Liberty Craftworks

About This Exhibit

The rush of the mill pond draws you in as the sounds and motion of early American manufacturing surround you. Skilled artisans practice authentic period crafts and trades. View them all daily as they work with the techniques that are, in some cases, centuries old.

Highlights

Glass Shop

The Glass Shop was constructed in 1930 to demonstrate the art of glass making as practiced in nineteenth century America. It was modeled after the Boston and Sandwich Glass House, located in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 2005, the shop was rebuilt, enlarged and updated with modern equipment. Today, our artisans create up to 10,000 pieces of historic and contemporary Studio Glass annually.

Printing Office & Tin Shop

The Printing Office was built in Greenfield Village in 1933. For decades, the building served as a utilitarian print shop for Greenfield Village. At one time, the building housed a recreated 19th-century small town newspaper print shop and tinsmithing studio. Now, only the print shop remains.

Weaving Shop

The Greenfield Village Weaving Shop demonstrates the evolution of textile production from the colonial home and craft shop, through the Industrial Revolution to commercial factory. Housed in a converted 1840s Georgia cotton mill, the Weaving Shop contains a number of working looms, including one of the few operating mechanical Jacquard looms in North America.

Loranger Gristmill

Gristmills — usually among the earliest businesses established in a community — ground grain harvested by local farmers. This mill, originally located in Monroe, Michigan, was set up to grind both corn and wheat. It incorporates a sophisticated conveyor system, developed by Oliver Evans in the late 1700s, that moves grain through the building to undergo a variety of processes.

Gunsolly Carding Mill

John Gunsolly operated this water-powered carding mill as well as a saw and cider mill on the Middle Rouge River near Plymouth, Michigan, beginning in the 1850s. Area farmers brought their wool to this mill to have it carded (combed) so it could be spun into thread.

Armington & Sims Machine Shop

This building essentially provides support for a system of shafts and pulleys that distribute mechanical energy to the rows of metal working machine tools arranged along the building's length. The machinists who worked in shops like this could tackle a wide range of jobs. America's nineteenth century machine shops were a training ground for many technological innovators.

Pottery Shop

The Pottery Shop was designed in 1939 by Edward L. Cutler, an architect who helped Henry Ford create his historic village. Designed as a reproduction rice mill to house 19th-century threshing machinery from a South Carolina plantation, the building was repurposed as the Pottery Shop in 1984. Today, visitors view demonstrations of hand-made pottery including salt-glaze and slip wares.

Davidson-Gerson Gallery of Glass

The Henry Ford's glass collection is one of the most comprehensive in the United States, numbering approximately 10,000 pieces. The gallery traces the history of American glass from the 18th century through the present, including works by important artists like Louis Comfort Tiffany and masters of the Studio Glass movement. Built as a machine shop in 1888 in Lapeer, Michigan, this building was moved to Greenfield Village in 1931.