Visual art / Business & brands / Civil rights & activism
Eleanor Clay Ford
1896–1976 · philanthropist, art patron, Ford Motor Company shareholder
Detroit-born niece of J. L. Hudson and wife of Edsel Ford, a major DIA patron who willed the family's Grosse Pointe estate to the public.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
aged 80- Birth name
- Eleanor Lowthian Clay
- Also known as
- Eleanor Ford
- Detroit years
- 1896–1976
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Eleanor Clay was born in Detroit; after her father died when she was twelve, she, her mother and sister lived with her uncle, department-store founder J. L. Hudson. She married Edsel Ford in her uncle's house on Boston Boulevard in November 1916, and the couple began married life in Indian Village before building Gaukler Point in Grosse Pointe Shores. After Edsel's death in 1943 she was a powerful shareholder and, with Clara Ford, is credited with persuading Henry Ford to install her son Henry Ford II as president. She funded the Detroit Institute of Arts for decades and gave it much of the couple's collection; she also sat on the board of Henry Ford Hospital for 53 years and supported the Detroit NAACP and the Merrill-Palmer Institute. In her will she asked that Gaukler Point be preserved for public use, and it opened to visitors in 1978 as the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House.
Highlights
- Married Edsel Ford in Detroit on November 1, 1916
- Major funder of the Detroit Institute of Arts
- Trustee of Henry Ford Hospital for 53 years
- Left Gaukler Point to become a public museum (opened 1978)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Lived here · 1929–1976
Edsel & Eleanor Ford House
Her home for nearly fifty years; under her will it opened to the public as a historic house museum in 1978.
Related place · 1924–1976
Detroit Institute of Arts (Friday Night Live!)
She funded the museum for decades and gave it much of the Ford collection.
Buried here · 1976
Woodlawn Cemetery
The family plot where Edsel is buried; her burial here is assumed from family records and should be verified.