Greenfield Village, Part 2

Continuing with my experiances at The Henry Ford Greenfield Village.

Noah Webster's home (Webster's Dictionary), built in 1823 in New Haven, CT.

 

Inside I spotted this colorful rug.

When I looked closer I found it was made of squares of fabric pieced together like a quilt and on each square were the appliqued circles. It made a very pretty, colorful rug.

 This is Volume 2of Webster's Dictionary and has never been used and is still in its original covers with uncut pages.

Webster wanted all Americans to speak like New England aristocrats. His dictionary did not succeed in this endeavor, but it did standardize American spellings and even today is the most acknowledged American dictionary. His first dictionary was published in 1928 and it cost $20, about 2 weeks wages of the average worker. It took 8 years to sell 2500 copies. He published his first major revision in 1841 and paid for the printing by mortgaging his house. He only printed 3,000 copies and when he died 2 years later, had only sold half of the books.

 

This Cotswold Cottage was built in the early 1600s in Chedworth, Gloucestershire, England.

Inside the floors were also made of limestone, like the walls.

Thomas Edison visited his grandparents farm as a boy. This homestead was built on the farm by his grandparents around 1815 in Vienna, Ontario, Canada, and additions made in 1860.

The Sarah Jordan Boarding House, built about 1870 in Menlo Park, NJ, across the street from Thomas Edison's laboratory. Sarah was Edison's widowed sister-in-law. Edison had purchased several other homes for his married workers. He wanted to help his sister-in-law following his brother's death, so he asked her to come and manage this as a boarding house for his single, male workers.

Following his invention of the light bulb, Sarah's boarding house was the first home to ever have incandescent lighting installed. So many people wanted to see this new-fangled invention, Sarah started serving lunches for a small fee.

Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Complex, consisting of his offices (above), his laboratory, machine shops and other buildings was recreated in Greenfield Village in 1929. Some structural elements came from the original complex in Menlo Park, NJ.

The laboratory where most of his inventions were created. His goal was to have one major invention every 6 months and one minor invention every 10 days. He believed in people working together and had many teams of workers. This is the home of the first electric light bulb, the first phonograph and many other inventions.

This was the first 'CD'. Developed by Edison for the telegraph industry, it recorded telegraph messages which could then be replayed later. No longer did the telegraph office have to be manned 24 hours a day.

Built in 1871 in Dayton, Ohio, this is the home of Orville and Wilbur Wright.

Known for their experiments with flight, they were actually in the bicycle business. This was the Wright Cycle Shop, built in Dayton, OH, around 1875. It was here in the back room they built their first airplane.

Ford wanted to sell his cars. He had made them inexpensive, affordable to most workers. But to make sure he sold his cars, he advertised. This was one of his advertisements directed solely to women.

We took a ride in a Model T. This was our driver. Did you know the Model T had no clutch. It had 3 pedals, yes, but not how you would think. The far right was the brake (where our gas is today), the middle was reverse, and the far left was the engage pedal. The gas was on the steering column.

Built in 1861 in Springwells Township, Michigan, this is the boyhood home of Henry Ford. At 16 he left home to find a job in the growing industries of Detroit instead of following his fathers legacy of farming.

Henry Ford was an amazing man, and I enjoyed learning about his life. The village was fascinating as it had both original buildings as well as creations from all over. I only showed a few of the homes of famous people, but the homes of George Washington Carver, Robert Frost, were just a few, as well as those homes of people who played a part in Henry's life.