Thank you to all those that attended our Corporate History tour, session, and luncheon. It turned out to be a great crowd!
With the Annual Meeting being held in Detroit, of course cars had to be a big focus. We began with a tour of the newly renovated Benson Ford Research Center at The Henry Ford Museum.
First stop – The Henry Ford.
There, we learned about their collections and recent renovations.
Manager of Archives & Library Nardina Mein and her team graciously took our group into several storage areas to show off the collections and talk about collections care and focus.
Then, we boarded the bus to the Ford Motor Company Archives, which collects more recent Ford history and works closely with the Benson Ford Research Center. The Archives recently moved to an historic, but renovated, building.
Manager of Archives & AV Assets Dean Weber and his team showed us wonderful artifacts from the Ford safe. No photos allowed inside the building.
It was great to learn about these two collections, and I must admit, I think everyone on the tour was jealous of their new spaces and not-yet-filled shelves!
The next day started early for us – the first session slot of the Meeting. Our Corporate History Committee session was on practical tips for moving collections.
Our speakers for this session were Jennifer Landry, Curator of Collections & Exhibitions at the National Scouting Museum in Irving, TX, Lisa Worley, Director of Material Culture at the Historic Ford Estates, and Dean Weber, whom we met the previous afternoon.
This was one of the best-attended sessions we’d done in a while. Half our audience was about to start or was in the middle of a collections move, and the other half had already gone through a move and gave the newbies some great advice. We hope everyone walked away with some helpful tips and guidance.
Following the session was our luncheon. Our guest speaker was Dave Moore, Resident Archivist for Carhartt, Inc. He gave an interesting presentation about the long history of his company while we enjoyed a nice meal.
Carhartt Archivist Dave Moore described the challenges of finding vintage photos of workers wearing Carhartt products.
A big thank you goes out to our Corporate History Committee members, speakers, and tour organizers. We had a great time this year, and we hope to see you at next year’s Annual Meeting in Austin, TX!
