“Driving America” at the Henry Ford Museum is much more than yet another exhibition about our nation’s love affair with the automobile.
“What makes this exhibition different from most,” Bob Casey, senior curator of transportation at the museum, said at the Driving America debut in 2012, “is that it looks at cars through the eyes of the people who use them, or in some cases, don’t use them.
“Visitors will be asked to think about what attracted them to automobiles in the first place,” Casey said. “How have their definitions of style or luxury changed over time? How have their attitudes towards safety, or recreation, or environmental costs changed? Driving America uses The Henry Ford’s unparalleled collection to inspire visitors to think about these and other questions surrounding their relationships with the car.”
The exhibition includes 130 vehicles from the museum’s collection, as well as 60 cases of artifacts and 18 interactive 42-inch touch screens with videos, oral histories and additional information.
Presidential limos 
1960 Meskowski dirt track racer
1951 Studebaker Champion Starlight coupe at Lamy’s Diner 
Entrance to the Driving America exhibition
1906 Locomobile ‘Old 16’ was first American car to win the Vanderbilt Cup (in 1908) 
The American automotive timeline 
Vintage Howard Johnson restaurant sign
Bugatti Royale, one of only six built 
1913 Scripps-Booth Rocket, a cycle car prototype
Jeep on the timeline 
Stock car racers 
Henry Ford’s 1901 ‘Sweepstakes’ racer brought respect and money to start Ford Motor Co.
Electric powered: 1896 Riker 3-wheeler and 1907 White Model G 
Mid-engined Mustang prototype and early production convertible
1904 Packard Model L touring car is part of a family vehicle display 
In 1957, Cornell University and Liberty Mutual Insurance built this safety car 
This still-dirty 1903 Packard Model F runabout was the second car to be driven coast-to-coast
1908 Stevens-Duryea Model U limousine in the ‘Style’ showcase 
Le Mans-winning 1967 Ford GT40 and 1933 Willys drag racer
1906 Thomas Flyer touring car in the timeline 
In 1893, Henry Ford built his ‘kitchen sink’ engine
Among those cars are a 1865 Roper, a steam-powered machine which the museum says is the oldest-surviving American car; an 1896 Duryea, the last surviving example of the country’s first production car; as well as the museum’s 1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale, the third of the six produced.
Those and other vehicles are featured in 20 “focal areas,” from family vans to race cars, from electric cars to the evolution of road trips from camping to motels, and a two-tiered “timeline” that twists nearly through the length of the massive exhibit.
The exhibition even includes Lamy’s Diner, a 1946-vintage roadside eatery brought indoors, where it serves meals to museum visitors, at its counter, in booths or on our terrace overlooking some of the Driving America displays.
The Henry Ford is located in Dearborn, Michigan, adjacent to Greenfield Village, a collection of historical buildings brought together by Henry Ford. For more information, visit the museum’s website.
Photos by Larry Edsall
