Henry Ford believed the tractor would play a vital role in improving the farm industry, just as the Model T did for transportation. This book provides an engaging visual history of his tractor. Published in 1995, it offers a wonderful collection of 129 high quality archival images from the holdings of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. The editor assembled the photographs explaining that “Most were neither captioned nor identified but, as few have ever been reproduced, they are presented as found.” It is important to remember that while today we find a variety of online sources for visual images, when this book was published none of this was available. The Photo Archive books offered an alternative to shopping at shows and flea markets for individual photographs. One could easily spend more than the cost of the book for a fraction of the number of photographs the book featured. While the book includes a very brief but informative two-page introduction, its value for Fordson enthusiasts is the photographs. The limited time frame allows a more comprehensive look at the Fordson tractor. Three sections cover Experimental and Prototype Tractors, Production Tractors, and Industrial Tractors on display and in action in a variety of settings.

Book Review by Robert Gabrick