Steam locomotive “Edison,” number 1, plies the rails through Greenfield Village. Copyright © 2023 Randy Runtsch.

Relive History at Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village

America’s first living history museum draws schoolchildren, tourists, history buffs, and photographers

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t — you’re right.” ― Henry Ford

This story is not about Henry Ford’s assembly line that revolutionized manufacturing. Nor is it about how Ford promoted antisemitic views. Instead, it concerns his goal to “reproduce American life as lived.”

Henry Ford’s boyhood home in Greenfield Village. Copyright © 2023 Randy Runtsch.

As I crossed the railroad tracks at Greenfield Village, I felt I had traveled back in time. Greenfield is an outdoor living history museum located in Dearborn, Michigan. It aims to show how Americans have lived and worked since colonial times.

Millstone inside a grain mill in Greenfield Village. Copyright © 2023 Randy Runtsch.

Henry Ford expressed his vision for Greenfield Village and the adjacent Henry Ford Museum in this quote: