Henry Ford Would Be Proud--Using QR Codes

In Front of the Museum Entrance

Going along with the theme of writing about our experiences from Meg’s last blog post, my husband and I recently visited The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.  I must admit, when my husband first mentioned his idea of visiting these two places, I was not very enthusiastic.  I was wrong!

For those of you not familiar with these two facilities, I learned that Henry Ford did a lot more then make the Ford automobile.  He was quite the collector! And, this is how the museum and village got their start.  When you visit the museum and village, you get to see Henry’s collection first hand.  He was an inventor and an innovative man, so he collected items from people who were also innovative such as Charles Lindbergh, Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, and the list seriously could go on for a long, long time.

Noah Webster House

When I say collected items, I mean the village is full of structures he collected like the one room school house he attended or Noah Webster’s (creator of the dictionary) home.  Yes, I said home!  Henry Ford purchased the home, and had it brought to his Greenfield Village.  I could go on and on with the list of amazing things you can see when visiting the museum, which brings me to my next point.  You don’t have to go there to experience all the museum and village have to offer.

Let me begin by saying the docents were very friendly, helpful, and informative. I love to see people enthusiastic about their work.  It speaks to the type of environment the museum is trying to create.   Anyway, it was a docent who led us over to this “kiosk” to show us how The Henry Ford Museum has gone digital.

Using the Touch Screen to Access the Digital Collections

Standing in front of one these touch computer screens allows you access to the museum's digital collections.  What does that mean?  Every item on display has been photographed and written about and the information has been made accessible for you to take home through the use of a QR code.  You can use your phone to scan the QR code, or a docent can give you what looks like a credit card to use to scan the QR codes.  Once you've scanned the code, the information is sent to you for access at a later date from the comforts of your own home.

For example, as I was walking through the museum I spotted a display on camping trailers.  Being that I like camping, I took a stroll through the display.  I came across the trailer of Charles Lindbergh and his wife.  Cool!  However, all I could see was the outside of the trailer.  BORING!

I wanted to see the inside of the trailer Henry Ford gave to his friend Charles in 1942, so I walked over to the “kiosk” to look it up in the digital collections.  Of course it was on file!  If I had wanted to, I could have scanned the available QR code and had the information saved for later use.  If you click on the link below the image of Lindbergh, you will also notice that through searching using the key word “Lindbergh”, I also had access to other archives the museum owns related to Lindbergh.  In fact, the museum’s digital collection includes every item they own—this means items that may not be on public display.

Link Here for More Info

Of course you can also access the museum’s digital collection at home, and I do encourage you to take a look.  I plan to use their digital collections this year in my English class for inspiration on various writing topics.  I can see myself pulling up photos from the digital collection--think visual literacy.  Also, it would be a wonderful non-fiction reading resource.  I am thinking reluctant readers would enjoy perusing the images and reading the “short” blurbs of text that accompany the pictures as well (see link beneath Lindbergh image).  And, of course, this site can be used to support history curriculum and for research.

You will probably see more about my experience at The Henry Ford Museum in future blog posts.  Until then, have fun using the digital collections and teacher resources found on the museum’s website.

Look for the word Collections on the museum's homepage.

Note:  I put kiosk in quotes because the museum did not call or label the computers available in the museum as such.  It just seemed like the right word to fit for the purpose of describing the technology available.