Records Stored in 1919 series, 1902-1923 (bulk 1907-1918).

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Records Stored in 1919 series, 1902-1923 (bulk 1907-1918).

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/289019679

Most materials in this series were created or maintained by Ford Motor Company treasurer Frank L. Klingensmith, Henry Ford Office secretaries Ernest G. Liebold, H.R. Waddell, and assistant secretary to Henry Ford G.S. Anderson. Among the topics best represented are Fair Lane Estate, Henry Ford Estates (Fair Lane and other residences), Henry Ford Hospital, Valley Farm, Inc. home for orphaned boys, Ford's senatorial campaign, Ford's pacifist views and efforts, and the Selden Patent case. The Records Stored in 1919 series consists of five subseries. The Architect Estimates for Fair Lane subseries, 1914-1916 (4.4 cubic ft.), consists of estimates on labor, construction, and materials from the architectural firm of W.H. Van Tine Building Organization, Inc., along with related correspondence and invoices from them and other builders and suppliers. The Financial records subseries, 1902-1918 (4.4 cubic ft.), consists of checks and vouchers, bank statements for commercial bank accounts and for personal accounts of Henry and Clara Ford, invoices, cancelled checks, receipts, and related correspondence. Some of the chief concerns covered by these materials include tractor development, shipbuilding, architects' estimates, and the boys' home Valley Farm, Inc., as well as more routine matters such as repairs to personal automobiles, legal services, club memberships, telephone bills, taxes, grocery bills, and the like. Bank statements are arranged alphabetically by either name of account or by bank name. Other materials are organized by type of material and then in rough chronological order. Among the commercial bank accounts are those for the Ford Athletic Park, or Ford Athletic Field, an athletic facility attached to the Highland Park Plant; production of the antismoking pamphlet, "The Little White Slaver"; Ford Hawaiian Quintet; and Henry Ford & Son tractor company. Included within the paid invoices for Valley Farm is a partially filled register for the institution. The Checks and Correspondence files, 1902-1906, contains a variety of materials, including correspondence with James Couzens, along with an agreement for Henry Ford's buyout of James Couzens' Ford Motor Company stock; other documents from the early days of the Ford Motor Company, including statements of company assets, dividends, and liabilities; correspondence with suppliers, dealers, and customers regarding the Model N Runabout automobile; property agreements; and miscellaneous invoices, mostly related to Ford's agricultural interests. Also included are letters from George M. Holley regarding magneto testing and development, 1905, and a letter from Frank Kulick describing a test drive of the Model K. The Office Correspondence of Henry Ford subseries, 1907-1911 (3.6 cubic ft.), consists of a wide range of correspondence reflecting not just Henry Ford's varied interests and activities but also his enormous influence upon and popularity in American society of the day. Much of the correspondence is made up of letters from business acquaintances, charitable organizations, current and former Ford Motor Company or Ford personal employees, and members of the general public requesting assistance of some form, generally financial assistance, employment, or recommendations for employment. In some instances, return correspondence documents maintenance of or investigation into these cases. Other correspondence pertaining more directly to Ford's activities deals with real estate transactions; building, landscaping, construction, decorating, and furnishing for Fair Lane Estate and other Ford residences (sometimes referenced under the umbrella term "Henry Ford Estates"); building and construction for other Ford-owned properties; taxes, legal services, insurance, telephone bills, travel arrangements, and other personal expenditures for Henry and Clara and charitable donations made on their behalf; the Good Roads movement; the acquisition and running of the Dearborn State Bank; studies of shipbuilding and shipyards dating from around the period of Ford's Eagle Boat production; lumber; and automotive equipment. The Office Correspondence subseries is arranged chronologically and then alphabetically by correspondent or topic. The Telegrams subseries, 1916-1919 (1.6 cubic ft.), consists of telegrams to and from Henry Ford Office personnel regarding Henry Ford's personal, commercial, and political pursuits. While largely routine in nature, concerning travel arrangements, declinations of speaking engagements, and other similar details, some telegrams impart more substantive information, particularly those regarding preparations for the Peace Ship voyage and European peace conference and Ford's pacifist views. Other telegrams have to do with Henry Ford's early tractor experimentation and the startup and earliest operations of Henry Ford and Son Tractor Company. Most of the telegrams are between E.G. Liebold and G.S. Anderson or to Gaston Plantiff, a Ford branch manager charged with Peace Ship arrangements. Some telegrams are signed by Henry Ford rather than one of his representatives; most of these are longer and written in full prose style and generally concern his pacifist views. There is also a small number of telegrams from Edsel Ford to his father, between Henry Ford and John Burroughs, and between Henry Ford and Thomas Edison regarding the arrangement of visits. Some of the correspondence, both telegrams and letters, between Liebold and his agents is written in a secret code devised by Liebold. A partial key to this code exists, a copy of which can be found in folder 1, box 1. The Miscellaneous subseries, 1910-1923 (2.8 cubic ft.), consists of records pertaining to Valley Farm, Henry Ford's senatorial campaign (although other materials in the series refer to this campaign as well), Detroit General Hospital and Henry Ford Hospital, and tractor development, as well as bound periodicals of Engineering Magazine containing the series of articles "Ford Methods and the Ford Shops" written by Horace Arnold and Fay Faurote, and numerous letters from a mental patient in Chicago appealing for millions of dollars. Also present is a miscellany of unsorted letters from the public and acquaintances, clippings, business cards, event programs, and notes. Materials from the Ford senatorial campaign include correspondence regarding campaign arrangements such as ballot proofs, campaign literature, and an index of campaign payments and donations by Michigan county. Selden Patent Suit files relate to Ford's challenge of George Selden's automobile patent and include Ford's lawyers' opinions as early as 1903, opinions on the case and similar cases, and correspondence regarding the settlement of the suit, 1912-1913. The Valley Farm materials consist primarily of records and case files for the boys residing there and a small amount of material regarding the property lease. Most of the tractor-related records consist of invoices from tractor manufacturers, parts suppliers, and foundries and related financial correspondence. Hospital records pertain to Henry Ford's support of Detroit General Hospital in the years prior to its acquisition by Ford and transformation to Henry Ford Hospital.

16.8 cubic ft.

The Henry Ford, Benson Ford Research Center

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7266702

The Henry Ford, Benson Ford Research Center

Related Entities

There are 27 Entities related to this resource.

Sialia (Ship)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61s3dhw (corporateBody)

Klingensmith, Frank L.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68s8v86 (person)

Selden, George Baldwin, 1846-1922

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g17q70 (person)

Ford Hawaiians

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ht9c32 (corporateBody)

Campsall, Frank Charles, 1884-1946.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65b1dr1 (person)

Frank Campsall, personal secretary to Henry Ford, began his career with Ford Motor Company in 1912 in the purchasing department of the Highland Park plant. Over the next 34 years he became Ford's trusted friend and confidant. His job was to oversee the details of a multitude of Ford personal interests, and he often traveled with the Fords when they vacationed at their homes in Fort Myers, Florida, and Ways, Georgia. Campsall was born on January 2, 1884, in Essex, Ontario, Canada and moved with h...

Henry Ford & Son, Inc.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sc0vzn (corporateBody)

Liebold, Ernest Gustav, 1884-1956.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tq98jd (person)

Ernest G. Liebold, executive secretary and business representative for Henry Ford for many years, was born in Detroit, Michigan on March 16, 1884. In 1911, James Couzens, general manager of Ford Motor Company, offered Liebold a position in a new bank created by the company, and soon after, Henry Ford asked Liebold to organize the Dearborn State Bank. By 1918, Liebold's duties included holding the power of attorney for both Henry and Clara Ford. Liebold came to wield unparalleled authority in the...

Plantiff, Gaston, 1874-1934.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sr214h (person)

Gaston Plantiff was born September 25, 1874 in Belchertown, Massachusetts. He worked for Ford Motor Company from 1905,and was New York Branch Manager from 1913 to 1929. He was a trusted employee and friend of Henry Ford; he and his wife visited socially with the Fords on a regular basis. From the description of Gaston Plantiff papers, 1905-1931 (bulk 1920-1930) (The Henry Ford). WorldCat record id: 68103848 ...

Waddell, H. R.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h45wqx (person)

Valley Farm, Inc.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6286xhc (corporateBody)

Dearborn State Bank.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68t1cz2 (corporateBody)

Fair Lane (Dearborn, Mich.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v47j6x (corporateBody)

Arnold, Horace Lucian, d. 1915

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qr92hw (person)

Ford, Clara Bryant, 1866-1950

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w09kr6 (person)

Ford, Henry, 1863-1947

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xk8d59 (person)

Industrialist and philanthropist Henry Ford, born July 30, 1863, grew up on a farm in what is now Dearborn, Michigan. Mechanically inclined from an early age, he worked in Detroit machine shops as a young man and became an engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company in 1891. Henry and Clara Jane Bryant, married in 1888, had one child, Edsel, born in 1893. In that same year, Henry tested his first internal combustion engine, and by 1896 completed his first car, the Quadricycle. Ford partnered in ...

W.H. Van Tine Building Organization, Inc.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64v377v (corporateBody)

Ford Motor Company. Office of Henry Ford.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gr3mxf (corporateBody)

Faurote, Fay Leone, -1938

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6449s8z (person)

Ford motor company

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r53djn (corporateBody)

When Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903, Alexander Y. Malcolmson was elected the Company's first treasurer, but his assistant James Couzens actually managed financial functions. People holding the position of Ford Motor Company treasurer from 1903 to 1955 included Alexander Y. Malcolmson, 1903-1906; James J. Couzens, 1906-1915; Frank L. Klingensmith, 1915-1921; Edsel B Ford, 1921-1943; B. J. Craig, 1943-1946; and L. E. Briggs, 1946-1955. In 1903, the business office was in a small building o...

Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation (1916)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zp9b2v (corporateBody)

In 1915, Henry Ford agreed to help the pacifist movement and chartered a ship, Oscar II, to sail to Norway, Denmark and Holland. Its mission was to lobby for peace, promote mediation, gather information, organize meetings, and collect signatures on peace petitions. The Henry Ford Peace Expedition, which grew out of the work of earlier pacifist conferences, helped to form the Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation. From the description of Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediati...

Henry Ford Peace Expedition 1915-1916

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ps1smx (corporateBody)

BIOGHIST REQUIRED The purpose of the Henry Ford Peace Expedition was to call a conference of delegates from non-combatant countries during World War I. In the winter of 1915-1916, the Ford Peace Expedition carried a delegation of Americans to Norway, Sweden, and Holland to meet with fellow European pacifists. Henry Ford hosted the "Peace Ship," which served as both a vehicle for travel and for collaboration amongst its passengers. BIOGHIST REQUIRED During the months prio...

Henry Ford Hospital

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s51hkw (corporateBody)

Oscar II (Ship)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zs8q22 (corporateBody)

Edison, Thomas Alva, 1847-1931

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66z0150 (person)

Thomas Alva Edison (born February 11, 1847, Milan, Ohio – died October 18, 1931, West Orange, New Jersey), American inventor and businessman who has been described as America's greatest inventor. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrial...

Anderson, G. S.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6md34qr (person)

Ford, Edsel, 1893-1943

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bv7w1d (person)

Edsel Ford's interests beyond automobiles and the automobile industry were broad and varied. He was president of the Arts Commission of the Detroit Institute of Arts, a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, and a trustee for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, Inc. He was a member of the Isle Royal National Park Commission, chairman of the board of the Detroit University School, and a director of the Manufacturers National Bank of Detroit. He was active in Ford Motor Company educatio...

Burroughs, John, 1837-1921

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wf4pks (person)

American naturalist and writer. From the description of Poem 1917. (Denver Public Library). WorldCat record id: 49995946 One of America's great naturalist authors. From the description of Memorabilia, 1905-1931. (Hartwick College). WorldCat record id: 27057683 American teacher, naturalist, poet, and essayist of national prominence. Friend of Walt Whitman; influenced by Thoreau, Carlyle, and Emerson. Employed accurate observations of nature, scientific re...