Between 1915 and 1924, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, John Burroughs, and Harvey Firestone, calling themselves the Four Vagabonds, embarked on a series of summer road trips. They were often joined by their spouses or sons, as well as other notable men of the time, but the core foursome of friends remained constant throughout most of the trips.

The idea began in 1914, when the Ford family and John Burroughs visited the Edison family in Florida and toured the Everglades. It was cemented the following year when Ford, Edison and Firestone traveled to California for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, where they visited Luther Burbank and then drove from Riverside to San Diego. In 1916, Edison invited Ford, Burroughs, and Harvey Firestone to journey through the New England Adirondacks and Green Mountains. Henry Ford, however, was unable to join that trip due to business obligations.

Subsequent itineraries included:

• 1918: The core Vagabonds of Ford, Edison, Firestone, and Burroughs were joined by Harvey Firestone, Jr, Commissioner Edward Hurley, and Professor Robert DeLoach of the Armour Company, who all set out from Pittsburgh and caravanned through the mountains of West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia.
• 1919: The campers, joined again by Firestone Jr. and new camper Edward Kingsford, traveled from Buffalo, New York to the Adirondacks and throughout New England.
• 1920: The Vagabond’s wives were included on this short trip to John Burroughs' home and cabin retreat into the Catskill Mountains of New York, where the entire group slept indoors, rather than in tents.
• 1921: An expanded group of campers on this trip included Edsel and Eleanor Ford, Harvey and Elizabeth Ford, Jr., Russell Firestone, and President Warren Harding, among others. The group caravanned and camped throughout Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
• 1923: The Vagabonds were again joined by their wives and others on this trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Once in the U.P., Edward and Mary Kingsford joined the campers as they toured and camped at multiple Ford Motor Company lumbering and mining properties.
• 1924: The Fords, Edisons, and Firestones, joined by Edsel and Eleanor Ford and others, gathered at Henry and Clara Ford's Wayside Inn in Massachusetts, and then visited with President Coolidge at his home in Vermont. Neither tents, nor camping, were part of this last Vagabonds adventure.

The trips were well organized and equipped. There were several heavy passenger cars and vans to carry the travelers, household staff, chefs, and equipment. Photographers hired by Ford and Firestone also accompanied the group to document the trips. Henry Ford utilized these gatherings with great minds to tinker with new ideas for waterpower, manufacturing, and other technical innovations. In one of his trip diaries, Burroughs said “Mr. Ford always thinks in terms of the greatest good to the greatest number. He aims to place all his inventions within the reach of the greatest mass of people.”

By 1924, the Four Vagabonds were older and busier, and their growing fame brought much public attention at each of their stops. The growing hordes of reporters and townsfolk were part of what brought these adventurous road trips to an end after nearly a decade.

Additional resources about the Four Vagabonds’ travels can be found at the Benson Ford Research Center, the Firestone Archives at the University of Akron, and the John Burroughs Journals, Special Collections, Vassar College Libraries. Books published about the adventures include There to Breathe the Beauty by Norman Brauer, American Journey by Wes Davis, and The Vagabonds by Jeff Guinn.

Leslie Armbruster is an archives manager at Ford.