Last week, I asked what your favorite automotive museum is and what automotive museum you’d love to visit. The results are in, and Miles Through Time Automotive Museum is a major contender, at least for museums people want to visit. 😉

This is not a shocker since this is the museum I founded and mention often. So, to be fair, Miles Through Time doesn’t count. I hope the thousands of people who read this email will all want to visit Miles Through Time if they haven’t already. This guide exists because of Miles Through Time. 😉

Moving on…

Interestingly enough, the usual Top Automotive Museum still came out on top.

These aren’t in a specific order, but they are the favorites mentioned by people like you.

Simone Foundation Automotive Museum
Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum

Gilmore Car Museum

Petersen Automotive Museum

National Corvette Museum

Top Automotive Museums people want to visit:

Savoy Automobile Museum

Klairmont Kollections Automobile Museum

Pontiac Transportation Museum

Academy of Art University Automobile Museum

Ultimate Driving Museum

My point is there is no point in any Top Automotive lists. The biggest, most popular, and well-funded museums are always going to be at the top of every list, and rightfully so. You can never take away how impressive these museums are. From the buildings or campuses to the exhibits on display, no one can deny their impressiveness.

However, as an automotive enthusiast, I encourage you to explore more. Don’t stop at visiting only the most well-known automotive museums. Use the Automotive Museum Guide and discover all the other amazing places you can visit.

My favorite resource is to use the MAP to find where the nearest automotive museum is no matter where I am. It’s important not to compare The Petersen with a private 30-car collection in a rural town somewhere in the middle of the country. 

You wouldn’t compare a Lamborghini to a Prius, but arguments could be made for how great both cars are in their segments. The same goes for automotive museums.

Some of my favorite automotive museums are not the biggest or most impressive, but what they have and how they’re presented are great. Plus, I like to know the origin of how and why the museum exists. 

Gasoline Alley Museum is a unique museum in Canada that has been made possible thanks to the donations of a local businessman named Ron Carey. There are automotive artifacts on display from the turn of the century to the 1950s.

The North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame is a museum is one of the few museums I visited before creating my own and was the last museum I visited before creating Miles Through Time. There are over 40 different types of race cars on display, and seeing all the different types in one place is fascinating.

The last museum I’ll share with you this week could be considered controversial. The Hollywood Star Car Museum is definitely a car museum. The museum is full of cars from movies, and there is signage to read about most of the vehicles on display.

However, this museum is in a very high tourist location and is structured more like an amusement ride you walk through. You really have to take this museum for what it is, and if you compare it with any museum that has docents, you may be disappointed.

If you take the museum for what it is and check it off the list of places you’ve visited when you’re done, you may be content. Especially if you are a movie fanatic. I would say the museum is geared towards people who recognize the vehicles from movies and shows more than people who just like cars, but you can be the judge.

Explore as many automotive museums as you can. You never know when you might find your diamond in the rough. Visiting the museums is a fantastic way to help support their efforts.

You can follow most of the museums on social media or sign up for their newsletters to stay up to date with what they are doing. If you want to take it a step further, you can help support any museum by donating vehicles or other artifacts.

Money is always a huge help for any nonprofit. Many museums may have something like what Miles Through Time has, and you can become some version of a Founding Member.

In the end, we are all just temporary caretakers of automotive history. It is up to all of us to keep history alive, and we have been for over 100 years.

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.

When you create an automotive museum in the way I did, it is tough to fathom ever being able to be ranked among the best automotive museums in the world. Understandably, when all I had was one inherited car and access to an old Ford dealership, it hardly qualifies as a museum.

Despite having to deal with nothing but obstacles, somehow Miles Through Time Automotive Museum grew from one car in 2017 to 135 today. The museum grew from an 8,000-square-foot space to 30,000, which is supported by the 17,000-square-foot Vintage Garage Antiques Shop.

Miles Through Time Automotive Museum has grown substantially, and it has all been thanks to regular people wanting to get involved in one way or another. Now, we are at the point where we need significant financial assistance to be able to move the museum into a forever home.

As I work on ways to try to find assistance, I can’t help but notice all the “Top” and “Best” lists for car museums.  These lists are usually 5 to 15 different car museums throughout the country.

Every museum on these lists is amazing and has every reason to be listed as one of the best. The problem I have with these “lists” is that they are the same 15 to 20 museums everytime.

Rarely, have I ever seen the ability to vote for your favorite automotive museum, but I can almost guarantee, voting wouldn’t change much, because the museums on those lists are also the most well known.

If I was to ask you to name as many automotive museums as possible off the top of your head, I’m willing to bet most people would name the same 15 to 20 museums. 

Again, I want to emphasize that these museums are amazing, and they are hard to compete with financially. There are a lot of variables that can skyrocket popularity, location (city), building (big and impressive), collection (number and quality), financial assistance (marketing ability) just to name a few.

The problem is, these lists only represent about 6% of the automotive museums you can visit in North America. If you change the list to global, the percentage goes down even more.

This means there are a lot of automotive museums that are amazing in their own right, that will never make a “Top” or “Best” list and never have an opportunity to be discovered. 

Of course, I’ve loved all the big museums I have visited that are constantly listed, but some of my favorite museums are smaller and more personal. They may not have massive curated exhibits on display, but they’ve got something that hooked me and piqued my interest enough to want to learn more.

This week I want to share three examples of completely different museums. 

Old Cranks Motorcar Museum is a collection of over 70 antique vehicles. The museum doesn’t have a website and there really isn’t much information about it, but if you happen to stay at the RV Park it is located in, you’d be in for a big surprise.

There are Harley Davidson shops all over the country. If you’re a Harley fan, chances are you’ve been to many of them. Buddy Stubbs Harley Davidson is also home to the Buddy Stubbs Motorcycle Museum, which is free to visit. 

The Lions Automobilia Foundation and Museum is the most traditional “car museum” this week. The museum was founded by Rick Lorenzen in December 2019 and preserves automotive history in their 100,000 square foot facility.

I want you to do me a favor.

Tell me what your favorite automotive museum is. The parameters for what makes the museum your favorite is entirely up to you.

Then, tell me what museum you want to visit most. This will be a museum you’ve never been to, but for whatever reason, it has captured your interest, and you’d love to visit.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t think you’ll ever be able to actually visit the museum, but if you could, you would. You can use the MAP if you need to, or search by STATE. 

Next week, I will tell you what the top museums are based on people actually visiting the museums. And the more interesting list, in my opinion, will be the top museums people would like to visit. Possibly because they discovered it through the Automotive Museum Guide.

Here’s a bonus: Peoria Riverfront Museum is not an automotive museum. However, between 2/1 and 4/27 you can see their latest exhibit, BUILT: American Custom Car Culture.

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.

Automotive museums are unique, both in the museum world and from a traditional business standpoint. Having created an automotive museum myself, Miles Through Time Automotive Museum, I can attest that, from a business standpoint, a museum is a terrible “business idea.”

But therein lies the predicament. No stand-alone museum is a great business, but that is not why they exist. In most cases, museums are created out of philanthropy.

Wealthy people accumulate “stuff” over a lifetime and when they are near the end or reach the end, their “stuff” becomes a “collection.” These collections either become the beginning of a museum or are absorbed into a preexisting museum, which makes that museum better.

Art, furniture, rocks, vehicles, clothes, literature, houses, property, buildings, and anything collectible can one day become a collection at a museum. These collections usually make their way to the Smithsonian, Universities, or government-run museums, like city or county institutions.

There are obviously exceptions for everything, but the main reason most “collections” end up in already well-established and well-funded institutions is that it is easier than creating something new.

The ones that are able to contribute to the big art and history museums also help to diversify the collections, so visitors are able to see a wider variety of artifacts on display that otherwise may not have been able to share.

When it comes to vehicles, things get a little more loose. You don’t have to be a multimillionaire to have a collection of cars or memorabilia. In fact, some of the oldest and largest collections of automotive memorabilia are worth an exorbitant amount more than what was invested into the collection over a lifetime.

The automobile is also way more mainstream than, say, lunchboxes. An old large collection of lunchboxes could be neat, but it’s just not the same as vehicles that have been around for over 100 years and over one and half billion have been made.

Creating a “car museum” can be as easy or complicated as you want.  The easiest way to open a museum comes from already having a collection and just opening the doors to the public. 

Allow the public to view the automotive collection (open regular hours) and share the history of what is on display, and you’ve got yourself a museum. If you own everything, including the building, and don’t need to charge admission, all you have to do is open the doors.

However, if the museum needs more, more space, more staff, more signage, and more money, things begin to get much more complicated very quickly. Automotive museums have gotten clever over the years to help support the museum.

The Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing utilizes the fame of the museum’s founder, Don Garlits, to help draw visitors to the museum. The museum also serves as the Drag Racing Hall of Fame, which incorporates more racers like Don to be a part of the museum.

The Automobile Gallery has an amazing collection on display in a contemporary setting. The atmosphere is so amazing that the museum is a fantastic option for a variety of events, and the museum has multiple event spaces to optimize the opportunity.

The Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History is a bit more traditional. The collection includes one of the largest Indian motorcycle collections in the world, plus automobiles from the early 19th century and a firearms collection. 

When you visit the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum, you are able to visit 5 different museums that are all a part of Springfield Museums. Rather than go it alone, Lyman and Merrie Wood become a part of something larger, and now you can spend the entire day going through all the history on display.

All of these automotive museums are unique and offer a taste of automotive history in their own way. I encourage you to learn more about what each museum offers and, hopefully, you have the opportunity to visit in person.

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.

One of the neat things about “automotive museums” is that there are a lot of different approaches one can take to creating a museum. There is no right or wrong way of doing it, but how the museum is formed can have a dramatic effect on how long the museum lasts.

Why museums close their doors forever can be due to many reasons. In unfortunate situations, it is usually because the cost to operate the museum exceeds the revenue generated from operating the museum. This is obviously bad for any business and a nonprofit museum is no different from any other business in this sense.

Sometimes the museum has no choice but to close, because they lose access to the building or staff shortages.  This is also relatively common and museums that have full-sized vehicles on display typically need a pretty good-sized footprint to be able to properly showcase exhibits. This kind of square footage typically doesn’t come cheap. Believe me, I know.

The most common reason an automotive museum seems to close is just because the founder or primary owner passes away. Or they get to the point where it is too much work to continue.

If the founder passes away and there isn’t a way to continue to fund or operate the museum, it will undoubtedly close. Vehicles get auctioned and everything is dispersed into rotation once more.

Sometimes, the founder doesn’t pass away, but gets to a point where it is too much of a burden to keep the museum. There can be several reasons associated with this, but ultimately it means the demise of yet another automotive museum.

I get it, and wouldn’t blame anyone for deciding to close the doors on their passion forever. It is very challenging to operate a museum that is open to the public. Hopefully, for the ones that are still alive, they get to at least enjoy their private collections, peacefully. 

Since I started the Automotive Museum Guide in 2018, I’ve had to mark 45 automotive museums closed. You can always see the closed museums HERE.

That does seem like a high number, but luckily there are still over 300 automotive museums you can visit in North America alone.

Moto Talbott Motorcycle Museum is one of the most recent museum closures I’ve learned about. This museum closed permanently September 30th 2024. Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to see this museum in person, but at least it sounds like the Talbott family are still able to enjoy a smaller version of the collection privately.

The Panoz Museum is another museum that is closed. I did get to visit this small museum prior to it closing from COVID. Their website says it is only temporally closed, but it has been years. Hopefully, we’ll have another opportunity in the future to see the Panoz Museum, or maybe Miles Through Time Automotive Museum will be able to share their collection. 😉

Sometimes a museum doesn’t need to close, it just needs some new life injected into it. The American Automobile Experience has a unique history, but when they received a donation of 130 automobiles from Bernie and Janice Taulborg in 2011 that was the catalyst of the museum. 

The American Automobile Museum has received many other donated vehicles and displays them along with roughly 60 more vehicles that are just on loan. When you visit you’ll see well over 100 vehicles, which represents 4 decades worth of collecting.

The Canepa Motorsports Museum is a unique museum dedicated to the spirit of automobile and motorcycle competition, and engineering excellence. Bruce Canepa is the man behind this museum. Bruce designs, builds, restores and sells high-end collector vehicles and race cars. You can see the connection on display in the museum, which is free to visit.

I hope I’ll be able to visit many more automotive museums this year and I hope you’ll be able to do the same. Remember you can always check out the MAP and see where the closest museum is, no matter where you are.

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.

I enjoy the vast array of automotive museums all over the country. One day, hopefully, sooner than later, I’ll also be able to experience some automotive museums abroad.

It is amazing to think that, until 2014, I only ever owned one vehicle at a time, which was my daily driver. Then, in 2014, my dad gave me my grandpa’s 1959 Cadillac. I was 30 years old and all of a sudden owned one of the best designed cars from the 50s.

The car is beautiful, but the history means even more. My dad was just a little kid crawling around the back seat when my Pop was behind the wheel. I never got to see my grandpa drive the car since as early as I can remember, the car was always covered in his shop.

Although I have no memories of my grandpa talking about the car or even seeing him with the car, I knew it was special just because of how he kept the car for all those decades.

My grandpa passed away in 2004, and for 6 years I tried to get the car from my grandma. I tried to buy it and do anything I could just to ensure I would be able to continue to care for it.

No matter how I presented my plea to my grandma, she refused to do anything with that car. All of my grandpa’s other vehicles were sold off, except his daily driver, which my cousin was given immediately.

I feared for my Pop’s 59 Cadillac. Alas, my grandma made sure it remained exactly where my Pop left it until she passed away 10 years later. Of course, 10 years later I had moved to the opposite side of the country, but when my dad called and said he wanted to make sure I got the car, I figured out how to get it transported across the country and made room for it in my garage.

My Pop’s 59 Caddy was my first introduction into the classic car world. At least as far as drivable cars goes. I still have a sweet spot for my 56 F100 I never got to drive.

After two summers of car shows, I was burnt out, and I started to come up with the idea that would eventually become Miles Through Time Automotive Museum in 2017.

After starting Miles Through Time with no money, no collection of any kind and no experience, I put as much time into figuring it all out as I could. This is why the Automotive Museum Guide exists today. It is a byproduct of my research.

In 2020, Miles Through Time was moved to its current location and pretty much started over from scratch. Only this time I wasn’t by myself, and instead of one car there were about 7.

In November 2021, I created Vintage Garage Antiques (again not knowing what I was doing) and was able to double the square footage of the museum. 2023 was a big year. We were able to double the size of the museum again and expanded the antique store. That is also the year I was asked to join the board of the National Association of Automobile Museums. (NAAM)

Most recently, I joined another board, this time the World Forum for Motor Museums. I guess you could say I’ve gone global, and I really look forward to being able to visit some automotive museums all over the world. 

You never know what the future has in mind for you or what might be behind the door or around the corner. For that reason, I typically try to just go for it, even if I have no idea what I’m doing. I’ll either figure it out or at least know I tried.

Sometimes, walking into an unassuming museum can turn into a pleasant surprise. The Washington County Rural Heritage Museum is probably a place you’ve never heard of, unless you’ve visited the area. And yet, within the county museum, there is an amazing car museum.

The Fayetteville Area Transportation and Local History Museum​​​​​​​ is another local museum you may have never heard of before, and you’d be missing out on visiting the beautifully restored 1890 railroad depot.

There are so many varieties of automotive museums. I suggest staying away from the internet’s “Top lists.” The museums on those lists are fantastic options, but the only represent a tiny fraction of amazing places to visit.

The Mid-America Museum of Aviation & Transportation is another option for you to visit. The variety of automotive artifacts on display should pique your interest and the aircraft are a definite bonus.

Don’t worry about where the museum is or what they do or don’t have on display, just visit if you can and experience what they have to offer. You never know what you’ll see, what you’ll learn or who you’ll meet.

If you can’t visit them in person, explore their website or follow them on social media. There are still ways to connect and discover new things, even if physically walking into the building isn’t an option.

Safe travels!

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.

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.