Ford Motor Company. Photographic Dept.

During the first decade of the Ford Motor Company's existance, the company employed various photographers and photographic firms to provide images for many of the same reasons which led to the establishment of the Photographic Department: to furnish a record of production methodology, to provide illustrations for publications, and to provide publicity for Henry Ford and his company. The first of two such departments, the Photographic Department, was formed in 1913 and was the sole department until 1918. Initially located in the administration building of the Highland Park Plant, the department moved in the mid 1920s to the Rouge Plant administration building in Dearborn, Michigan. In 1956, it relocated again to the World Headquarters administration building on Dearborn's Michigan Avenue. At first the department's photographers focused on the visual documentation of company products, plants, and employees. Around the time of the move to the Rouge, however, the emphasis gradually shifted toward public relations and promotional functions. Very few internal textual documents that might shed light on the organization and administration of the department are extant, however, negatives and photographic prints still in the company's files in the 1950s were preserved and later donated to the Edison Institute (now The Henry Ford) in 1964. Some of the photographers employed by the Ford Motor Company were George Ebling, Joseph Farkas, Michael Malley, E.S. Purrington, William Stettler, and C.E. Wagner.