Julia Child is coming to The Henry Ford—well, not the late legend herself, obviously, but a traveling Julia Child exhibit that is making its premiere at the Dearborn destination. The museum has also acquired and plans to preserve the Selma, Alabama, home of Dr. and Mrs. Sullivan Jackson where Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights advocates planned the Selma-to-Montgomery marches of 1965.
Kate Morland, head of exhibitions and performances at The Henry Ford, says the Julia Child exhibit—created and toured by Flying Fish Exhibits—was arriving this week to be set up in preparation for opening May 20. It explores the curiosity and spirit that drove Child to try, test, prove, and communicate how to make delicious food, and how she empowered others and as a result transformed American cuisine and food culture.
“Julia Child marks the turning point of popularization of, you could say, the slow food movement or really enjoying the art of cooking,” says Morland, who likes to cook as well. “She was popular at a time when so many conveniences had been made available—instant this, frozen that. But she thought that good food took time, so for those people who are foodies or who like cooking, she wasn’t the only one doing this, but she was such a charismatic person that she popularized it.”
The Detroit run of the Julia Child exhibit will feature a wall of photos owned by The Henry Ford that will not travel on when the exhibit leaves. Morland says the images are part of an archive from designer Bill Stumpf obtained by the museum in years past. “These are from an issue of a magazine called Design Quarterly and it was a study of how her kitchen functioned as kind of a design entity, where all of her pots and pans were and how far she had to go when she was cooking,” Morland says.
The Julia Child exhibit has an immersive aspect that will allow visitors to position themselves in the kitchen as Child would have. Additionally, multiple film clips will be playing. “It’s amazing how many people learned to cook by watching her TV shows and she has all these tips and tricks,” Morland says. “Within the exhibit we show a lot of film clips so people will be able to take away things from the exhibit in that way.” The Julia Child exhibit runs through Sept. 10.
The Henry Ford also recently announced its plans to preserve the Jackson House, where King watched President Lyndon Johnson’s famous “We Shall Overcome” speech announcing the bill guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote that would become the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Sole surviving child of the Jacksons, Jawana Jackson has dedicated her life to protecting and preserving the house and contacted The Henry Ford requesting that the home be permanently relocated, installed, interpreted, and presented in The Henry Ford’s outdoor museum, Greenfield Village. The process will take several years, with contents being removed first and then the structure taken apart and trailered 860 miles to Dearborn for reassembly.
“Not every historic building can be preserved in its original location and for this reason, so many important places are forever lost,” historian and author of “Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights” Gretchen Sullivan Sorin, Ph.D., said in a press release. “Not so for the Jackson House that will find new life and meaning at The Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village.”
