In July 1973, Ford Times readers opened their mailboxes to a new kind of cover: a bold red, white and blue eagle, stamped “1776-1976.”

Inside, editors laid out the plan — one or two articles a month, for the next few years, on “events, men and ideas associated with the beginnings of the United States.” The goal, they wrote, was “to show history as both true and interesting.”

The series was called Our Native Land, and it kicked off three years ahead of schedule, timed to land its final chapters right at America's bicentennial. The first installment took readers to Independence Hall in Philadelphia — “the biggest, the best and the most famous of America's colonial buildings,” as writer Nathaniel Burt put it, tracing it from a 1730s construction project by a lawyer and a carpenter to its restoration ahead of 1976.

It’s a good reminder that Ford’s habit of celebrating American anniversaries isn’t new. Fifty years later, the company is doing it again with an exhibit at Union Station in Washington, D.C. through July 14 that shows some of Ford’s greatest contributions to America in its 123-year history.

Read the full issue from the Ford Times archive, July 1973. Browse more issues of the Ford Times at FordHeritageVault.com.