The Ford Times started out in 1908 as a means of keeping both customer & dealer informed. In the early days of the publication articles were geared towards Ford products.
However as time went on this trend gradually changed to a more variety magazine format, featuring travel stories, historical yarns, watercolor prints, and in the 1950s & 60s a myriad of artwork by artist Charley Harper.
Perhaps the one thing Ford Times was most known for is the recipes. For many years recipes from famous restaurants across the country were published towards the back of the magazine. This popularity spawned several "Treasury of Ford Times Recipes" cookbooks, which those in itself are also fairly desirable.
Ford Times magazines started out as a medium sized magazine in 1908. Henry Ford upon seeing the first copies of the magazine, went to stuff one in his pocket- however it wouldn't fit! He promptly had the print staff shrink the size of the magazine to where it could fit in his coat pocket. He said "Might as well make it to where people can carry them around without much hassle." And so it was. After WW2, they tried going back to the medium sized magazine but here again Henry Ford had on a coat with small pockets. In the 1980s the magazine took on traditional magazine size.
Ford Times and the spin off publications such as "Treasury of Station Wagon Living" , "Treasury of Ford Times Recipes" and others all are worth collecting. Most issues of Ford Times can be bought for a few dollars each with the very early ones going for much more. Recently on Ebay, a complete set of Vol 1. (1908) sold for close to $2,000.00!
