November 2010

The General Motors Building, completed in 1923, is the oldest extant General Motors Headquarters building in Detroit. Founded in 1908 by William C. Durant, General Motors grew to be a leader in the automobile industry by acquiring Buick, Oldsmobile, Oakland (later named Pontiac), Cadillac, Chevrolet, and several lesser known automobile manufacturers and parts suppliers. Between 1908 and 1923, General Motors was headquartered in a number of rented offices, first in New York and then in Detroit. In 1919, company officials decided to build a permanent headquarters and hired noted architect Albert Kahn to create the design. The construction and completion of this impressive building marked the beginning of the Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. era, which saw General Motors surpassing its competitors in total sales. Sloan, who became president after Durant was ousted in 1921, created a decentralized management plan that became a model for much of the rest of American industry. Under Sloan's direction, General Motors also popularized the annual model which gave consumers the opportunity to choose from a wide variety of color combinations and personal amenities.

Here visitors explore central Wyoming's regional history museum, featuring exhibits on prehistoric peoples, Plains Indians, ranching, the energy industry, and teh City of Casper as well as the western emigrant trails and frontier army. A major expansion was recently completed, that gave the museum new exhibit space and educational rooms.

The National Museum of American History offers a collection of Americana as rich and diverse as the country that created them.

It collects and preserves more than 3 million artifacts, from the original Star-Spangled Banner and Abraham Lincoln’s top hat to Dizzy Gillespie’s angled trumpet and Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.

Exhibitions at the Museum explore major themes in American history and culture, from the War of Independence to the present day.

A full roster of public programs, from demonstrations, lectures, and tours to storytelling and festivals, complements these exhibitions.

Built in the 1930's, the museum was originally a WPA project for Company A, 115th Cavalry, Wyoming National Guard, the museum was named for Anna C. ( McMoran) Miller, the daughter of a pioneer family, and widow of Sheriff Billy Miller who was killed in what is known as the last Indian battle in this area.
It has an exhibit on the ghost town of Cambria, which was once called the “Model Camp of the World”. It served as a camp for coal miners in the area and no saloons were allowed in the town. The museum also has five rooms refurbished with antiques from the 1930s, as well as an exhibit of fossils. Also on site are the Green Mountain Schoolhouse, and the Jenney Stockade Cabin, the oldest remaining building from the Black Hills gold rush.

Also on display are fossils, including the skull cap of Pachysephalosaurus, sections of Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops.

It began as a simple yet bold idea to document the genius of ordinary people by recognizing and preserving the objects they used in the course of their everyday lives. It grew into the ultimate place to explore what Americans past and present have imagined and invented — a remarkable destination that brings American ideas and innovations to life. The sheer scope and design of Henry Ford Museum is as grand as the vision that inspired it. It’s impossible not to feel a sense of awe as your mind adjusts to a different sense of scale — more vast, more expansive and more diverse— by far— than anything you'll encounter in everyday life. The sweeping, single-floor space with its soaring 40-foot ceilings covers nine acres dedicated to showcasing the finest collection of its kind ever assembled.

Nineteen stainless steel sculptures stand silently under the watchful eye of a sea of faces upon a granite wall—reminders of the human cost of defending freedom. These elements all bear witness to the patriotism, devotion to duty, and courage of Korean War veterans.

The Montana Historical Society Museum, Montana's Museum, collects, preserves, and interprets fine art, historical, archaeological, and ethnological artifacts that pertain to Montana and its adjoining geographic region. Montana's Museum is where history and land come together in the story of the people who have called Montana home. It is located near the State Capitol in Helena.

Permanent exhibits at the museum include "Neither Empty nor Unknown: Montana at the Time of Lewis and Clark," "Montana Homeland" on everyday life throughout Montana history, and "Big Medicine," a preserved white bison (only one of five million bison are white bison) that was of significance to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

The Ford River Rouge Complex may be the world's most famous auto plant. In 1915 Henry Ford bought 2000 acres along the Rouge River west of Detroit, intending to use the site only to make coke, smelt iron, and build tractors. Over the next dozen years, however, the company turned the Rouge, as it became known, into the most fully integrated car manufacturing facility in the world. By 1927, when Ford shifted its final assembly line from Highland Park to the Rouge, the complex included virtually every element needed to produce a car: blast furnaces, an open hearth mill, a steel rolling mill, a glass plant, a huge power plant and, of course, an assembly line. Ninety miles of railroad track and miles more of conveyor belts connected these facilities, and the result was mass production of unparalleled sophistication and self-sufficiency. "By the mid-1920's," wrote historian David L. Lewis, "the Rouge was easily the greatest industrial domain in the world" and was "without parallel in sheer mechanical efficiency." None of the buildings that comprise this National Historic Landmark have remained unchanged over the years, a reflection of continuing developments in production techniques.

The Sorenson home, although having the appearance of a cross-wing style, is actually two parlor houses connected in a cross-wing fashion. The original section of the home was built around 1882 with adobe bricks as a family project of Peter and Martina Sorenson. Visitors will see artifacts from the 1890s on an informal tour of the home.

Located among the national monuments to freedom on the National Mall, the museum provides a powerful lesson in the fragility of freedom, the myth of progress, the need for vigilance in preserving democratic values. With unique power and authenticity, the Museum teaches millions of people each year about the dangers of unchecked hatred and the need to prevent genocide.