Interesting article RE: Car Museums

[BobPalma]

https://journal.classiccars.com/2018/05/17/forecast-isnt-all-gloom-for-car-museums/?utm_campaign=20180518&utm_content=20180518_featured_dealer_with_logo_newsletter_template_inventory&utm_medium=email&utm_source=zaius&zm64_id=Ym9iY2FyaXBhbG1hQGhvdG1haWwuY29t

[Stude Shoo-wop!]

Interesting article. I think the efforts shown here are a fine start, but I hope our fellow Independent marques (a la Nash, Hudson, etc.) experience a revival as well. It'd be a shame if their cars and memory is just swept under the proverbial carpet.

[T.J lavallee]

Interesting article. I think the efforts shown here are a fine start, but I hope our fellow Independent marques (a la Nash, Hudson, etc.) experience a revival as well. It'd be a shame if their cars and memory is just swept under the proverbial carpet.

I absolutely agree with your comments.

[556063]

The question that surrounds this really should be, has the Anti-Car Culture that has bit into our passions, and had some success the past 40 years, hit it's peak?

These museums need to be managed and funded, and that is what has ended the Hudson Museum's run. It ended up in the hands of people who feel the area it is located in could be better served by cashing out and using the facility for other purposes. In the case of the WPC Museum, it was because ownership is trying to change the identity of a company that sold out it's soul. Ownership saw little benefit in showing off it's heritage. Plain and simple.

Just as society ends up producing kids that rebel against prevailing thought, someday the Car Culture will again become bigger than the few Anti-Car Zealots who have been pushing their agenda harder than ever the last decade. These new museums are preparing and will ride the rebel swell that is already bigger than they are.

***Also want to add, many here are likely too young to remember the 20+ years of chaos the Studebaker National Museum went through before settling down. Moved in and out of several of the old buildings, supposedly getting a home in the Century Center in the 70's, only to find out only one car would be displayed (The last South Bend Car), the local politics, the hard feelings. The benefit was finally realized, and people finally worked together to get it done. The Hudson Museum likely would have flourished at the Gilmore Museum, or somewhere near Auburn. People come to Shipshewanna to see Horses and Buggies. Location is a big part of the equation.

[8E45E]

The Hudson Museum likely would have flourished at the Gilmore Museum, or somewhere near Auburn. People come to Shipshewanna to see Horses and Buggies. Location is a big part of the equation.

A "Hudson-Essex-Terraplane" building at the Gilmore Museum would have been the best solution, but civic greed over-rules.

Craig

[BobPalma]

A "Hudson-Essex-Terraplane" building at the Gilmore Museum would have been the best solution, but civic greed over-rules. Craig

BINGO! You got that right, Craig; spot-on. BP

[jnormanh]

Just as society ends up producing kids that rebel against prevailing thought, someday the Car Culture will again become bigger

I'm afraid that's wishful thinking. Kids of today have little interest in cars. They put fuel in them and drive. They can't tell a Toyota from a Nissan, and don't care. They'e never used a tire gauge, couldn't install the spare, never check under the hood.

Most kids think cars are about as interesting as washing machines.

And to some extent, they are about right. I can't tell a Toyota from a Nissan either, but sixty years ago I could identify every make and model, tell you what was under the hood, and by age 14 could change plugs and points and use a timing light. Now I mostly just fill the tank and drive too. Modern cars require virtually no knowledge and little maintenance. The only difference between me and today's youngsters is that I don't own, or want to own, a cellphone.

[556063]

A "Hudson-Essex-Terraplane" building at the Gilmore Museum would have been the best solution, but civic greed over-rules.

Craig

Yes Craig. I've been so consumed by family matters the past several years, I didn't learn about Gilmore until early this year when my daughter's work was displayed at a Film Festival in Kalamazoo. Their attendance is impressive, and if people will drive though all those farm fields to see the massive collection that includes the door header from the original Lincoln factory, many of the earliest cars, and some of the best displays I've seen, it's hard to ignore the draw the Hobby still has. It was a cold but sunny March day, but the parking lot was full, and my wife and I talked with several people inside, young and old, that were in awe of what is there. The Model A building and Cadillac Building were the only other buildings besides the main museum that were open at that time of the season. My favorite part of the visit was overhearing a museum employee and a young couple who were flabbergasted and stunned electric cars were a reality 100 years ago. So much to learn from our past!

[t walgamuth]

A year or so back I was in Kalamazoo visiting my 90+ mom and two sisters. I mentioned that I was going to go out to the Gilmore museum. Mom said she wanted to go so I loaded up her wheel chair (she still walks but not that much) and we went out there. We wandered amongst the collections, mom pointing out cars that someone had back then. We ate in the little diner there and had a grand time. Since I am in Kalamazoo regularly I have been going out to the Gilmore museum for nearly 50 years.

When I first went there with my Dad it was in a couple of barns. I still have pictures of the ww2 armored german Mercedes staff car with bullet nicks in the side window glass (the windows were bulletproof). I remember there were some on the drivers side and some on the inside of the passenger side so we felt there were shots fired with the drivers window down. Its not there any more.

l believe those cars are worth a few million now.

One time I was there about 20 years ago and they were giving rides in a big Deusenberg open car around the grounds.

I love that place!

Its impressive what can be done when someone has lots of money to invest!

[Michidan]

The Gilmore museum is simply awesome. My dad was a crane operator and helped re-assemble some of the barns on-site. The place is local treasure.
FYI - They do an informal cruise-in on Wednesday nights. You will always see a Studebaker or two.

[556063]

FYI everyone, a couple Hudson's were on display at Gilmore, "on loan" from the Hudson Museum, when we were there, including a 39 or 40 Business Coupe with the pull out pickup box that had a prominent place in the Truck Section. The white 63 Avanti from the now closed Door Prairie Museum in LaPorte, IN was also there.

[8E45E]

FYI everyone, a couple Hudson's were on display at Gilmore, "on loan" from the Hudson Museum, when we were there, including a 39 or 40 Business Coupe with the pull out pickup box that had a prominent place in the Truck Section.

I posted a photo of that one here: http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...24-1938-Hudson

The one Studebaker offered immediately came to mind.

Craig

[JRoberts]

There are some phenomenal automobile museums out there. I have visited some and there are still some I haven't seen yet. The Gilmore is certainly one of the best with the Auburn-Cord-Duesenburg museum running right up there. I visited the American Packard Museum last summer and though small in comparison some other it was a lovely visit. Also last summer I visited the Antique Car Museum of Iowa in Coralville, Iowa. This is a small museum in size, but stuffed to the gills with some really cool cars. Some is sad condition, but original. Some are very nice restorations. Most are somewhere in the middle. I spent lots of time there and enjoyed every minute. As for young people, while at the Iowa Museum there was a group of young people (early 20's or so) from Russia who were really enjoying themselves in the place. I spoke with them some and found them in awe of what they saw. I am not so sure that Americans of the same age wouldn't have been just as awed as these folks were
It is sad when museums like these fall on hard times and simply disappear. I hear a lot of folks say that the cost of places like I mentioned are too high. Well, if we all felt that way and refused to go such grand places they will indeed disappear. It takes lots of money to keep up such places. I find that many small auto museums don't charge what I would expect. In those cases I put extra money in the till. We have to be willing to foot the bill if these places are to stay the great active places we know today.