The Henry Ford

The Henry Ford will identify, clean, treat, rehouse, and create digital catalog records for more than 1,000 communications-related artifacts related to photography, data processing, printing, telecommunications, sound communication, and visual communication. These collections include a telephone set used to open the Boston to Chicago telephone line in 1893; radio equipment used to search for evidence of extraterrestrial life during the 1920s; and telemetry systems used to record atomic testing in 1951 for Operation Greenhouse. The project will protect and preserve the objects, improve access, eliminate overcrowded storage, facilitate interpretation, and share information through multiple publicly available collections interfaces. The work will begin a planned consolidation of three large-object storage areas into a single, on-site facility. The project will also support the communications component of a Revolutions exhibition and related educational programs that will explore innovations in the industrial, agricultural, and information revolutions.