The museum at 161 Museum Drive, just north of Hershey along Route 39, has a permanent collection of cars and automobile memorabilia, as well as special exhibits for car lovers.
The newest exhibit is Pittsburgh's famous stainless-steel cars.
In the 1940s, ATI Allegheny Ludlum Steel and Ford Motor Co. collaborated on the manufacture of three cars.
"They made a Ford sedan together, then they made a 1960 Thunderbird, and then a 1967 (Lincoln) Continental," said Nancy Gates, director of museum operations. "These are pretty rare cars."
The cars were part of an experiment by the two companies and are a tribute to stainless steel, one of the most dynamic metals developed, she said.
The steel company was a pioneer producer of stainless steel. Its first stainless-steel car was a 1936 Deluxe Sedan that later became the centerpiece of a public campaign for the new metal and its uses.
The museum received the 1967 Continental stainless-steel car for an exhibit last week and will add the 1960 Thunderbird in a few weeks, she said. The cars will be on display in the museum until next September.
Earlier this year, the museum finished a renovation of its 1920s car exhibit, which added a period mural to the background.
"The walls (of the exhibit) used to be white," Gates said. "We had artist Dave Naydock of Advertisement Pottsville do these murals for us. It's all of Hershey buildings from the 1920s."
Another special vehicle in the collection is a 1953 Cadillac LeMans Dream Car, which is in a large glass-enclosed container "because it's extremely valuable," Gates said. The car is a privately owned and on loan to the museum for a year.
"There were four built by General Motors," she said. "This is the third one. One was destroyed in a fire a number of years back."
Of the remaining Dream Cars still known to exist, she said, one is in the General Motors Heritage collection, and the other car is in a private collection.
Other interesting exhibits at the museum now include a sports-car collection, which has a Ford GT40, the car that took the coveted Lemans racing title from Ferrari in the 1960s; a P-1800 Volvo once owned by actor Roger Moore; and a big block Cobra once owned by Carroll Shelby.
The next special exhibit at the museum will start Oct. 23 and will feature more than 20 Pontiac Firebirds and Chevy Camaros, including the 1978 Firebird Trans Am that was driven by actor Burt Reynolds in the 1977 film "Smokey and the Bandit."
The museum also has an exhibit running through May for those interested in motorcycles. Nearly 40 different bikes, from the earliest models made in 1884 to those made as late as 1973, are on display.
The GM Futurliner, built in 1940, will be on display at the museum until spring. General Motors built 12 Futurliners to transport its Parade of Progress Show, a traveling technology fair with animated exhibits and demonstrations of its innovations. The Futurliner has an interior staircase and a driver's seat that is 10 feet above the road, and its streamlined body makes it look like a locomotive.
The museum, which has been open six years, sees about 50,000 visitors a year, Gates said.
"We also use our facility in the evenings for weddings and corporate events," she said. "We get about 15,000 additional visitors from our evening programs."
The museum is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors 61 and older and $7 for children ages 4-12. Admission is free for children age 3 and younger and for AACA members with their membership card.
For more information, visit the museum's Web site at aacamuseum.org.
chrissolly@ldnews.com; 272-5611, ext. 151
No comments:
Post a Comment