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Daily Schedule

Daily sessions of the workshop will each be devoted to investigating a particular theme. The topics include

(1) Henry Ford and Manufacturing History,

(2) Henry Ford and Labor History,

(3) Henry Ford as Icon,

(4) The Diego Rivera Murals, and

(5) The Contemporary Ford Rouge Plant.

Ford Motor Company River Rouge Plant
Courtesy of the Walter Reuther Library

Morning seminars on these topics featuring distinguished scholars and commentators will convene at the M-TEC (Michigan Technical Education Center). Each session will be followed by a tour that will enhance the morning's dialogue. Participants will visit sites such as the Ford Rouge Plant, the Diego Rivera Detroit Industrial Murals (at the Detroit Institute of Arts), the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, the Piquette (Model T) Ford Plant, the Benson Ford Archives, the Burton Archives, and the Walter Reuther Labor Archives . Transportation to seminar and tour sites will be provided to participants.

Afternoon sessions will include opportunities for archival research. The cultural and recreational activities in the evenings available to participants include an architectural tour of Detroit; concerts at the Meadowbrook and DTE Energy Music Festivals; drama at the Gem, Fisher, and Fox Theatres; swimming and exercise at the expansive Dearborn Community Center; Detroit Tiger baseball; and dining at the metropolitan area's vast array of ethnic restaurants. Other attractions easily accessible by automobile include Detroit's celebrated new city center (Campus Martius) and the Detroit Zoo.

The Henry Ford Workshop will be driven by an incisive dialogue from start to finish. The morning presenters will determine the direction of this exchange.

In Monday's session (“Henry Ford and Manufacturing History”) Stephen Meyer, professor of History and Urban Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and author of The Five Dollar Day: Labor, Management and Social Control in the Ford Motor Company, 1908-1921 , will profile manufacturing operations and policy at the Ford Highland Park factory. In the same session, Michael Skinner, President of the Henry Ford Heritage Association, will discuss Henry Ford's principles as they came to be embodied in the mid-twentieth century at the Ford Rouge plant. To complement Monday's seminar, participants in the afternoon will tour the Henry Ford Museum, and begin research projects at the Benson Ford archives.

In Tuesday's session (“The Henry Ford and Labor History”) Michael Smith, Director of the Walter Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs, will trace a century of dramatic confrontations of labor and management at Ford Motor Company. Professor Smith, who directs the Graduate Department of Archival Administration at Wayne State University, will not only analyze Ford labor history but also will discuss effective research techniques. In this session, Steve Babson, program specialist at the Labor Studies Center at Wayne State University and author of Working Detroit, will speak to contemporary labor issues at the Ford Rouge Plant, such as the automation and the internationalization of production. Following this seminar, participants will visit sites marking two historic labor conflicts in metropolitan Detroit: the route of the Ford Hunger March (1932) and the location of the Battle of the Rouge Overpass (1937). The tour will continue to Hart Plaza in Detroit, site of the recently dedicated Labor Legacy Landmark, and conclude at the Walter Reuther Labor Archives (where documents of unions such as the UAW, United Farm Workers, and Industrial Workers of the World are preserved and catalogued.) At the Reuther archives, participants will be afforded time to continue working on their personal research projects.

In Wednesday's session (Henry Ford as Icon) the discussion highlights Henry Ford as a corporate titan and folk hero. David Poremba, archival specialist and author of Detroit: A Motor City History and Detroit in its World Setting: A 300-year Chronology will begin the seminar. Poremba will evaluate the accomplishments and policies of Henry Ford within the context of urban history, including Ford's policy toward particular ethnic and racial groups. In this seminar Michael Daher, professor of' English at Henry Ford Community College and co-author of the oral history series, Recollections of Henry Ford , will profile Henry Ford's image in popular culture, literature, and art. The morning dialogue will be followed by lunch at Henry Ford's Fair Lane Estate. After lunch, participants will tour Greenfield Village, an outdoor museum that Henry Ford deemed one of his prime accomplishments. Participants will then continue their research at the Benson Ford Archives.

In Thursday's session (The Detroit Industrial Murals of Diego Rivera) Nancy Jones, Director of Education at the Detroit Institute of Arts, will introduce participants to Rivera's spectacular murals in the courtyard of the Institute. Her profile will identify the themes and explain the techniques that Rivera employed in creating the frescoes that cover the four walls of the courtyard. In this session Dora Apel, professor of Art History at Wayne State University, will trace Rivera's capacity to provoke dynamic public response by exploring how, in the words of one commentator, “the murals belonged to anyone, including the Communist Party, who used the murals to win new members; civil rights leaders, who sought support from the working class; and corporate executive recruiters.” This seminar constitutes a tour in itself, but will also be followed by a visit to the Burton Archives of the Detroit Public Library (for research) and the Ford Piquette (Model T) plant.

Friday's seminar (The Contemporary Rouge) will conclude the Landmarks Workshop. Ford Motor Director of Vehicle Operations at the Rouge Plant, Dennis Profit, will provide an overview of the environmental and manufacturing innovations of the redesigned factory, particularly as they relate to the competitive capacity of the plant within the international arena. Jerry Sullivan, President of U.A.W. Local 600 (serving the Rouge), will address developments and current issues at Ford Motor Company from a labor perspective. Linda West, Director of the Michigan Technical Education Center, will describe the culture of the workforce at the Rouge and explain the role of ongoing workplace education at the factory. The entire session will take place in the main conference room of Local 600. Participants will conclude the workshop with their final tour—a visit to the operational Rouge complex—followed by a seminar to assess the week's activities.

Archival sessions will afford participants the opportunity to develop a Workshop project. The project may have one of two principal emphases: 1) planning directed toward curricular and course development, or 2) research directed toward the composition of an analytical essay. Directors of the three main archives to be employed in the Henry Ford Landmarks Workshop will present detailed profiles of the resources and methodology appropriate to each archive, with a particular emphasis on electronic resources.

Three essential texts will be provided to Workshop participants: Stephen Meyer's The Five Dollar Day , Steve Babson's Working Detroit , and Linda Downs' Diego Rivera: The Detroit Industry Murals.

These and other selected readings will serve as background reading assignments for the Workshop and will furnish nascent material for curricular and research projects. Participants will draw on seminar dialogues, tours, and archives to work on individual project goals. The Workshop website will assist participants in organizing such material. Developing a Workshop project will constitute a main participant activity. Throughout the workshop week, participants will have computer access in day and evening hours at Henry Ford Community College. The Doubletree Hilton Hotel (the Workshop residency) is a wireless zone and provides wireless adapters to its guests. Applicants will also have access to the Henry Ford Community College and University of Michigan-Dearborn libraries.