The Rouge
River Plant
Henry Ford’s
industrial masterpiece was opened in 1918 and reached to full capacity by mid-1920s. It
was one of the world’s largest industrial complexes along the banks of the Rouge
River in Dearborn, Michigan. The massive Rouge Plant included all the elements needed for
automobile production. It was 1.5 miles long and 75 miles wide plant, including  a steel mill, glass factory, and automobile assembly line. Iron ore and
coal were brought in on Great Lakes steamers and by railroad, and were used to produce
both iron and steel. Rolling mills, forges, and assembly shops transformed the steel into
springs, axles, and car bodies. Foundries converted iron into engine blocks and cylinder
heads that were assembled with other components into engines. By September 1927, all the
preparations in the manufacturing process - from refining raw materials to final assembly
of the automobile took place at the vast Rouge Plant. Rouge Plant became a magic Genie
characterizing Henry Ford’s idea of mass production and is still working as one of
the biggest car industries today.
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Ford Film Collection Ford Motor Company donated over 1,500,000 feet of motion picture film produced between 1914 and the early 1940s, by the Company’s Motion Picture Department to the National Archives, in 1963. It was an important contribution. The Ford Film Collection is encyclopedic in its coverage of current events of that period. Over the years, the Research Center has acquired broadcast quality copies of ‘selected footage’ related to Henry Ford’s personal activities such as his camping trips with Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs, Moreover it consists Ford Motor Company subjects including footage documenting the evolution of the moving assembly line, and Henry Ford Museum related subjects such as the 1929 Light’s Golden Jubilee Celebration. |
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