roots and all and also stored in similar ways.  Pumpkins and other winter squash would have been kept in house cellars or possibly garrets (attics), to prevent freezing, allowing them to be used well into the winter months.  Several other root vegetables like parsnips and salsify would have just been kept in the frozen ground of the garden and dug out as needed.

By this time of year, beans and peas would have been dried and stored away in sacks in cool dry locations.  Dried peas and beans used in soups, stews, and baked bean dishes were simply left to fully mature on their vines or stalks in the field.  Once completely dry, they were pulled by the roots and loaded into a cart or wagon and hauled back to the barn.  In some cases, the partially dried plants were attached to long poles set-up in the field, once fully dried, the “bean” poles were hauled back to the barn to await further processing.  This allowed a nice compact way to store them.

Much like threshing grain, beans and peas were laid out on a flat surface, usually on a tarp, and hit with a wooden flail (two lengths of wood connected by a leather lace).  The wooden flail would break apart the pods and loosen up the dried beans or peas.  Once loose from pods, the beans and peas were carefully scooped up and then cleaned by a process called winnowing.  Using the breeze, the bean and peas were flipped up and down in a large shallow basket.  The dust and lighter debris would blow away leaving the beans or peas behind.  Once clean, they would be stored away in barrels or clean sacks.

Today, if you wanted to grow your own dry beans or peas, you would need to have space to plant several long rows, and leave them be until they have completely matured and turned brown, plants and all.  Peas will be ready before beans would be. Peas are usually ready for harvest as dry peas by July, beans by later September depending on when they were planted.  Once they are ready to clean, get a large burlap sack and fill it partially with the dried plants that have been pulled by the roots.  Hang it up like you would a piñata, and find a stick similar to one you would hit a piñata with. Hit the sack over and over to break loose the beans or peas from their pods.  Once loose, empty the sack and separate the beans from the vines and pods. Use a small fan to blow the dust and loose debris away from the beans.  They then can be stored in a cool dry place until it’s time to cook them.  They would need to be carefully washed before cooking.

Another version of dried beans is “leather britches”.  These are green beans, picked while they are still tender and then dried.  To do this you can thread them onto a string and allow them to air dry or simply use a home de-hydrator.   Dried green beans were re-constituted and added to soups or stews in the winter and early spring when nothing green was available.

With careful planning, all these sorts of vegetables would carry over the family’s needs until the new summer produce became available again.  It’s no wonder that the first early greens from the garden were so looked forward to after a winter of starchy root vegetables. As you visit the Daggett farm throughout the fall, you will see the staff harvesting and storing away a variety of garden produce.

The Firestone, one hundred years later, would have used many similar techniques to insure their vegetable needs for the winter.  Pits and root cellars still played an important role.  Sauerkraut from cabbage was an important fall job at the Firestone Farm. A well-made crock of kraut could last the family well into the spring.  Simply a combination of salt and shredded cabbage, sauerkraut was a winter staple for many German-American families. Great sauerkraut has only two ingredients, salt, and cabbage.  The ratio is 3 tablespoons of a non-idionized salt (kosher or sea salt) for every 5 pounds of cabbage.  Natural processes take it from there. Here is what you need to make your own.

Tools and ingredients: Sharp knife or Madeline, 1-gallon stoneware fermenting crock, wooden lid for the one gallon crock, scrubbed and boiled round rock to weigh down wooden lid, large plastic bowl, cutting board, something to mash the cabbage down into the crock (old fashioned wooden potato masher would work well), 2 heads of cabbage (5 lbs), 3 tablespoons of non-iodized salt (sea or kosher).  Green cabbage will give you white kraut, but if you add red cabbage, or use all red cabbage you will get pink kraut.

The heavy outer leaves of the cabbage head should be removed, if your cabbage has already been market dressed, you are ready to go.  Cut or shred the cabbage very thin. Take turns layering salt and shredded cabbage in the crock.  Be sure to vigorously mash each layer of cabbage in the crock. Take care not to break through the bottom of your crock while deploying the masher.  Once the 5lbs of cabbage and all the salt is in the crock, put in the wooden cover and the rock to weigh down the soon-to-be kraut.  A method used at Firestone Farm is to employ the heavy outer leaves of the cabbage as the first cover of the shredded mashed cabbage and salt before the wooden cover and rock is put in place.  This will help to better seal the mixture and allow for a better start to the fermentation process.  Place the crock in a cool dry spot.  For the next two weeks or so, the mixture will ferment and develop its distinctive flavor.  Daily during this period, or as needed, you will need to lift off all the covers and skim off the awful looking moldy scum bloom that will take place on the surface, it will likely smell bad too.  This is all ok and part of the process.  It would be a good idea to clean off the cover and rock each time you do this.  After two weeks, the kraut is ready to eat, and can be stored in glass mason jars in the refrigerator.

You can also can the kraut in the glass jars using the directions given in a current issue of Ball’s Blue Book.  These books are readily available anywhere you can buy new canning jars.  Most centrally-heated homes today do not have a cool “fruit cellar” or cold room so common in 19^th century homes to allow for simply leaving the kraut in its crock and using as needed.

Fruit, especially apples, was another important food item carefully preserved for the winter.  The Daggetts had very limited technology when it came to “canning” as we know it today.  Fruit jams or preserves were kept in small crocks or glass jars and sealed with bees wax, spirit soaked parchment, or animal bladders that when tightly drawn over the jar opening, would dry and seal off the jar (they were reusable).  Lots of fruit was dried by slicing and lying out in baskets or on wooden racks.  Fresh fruit was carefully packed in barrels whole to keep in a cool spot.  As stated earlier, unheated interior spaces are not common in our homes today.  An unheated attached garage that stays above freezing would work as an alternative.  If you wanted to try and keep apples for a period of time, the best candidates would be those you pick yourself at an orchard, or from your own trees.  Select fruit that is free from insect damage or bruising and carefully wrap each individual apple in newspaper. Do not choose fruit that is overly ripe.  Do not wash the fruit beforehand as you want to leave the natural coating the fruit has in place.  In place of apple barrels that were commonly used, a waxed cardboard box will work.  Apples bought by the box can be stored if the location is cool enough.  You will need to go through them and remove any that have issues that might cause spoilage.

By the 1850s, the “fruit” canning jar with sealable lids had been perfected and by the period of the 1880s, the Firestones would have made full use of this technology and would have put up a dazzling array of pickles, jellies, jams, sauces, etc.  If you interested in canning your own produce, purchase a current copy of Ball’s Blue Book.  These directions will tell you everything you need to safely can your own jams, jellies, and pickles.

The Firestone orchard is going to have a banner year.  Filled with a number of 19^th-century and earlier apple varieties, visitors will be able to see a wide selection of red, green, brown, yellow, and speckled apples on the trees.  Names like Rambo, Baldwin, Belmont, Roxbury Russet, and Hubbardston Nonesuch can be found there.  They all have different characteristics, flavors, and ultimately were used in different ways, either for sale, or for the family’s own use.  Those not carefully packed away will be made into apple butter, apple sauce, pies, dowdies, dumplings, fritters, and cider. Both the Firestone and Daggett kitchens will overflow with apples this fall.

Both the Firestones and Daggetts made cider.  The sweet cider we all seek out in the fall was actually only available for a short time when the apples were plentiful.  Cider actually refers to the fermented slightly alcoholic drink stored in barrels for use throughout the winter.  Cider vinegar, and apple jack brandy was also made from the juice of the crushed apples.  The Firestone staff demonstrates the use of a small “home” cider press.  We do know that Samuel Daggett pressed cider with a larger animal powered machine, and sold cider to the surrounding community.

Other fruits that were commonly grown and used in a variety of ways were pears (fermented pear juice is known as “perry”), peaches, cherries, quince, and grapes.  Wine making from grapes was commonly done, especially among German communities.  Though not actually a fruit, hops are grown in the Daggett garden, and brewing of small beer was also a fall activity.

The harvest of the field crops at Firestone Farm has been underway since July as the wheat ripened.  The fall is when the field corn was harvested and by the end of September or early October, the corn at Firestone Farm will be standing in neat shocks.  Firestone Farm pre-dates the era of the silo, when corn stalks were chopped up and made into a slightly fermented feed known as silage.  So instead, corn stalks were chopped and fed as fodder.

Gathering the stalks into shocks had an important purpose. The inside stalks, sheltered from the elements, and retained their nutritional value for quite some time and the actual shock made a handy manageable portion for the farmer to haul from the field for his cattle.  The corn was either picked before shocking, or at the time the shock was pulled from the field.  Corn then had to be husked, and then thrown into the corn crib for further drying.  Firestone barn has an enormous corn crib running the entire side of the barn shed.  Once dry it could be shelled, then either fed as shelled corn, or ground into feed or meal.  The variety we grow at Firestone Farm is called “Reid’s Yellow Dent” and was primarily grown as a feed corn.  Hard “flint” corns were best for meal, and the softer “gourd seed” type of corn was also used for animal feed, or for making hominy and grits. Corn harvest related work will take place throughout the ladder part of September at Firestone Farm.

It’s a great time of year to visit and get some inspirations for fall harvests of your own.

Tintype Portrait of W. A. Floyd, aged 17, circa 1859 (29.3170.3)

In 1929, Henry Ford sent a questionnaire across the country to men and women aged 75 years or older that asked about their childhoods in the early 19th century. Over 100 people responded with detailed accounts of their lives and so collectively created a wealth of memories of one of the most transformative periods of American history.

Historical Resources intern Christine Driscoll has written a series of guest posts on the 1929 questionnaire.

The last two years I was in the army there was a price placed on my head.

This statement came from W. A. Floyd, one of the respondents to the questionnaire Henry Ford sent across the country to men and women over seventy-five in 1929. The men and women who wrote back were all born before the Civil War, but few were old enough to serve in the army at the time. Floyd was one of the few men who did and his stories of his time as a scout for the Union Army in Georgia are the sort of war – adventure tales that have provided material for books and movies for nearly a century.

The duty of a scout is to survey the enemy’s location, strength, and size. Any information that could be attained to ensure victory was worthwhile. In this case, Floyd rode around Northern Georgia to gather information about the Confederate Army’s status. At other times, he searched for train robbers and other Confederate spies.

After enlisting in the Union Army, Floyd arrived in Dalton, Georgia and partnered with another scout called Woody. Of Woody Floyd said:

I rode many a day with Woody when he had a man’s ear in his pocket. He was the worst man I ever saw – he would kill a man but if he took him prisoner he would treat him like a brother, but he took very few prisoners.

It was with Woody that Floyd went to capture a band of Confederate men camped in Ellijay, Georgia.

With the knowledge that the Confederate company was far larger than their own, they stopped to gather more men at the home of an acquaintance named Wheeler. One of the young women boarding at Wheeler’s home inquired where the men were headed. Wheeler told her that he and eight hundred men were going to take the Confederate company in Ellijay. Immediately upon their departure, the young woman “went over mountains that mountain goats couldn’t climb” to reach Ellijay before Wheeler and warned her sweetheart camped at Ellijay of the coming troops. Of course, Wheeler lied – there were never more than fifty men with him, but the Ellijay Company, otherwise well-prepared, and seemingly outnumbered, evacuated the camp only minutes before Floyd and his men arrived. Floyd wrote: “We could hear the men hitting the water of a nearby river in their efforts to escape.”

Soon enough, Floyd experienced the other side of the chase from August 14th to 15th in 1864 in Dalton, Georgia, when Confederate troops closed in on a makeshift fort that held a small party of men including the Union General Wheeler. At first it seemed like another thrilling episode in Floyd’s service but the battle quickly and ominously intensified:

I took a long range gun and went up in the garret of the house, pushed off a few slates and was having a nice time up there shooting those fellows down town. I was having a pic-nic. Finally I saw their artillery pick up and move west. Just west of the town was a high hill and I was interested in them going this way. I watched them and they went up on the hill. While I was watching them I saw a puff of blue smoke and a shell came into the right garret where I was and it busted and three pieces of the shell hit my right leg. Then I thought my leg was shot off. I felt of my leg and I felt of my foot. It was all right but I couldn’t handle it.

The siege lasted only a day, for in the morning United States Colored Troops arrived and saved the men trapped in the “fort”- a small brick house protected by logs:

They fired on us all night long and the next morning just before sunup [sic] I saw a mile or two away negro soldiers, reinforcements, coming to help us out.

As the reinforcements arrived, the Confederate troops pulled out and so the battle at Dalton was considered a Union victory.

Many of the events Floyd witnessed are difficult to research or find other accounts of because he did not provide dates, or they were part of unrecorded reconnaissance missions. The exception is Floyd’s experiences during the Atlanta Campaign, an effort led by Confederate General John Bell Hood to prevent the Union Army from taking Atlanta. Floyd was typically active in the Northern part of Georgia, and was in Dalton again at the start of the Campaign.

We knew Hood was coming, had known it several days. I took four men and went out to meet Hood, saw him coming in, came back and reported to my commanding officer that he had a regiment of negroes with him and I told him if he was going to fight I would stay and if not, I wanted to leave.

As Floyd makes clear, scouts were instrumental to officer’s planning, only scouts could provide invaluable information like the enemy’s size and location.  “The regiment of negroes” to which Floyd refers was not part of Hood’s troops, but Colonel Lewis Johnson’s, to whom he reported. Floyd pointed this out to Johnson because if Hood were victorious in battle, it would mean certain tragedy for the 44th US Colored Infantry. The following scene from the Atlanta Campaign took place on October 13, 1864. As Hood approached the troops he demanded surrender. The Union Army’s official report reads:

When the Confederates approached the city they sent a summons to surrender, which was refused.  Hood then began skirmishing while he posted his artillery of 30 pieces and deployed his troops to surround the town. Col. Lewis Johnson, commanding the post, then sent 3 officers under flag of truce to Hood and arranged terms of surrender.  Nine of the enemy were killed and 20 wounded in the skirmishing.

Floyd remembered not only the summons to surrender, but its conditions and the aftermath; as Hood’s troops approached and prior to receiving the summons, he asked Johnson whether he would fight or surrender:

He said “I am going to fight.” but Hood’s army came up and made demand on him to surrender and they told him “if you do not put up a fight, I will parole every Officer, but if you do fight, I will kill every man and burn the town.” And he surrendered, and while I do not know it positively, but I think they killed every negro any-how.”

Floyd may have been correct – the Union Army reported 400 men as captured and missing after this battle, and undoubtedly the 44th U.S. Colored Infantry that Floyd had worried about represented a significant proportion of that number. As soon as Johnson decided to surrender, Floyd went south to Resaca, Georgia, and continued to work as a scout.

Although we never learn why a price was placed on Floyd’s head for the last two years of his service, we do have a more interesting view of the Atlanta Campaign than many other sources could provide, and briefly, the conflict and consequences of surrender in the South.

Floyd closed his letter, and his account of battles, gory scenes, and adventure with: “I am just sending you the above for what it is worth, it if is worth anything use it, if not throw it in the wastebasket.” Appropriately, it was saved for posterity.

This response to the 1929 Questionnaire and others are accessible in the Benson Ford Research Center at The Henry Ford.