I’m back now that it is 2025. Quite a few people thought I was done completely when I said last week’s email was the last one for 2024. I’m very glad to hear people actually find value and enjoy these emails on top of helping me keep the guide up to date.

I have made a major change or addition this year that will hopefully help people gain access to these museums, even if this email doesn’t make it into their email box. 

It is going to take me some time to add all the backdates, but going forward this email will be available on the website under the Newsletter tab, which is found under extras.

Hopefully, this way, if you ever miss an email or want to reference back to it, it’ll be easy to find on the website.

I’m never a fan of having to share museums that are closing. Luckily, recently quite a few museums have been growing. I’ve got one more museum to share with you that is moving into a new 100,000-square-foot facility. 

The DFW Elite Toy Museum was started by Ron Sturgeon and has a very impressive collection of cars on display and soon the car museum will be much larger. I’m excited to see this museum in their new space. 

A lot can change very quickly in the automotive museum world. It feels like just yesterday I started Miles Through Time Automotive Museum in 2017, and yet at the same time, it feels like forever ago. 😉

Maine Classic Car Museum was created in 2019, so they’re actually pretty young, but they have 50 of some of the most beautiful vehicles on display.

A lot of automotive museums start as a private collection. Sometimes they turn into lasting museums, but more often than not they disappear once the founder passes on. 

Howard’s Toys For Big Boys showcases Howard Alger’s classic car collection. Howard is still alive and gives tours of his collection, even though he is currently in his 90s.  The local chamber helps Howard keep his collection open, which is free to visit.

If you have the opportunity to visit any automotive museum, I highly recommend you do it. You never know if that museum will be around in another 10 years, or better yet, you’d have the opportunity to see the museum before it gets better.

Have you visited your closest automotive museum?

SCROLL DOWN TO CHECK OUT THIS WEEK’S 3 AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUMS.

Plan your next trip, discover your new favorite, or find the nearest museum

 Sean Mathis
 Creator of Automotive Museum Guide
Founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum

 Follow me @   

P.S. Make sure you follow AMG on Facebook and join the FB Group to see what’s going on at all the museums.

Today is Veterans Day, and although today is the day, we specifically recognize veterans for their patriotism, love of the country, willingness to serve and sacrifice. I am thankful every day to those who have served and grateful to meet the ones who’ve made it home and especially the ones who have made it to old age.

I have a nephew who is still a fresh Navy recruit. His dad, my brother, is now retired from the Navy. Both of my grandpas were in WWII. My wife served in the Army and I served 11 years as a crew chief on the a10s and c130s. I understand how difficult it can be to not only serve in the military but also have loved ones who served. 

So, although today is officially Veterans Day, just know myself and most other people are grateful for our veterans every day.

I’m on the road this week. I’m heading north for a meeting that will take me to the Auburn Cord Duesenber Museum for the first time. Hopefully, I’ll also be able to visit the National Automotive and truck Museum of the United States and the Early Ford V8 Foundation Museum nearby.

The Klairmont Kollections is also a super cool museum that has been on my list of museums to visit for some time, and it looks like I may be able to make it happen on Wednesday morning since they aren’t open on Tuesday. That is one of the biggest challenges of traveling and trying to fit museum visits in. The schedule doesn’t always make it possible, even though the museum is so close.

These are all bonus museums so far. You can click the bold name to learn more about each of them. This week, I want to share some military museums with you.

First up is the Marine Corps Mechanized Museum. This museum shares Marine vehicles used from WWI to the present day. The majority of the vehicles in the collection are in running condition, thanks to the work of retired Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant Jim King and his hearty band of volunteers, aptly named “the Dirty Docents.”

On the opposite side of the country, you can visit the U.S. Army Transportation Museum. This museum has over 7,000 artifacts and 135 military vehicles on display. I have personally been to this museum, and it’s fascinating to see all the different vehicles on display.

If you want to go more towards the center of the country, you can visit the National Museum of Military Vehicles. This museum is 160,000 square feet with over 500 military vehicles on display. This museum is called the National Museum for a reason.

If you served in the military, thank you! If you had to deal with your loved one going off to serve, thank you for sticking around, it means a lot.

Have a great week! 

SCROLL DOWN TO CHECK OUT THIS WEEK’S 3 AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUMS.

Plan your next trip, discover your new favorite, or find the nearest museum

 Sean Mathis
 Creator of Automotive Museum Guide
Founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum

 Follow me @   

P.S. Make sure you follow AMG on Facebook and join the FB Group to see what’s going on at all the museums.

This is it for 2024. I’ve been sending an email like this every week for almost three and a half years. This guide started as my research to figure out how to create Miles Through Time Automotive Museum in 2017.

Rather than waste my research, I decided to create the Automotive Museum Guide so it would be easier to find all the different automotive museums all over the country. I slowly added more museums as I discovered them, but I didn’t do much with the website until 2020.

In 2020, I found myself recreating Miles Through Time almost from scratch in a new location. I personally had to move to a new house, and the world was in chaos. I also noticed most of the museums I had already added to the guide were changing in some way.

Most museums’ hours changed, admission changed and, unfortunately, a few museums did make it at all. This meant the Automotive Museum Guide was slowly becoming just as obsolete as a printed guide.

My solution to maintain the guide and hopefully increase awareness was to send this email, weekly.  You can skip this top part of the email if you want and just see the three automotive museums listed below, but I’m pretty sure this would become a boring email that will eventually just go to your junk mail.

I try to share something interesting within the automotive museum world from my perspective as a museum founder and a museum visitor. I’m not who you’d expect to be behind the creation of an automotive museum in northeast Georgia with over 130 full-size vehicles on display.

I had no way to create an automotive museum in 2017 when all I had was a 59 Cadillac I inherited from my grandpa. I had no idea if the museum would prosper when it was moved in 2019/2020.

It would have been hard to fathom how over 30 vehicles have been donated to the museum just in the last 4 years, and yet I’m optimistic about the next chapter of the museum.

I still have a lot to learn, but within 7 years, I went from being just a regular car enthusiast taking my Pop’s 59 Cadillac to car shows. To the founder of a 501c3 nonprofit automotive museum with over 130 full-size vehicles and thousands of artifacts.

I’m on the board of the National Association of Automobiles and the World Forum For Motor Museums. I went from visiting 2 automotive museums in my life to close to 100 within the last 7 years. Plus, I’ve helped other automotive museums get created and grow.

The Automotive Museum Guide has grown to encompass automotive museums all over the world, each one individually added by me, almost 600 of them. My perspective is unique in the automotive museum world.

I’m not a guy who has had a lifetime of success and decided to create an automotive museum with my own collection. What I have is a vision and a passion to create a museum that can preserve and share automotive history with visitors from all over the world for generations.

But I need help to do it all, and I’ll share the journey and everything I learn with you.

Miles Through Time Automotive Museum is not the only museum looking to grow and build a forever home. Last week, all the museums I shared with you were either getting new buildings or just got one.

I have since learned there’s another automotive museum on the path of growth. The Kansas City Automotive Museum is actively working on raising funds to go from their 10,000-square-foot facility to a brand-new 40,000-square-foot facility near the Underground location. This campaign is called Legacy in Motion if you want to learn more.

It doesn’t matter where you live. You can choose to support your local museum or one on the other side of the country, just because you like what they are doing. You never know when a new museum may pop up.

The Brumos Collection is not new. There is an entire story behind the Brumos Collection, best told by the museum. Just make sure you don’t visit claiming to know Mr. Brumos.

Apparently, it often happens, and I believe it based on what I hear at Miles Through Time. Just know there is no Mr. Brumos. 😉 However, the facility was first opened in 2020, which makes the museum you can visit today relatively young, but you’d never know it. It’s a beautiful building and collection.

The last museum I’ll share with you for 2024 is The Cobra Experience. You can only visit this museum on the 3rd Sunday of the month, so it will take some additional planning to ensure a visit lines up with your schedule, but it will be worth it.

That’s it for 2024. If you need any last-minute donation write-offs, Miles Through Time would be happy to oblige since we need to purchase land and build a building. You can donate HERE or any museum in the guide would benefit from your charitable actions.

​​​​​​​Happy New Year!

SCROLL DOWN TO CHECK OUT THIS WEEK’S 3 AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUMS.

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Plan your next trip, discover your new favorite, or find the nearest museum

 Sean Mathis
 Creator of Automotive Museum Guide
Founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum

 Follow me @   

P.S. Make sure you follow AMG on Facebook and join the FB Group to see what’s going on at all the museums.

Change is inevitable. There is no guarantee change will be better or that you’ll like it, but it constantly happens without our consent and will forever.

Rather than fight the losing battle with change, I like to find ways to turn change into a good thing.

The thought of closing Miles Through Time Automotive Museum in 2019 was real and very nearly happened. Instead, I moved the museum to a new location that was better, and bigger and enabled the museum to be open more often, without me specifically having to be there.

That change was good, but scary. After three years, I still didn’t have any money. I put every bit of the $5 admission I collected back into the museum or to pay for electricity and other bills associated with operating a business.

Basically, after three years, I recreated the museum again from scratch but that time I had more help. Within months, the larger museum was completely full, and we even built an entire town out of reclaimed and recycled materials donated to the museum.

Change struck again within 15 months when circumstances changed that would hinder the museum’s ability to stay in the new location. After a “brief” panic, I figured out how to not only keep the museum open, but grow it.

Vintage Garage Antiques was created in November 2021, which also marked the first expansion of the museum. Eighteen months later the museum and the antique store expanded again, growing to over 47,000 square feet.

This was an increase of about 40,000 square feet in the span of 6 years or about a 470% increase. Not to mention, I went from one car I inherited to about 130 on display, plus thousands of other artifacts and memorabilia.

Now, I’m faced with another change. This change is more serious than any other change I’ve faced at Miles Through Time. The museum is no longer just my car and a few others loaned to the museum.

Miles Through Time Automotive Museum is the caretaker for dozens of family vehicles and memorabilia. The museum is not about me and never has been. The museum is a platform for people from all over the country to be able to share their little piece of automotive history with visitors from all over the world.

In order to continue to preserve and share automotive history for decades to come, there is one more major change Miles Through Time has to make, which is to move one more time.

The good news is, I found a piece of land that would be ideal to build the museum and create a campus atmosphere. The plot of land is right on the main highway at an intersection and already has a building that would be used for storage, a workshop and the ability to “stay” at the museum.

Here’s a sneak peek of the potential location.

Of course, I will need even more help to make all of this possible. What started as a one-car museum by myself, has truly turned into a co-op-style museum curated by regular people. This next phase is a big one though, which is going to take some major financial assistance, but will also become the most popular attraction in northeast Georgia.

For over 7 years now, I’ve been dedicating myself to growing Miles Through Time because the alternative is all too common in the museum world. Route 66 Mother Road Museum is the latest museum fatality.

Miles Through Time Automotive Museum is not alone when it comes to growing. Classic Motor Museum is closing on its new location in January. It looks like they’ve raised about $900,000 so far to be able to move to a new location.

Tucson Auto Museum has been working hard to complete construction on their new building, which is slated to open after the first of the year. I had an opportunity to visit the old location earlier this year and look forward to seeing the new location.

You probably know about the new home being built for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. This museum is in the center of the Indianapolis Speedway and is currently under renovation to bring the museum into the 21st century.

Even the Shelby American Collection has built a new location, although in their case the new location is actually the building across from them, and it is, in addition to what they already have, essentially doubling the size of the museum. I had the opportunity to view the new space under construction, and it’s top-notch, and rightfully so considering the cars that will be placed on the tile floor.

Change can be a good thing, albeit scary and stressful. Operating a museum isn’t easy, but it can be very rewarding and when done right, you get to see museums grow, like the ones I’ve shared this week.

If you want to be a part of helping a museum grow, let me know. We need the help and only have three years to make it happen. You can help any museum just by visiting or at least sharing with friends. 

Have a great week and Merry Christmas!

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Every museum in the Automotive Museum Guide has an origin story. Some stories may be similar or have some aspects in common, like a big car collection, a wealthy benefactor, or a group of enthusiasts joining forces.

The museum I founded has a pretty unique origin story, and the story is still being written. I started Miles Through Time Automotive Museum with one car I inherited and literally no money at all in 2017.

The museum started in an old Ford dealership that was about 7,000 square feet and attempted to consign, store, and borrow vehicles to put on display. For three years, I did this by myself and grew the museum to display a crammed 30 or so vehicles.

The opportunity came to move the museum in 2019/2020 into an old textile mill, which was fun, for reasons we all remember. This move increased the size of the museum and changed it to a 501c3 nonprofit.

By the end of 2021, I created Vintage Garage Antiques with the sole purpose of supporting the museum, which also enabled the first expansion. In May 2023, we added a fourth gallery to the museum by expanding the antique store.

Growth and potential are now stagnant in the museum’s current location. I do not own the building, nor does the museum. The current location is a great stepping stone, but to ensure the longevity of the museum for future generations, I know the only way to make sure that happens is if we do not lease a building.

Landlords have the potential to kill a business, especially a nonprofit. I’ve known this for some time, especially after what happened to the second-oldest car museum in the country, the Sarasota Classic Car Museum.

My lease was just renewed and, unfortunately, increased a whopping 20%. By the end of three years, the expenses will be over $20,000 more annually than they were last month.

This is a hard pill to swallow, especially since nothing goes towards anything that helps the museum. The museum alone, without any benefactors or major funding of any kind, could not afford to support itself. 

This is pretty much the case with most nonprofit museums.  Funding has to come from somewhere. Revenue from admission alone is not enough for about 99% of museums.

Some museums host events, sell storage, or sell cars. Miles Through Time has an antique shop to help subsidize expenses. 

I’ve got three years to figure out how to move the museum one more time into its forever home and not be subject to lease changes which ultimately could kill everything. 

How I’m going to do this is going to be a challenge. I’m going to need help, the deep pockets kind of help. The good news is, I know where the museum needs to go, and I know what needs to be done. The question will just be how we get there, but I’ve got three years to make it happen.

The AACA Museum is a big beautiful museum that gets thousands of visitors and numerous donations monthly, but originally it was in a much smaller building.

The Rambler Ranch started when Terry Gale saved his father’s 54 Nash in 1977. His collection quickly grew to about 30 vehicles and then, over the years, continued to grow until he had to move to the current location which has over 200 cars on display.

Justice Brothers Car Collection is a little bit different. As the name would suggest, it is a private collection that is open to the public because of their company, Justice Bros Products. The collection is a tribute to American racing.

I’m excited to see how the next chapter of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum plays out. I had to build a museum from nothing and then repeat the process three years later. In three more years, Miles Through Time will be celebrating 10 years, which will be an amazing milestone to mark the grand opening of the museum’s forever home.

If you or anyone you know might be interested in joining me in this next chapter, feel free to reach out anytime. 

Have a great week! 

SCROLL DOWN TO CHECK OUT THIS WEEK’S 3 AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUMS.

I got a 3-star review last week for my museum, Miles Through Time Automotive Museum. Three stars aren’t terrible, but for me, anything less than a full five-star rating means there is room for improvement.

However, this particular review came from someone who obviously wasn’t a huge automotive nut. Automotive museums are no different from any other art, science, or history museum, with one major exception. 

The Mona Lisa does not have to be exercised. She won’t leak and shouldn’t break. The only concern is that the nail in the wall continues to hold the frame.

The cars in the museum are the museum’s Mona Lisa’s. However, cars break, they break if you use them, and they break if you don’t use them. They have various fluids in them that can leak. Tires can lose air pressure, and keeping them free of dust is a full-time job. 

Cars are great to look at, but their depth is so much more than a painting hung on the wall. The amount of effort necessary to maintain vehicles can be overwhelming.

Miles Through Time has about 130 vehicles on display. We’ve got about 4 vehicles that have tires that just do not want to hold air. A few of them may hold air for a few days, while at least one will be flat before I leave for the day.

Between myself and a few of our docents, the air compressor is constantly being rolled around the museum. Most of the vehicles on display are driven right into the museum and will drive out of the museum when they are done.

This means sometimes cars leak. How much they leak and from where is pretty much the only variable, because if they have fluids in them, eventually they will start leaking. As automotive enthusiasts, we understand this, but for others, seeing a few low tires and some pig mats under some cars can be too disappointing.

The battle is real, and we can always use more volunteers to help at the museum, like every other museum out there. I did not get a request to volunteer from this individual, but you never know.

Museums are a lot of work. The Heritage Museum and Gardens is a wonderful museum that isn’t even open all year long. In fact, this one you need to put on the calendar to visit in the spring. There are over 18,000 artifacts on display.

The Glenn H Curtiss Museum is open all year long, but they do alter their hours over the winter. This museum has a lot of local history on display, as well as motorcycles, cars, and aircraft.

I don’t mention our northern neighbors too often, but Canada is home to quite a few automotive museums you can drive to. The Canadian Automotive Museum is home to the world’s most significant collection of Canadian-built cars.

Don’t forget, you can always use one of the MAPS to find all the automotive museums all over the world.

Have a great week!

SCROLL DOWN TO CHECK OUT THIS WEEK’S 3 AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUMS.