Showing posts with label National Association of Automobile Museums. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Association of Automobile Museums. Show all posts

Hot Rod Lincoln: NAAM Conference 2013

by Nancy DeWitt
© Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum

The Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum is proud to be a member of the National Association of Automobile Museums (NAAM). This group of enthusiastic and dedicated professionals meets once a year to share resources, network and broaden our knowledge about museum operations. This year's event was graciously hosted by the Smith Collection Museum of American Speed (MAS) in Lincoln, Nebraska.

As usual, I had to take the awful, 1:30 AM red-eye flight out of Fairbanks to make my connection in Seattle. Both my flight to Minneapolis and the one to Lincoln were delayed because of a blizzard in MN. Still, I arrived enough in advance to drive over to Grand Island the following morning to check out the amazing spectacle of snow goose and sandhill crane migration through that area. I've never seen anything like it!

NAAM conference attendees
Courtesy of the Museum of American Speed
The conference started that evening and was followed by three days of seminars and field trips. Presentations covered a wide variety of topics such as docent training, historic vehicle preservation techniques, social media, digital imaging and collections management. We spent one day touring the Strategic Air and Space Museum, Gary Kuck's private automobile collection and the MAS. I've posted several photos from latter here, including some of pedal cars from their huge collection.

On the last day of the conference I was elected to the NAAM board of directors. I am also chairing the NAAM conference scholarship committee. If your museum is not a NAAM member, or you would just like to support the work of this fine association, please consider joining! The next conference will be held at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles March 25-29, 2014, in conjunction with the World Forum for Motor Museums. I'm wondering if they can top the cool door prizes awarded in Lincoln, though. I'm not a Husker fan, but that cornhead is a hoot!


Duesenberg Dispatch: 2012 NAAM Conference

by Nancy DeWitt

Last week I had the good fortune to attend the annual conference of the National Association of Automobile Museums (NAAM) in Auburn, Indiana. The event was hosted by the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum, and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful venue. Situated in the former Auburn Automobile Company's national headquarters building, the museum has over 120 cars including the world's largest public exhibit of Duesenbergs. The first floor resembles an art deco showroom, while the numerous galleries are highly informative and full of more automotive wonders and history.


Of all the Duesenbergs on display, this 1930 Model J Murphy-bodied Convertible Sedan was my favorite. We would love to add a Model J to our collection. So, if you are ready to part with one and would like to see it live in a museum where it will be admired, driven and given lots of TLC, please contact us.






The car that most impressed me was this 1932 Cord E-1 prototype. It sits on a 152" wheelbase (20" longer than the Cord L-29 it was designed to replace) and weighs over 6,000 lbs. It is powered by a 491 cubic-inch V12 that produces 200 horsepower. E.L. Cord wanted to put the E-1 into production in 1932, but plans were scrapped because of the economic depression. This is the only E-1 ever built, and she is a very impressive car to see in person.


Of course, I didn't spend all of my time looking at beautiful cars. The conference sessions covered a range of interesting topics, including best management practices, strategic planning, preservation vs. restoration, educational programs,  conserving vs. driving your cars, and museum stores. It was a valuable opportunity to meet other museum professionals, share ideas and learn about new products. Kudos to the ACD Museum for organizing such a great conference!

I was able to visit a private collection and several other museums last week, and will write about those in a future post.

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