Have you ever heard about… the Museum of Automobiles?

When someone thinks of a museum the first thing to come to mind isn’t a museum of automobiles or anything the likes. It’s always the quaintest building you could think off, full of sculptures, paintings, and pseudo-art-critics. Well, let’s take a look at a different kind of museum, with a different kind of pieces on exhibition.

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In this new section of our blog, we take a look at museums which you might never, ever have heard of. “Are there any more obscure museums than one about automobiles?” Absolutely. “Everyone knows that there’s a museum dedicated to cars, duh”. Well, yes and no. See, that might be true, and for all we know, it is, almost everyone knows about it. The issue is, we look at cars as tools, sort of like shoes, albeit much more intricate and expensive ones. But some are works of wonder which should be displayed in a museum, a museum of automobiles! Especially the forefathers of our friends on four wheels. So, this goes out to every car enthusiast who didn’t know this existed, if there are any.

Out in the little town of Morrilton, Arkansas, right on top of Petit Jean Mountain, there’s a special slice of mechanical heaven called The Museum of Automobiles.

Museum of Automobiles — The Museum’s Installations

It is a small town, actually, not too far from Little Rock, but this love and care for early and mid-20th century chariots put this small cozy town on the maps. It opened in 64, by a Rockefeller no less, curious because the most recent car in the museum’s collection is a 1967 Ford Fairlane 500 Ranchero.

There are much bigger museums of automobiles in the world, such as the Shanghai Auto Museum, but this one has a personal, intimate touch to it. You actually feel the love these exhibits get on a daily basis, instead of just being another piece of a collection. In fact, the Museum actually housed Winthrop Rockefeller’s classic and antique car collection, but 68 vehicle collection was eventually sold upon his death.

Museum of Automobiles

It wasn’t until 76 when a non-profit organization went on to request a load of vehicles on loan from collectors all over the US to be put on display at the Museum of Automobiles. Most of the vehicles on display there now have been fully donated to its collection. One of the most famous is the 1923 Climber Touring Car, made on the same state. It is one of the, if not THE, cornerstone of the museum’s collection. Very neat indeed. Or swell? Nah, nobody ever says swell. Neat is where it’s at.

It isn’t terribly expensive to visit the museum (unless you’re not from the US, plane tickets can be expensive), and it sure is more than worth it, even if you don’t really care, or ever cared, about those four-wheelers we mistreat so much every day. Some of them are quite quaint and are very much museum pieces by design, they are almost works of art.

Here’s the complete list of vehicles on display, taken directly from the Museum’s own website, maybe you’ll find one or two in there that’ll sharpen your appetite: