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.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It is amazing how fast time flies. Christmas and 2025 are right around the corner. I, for one, cannot wait until summer already.

With 2024 coming to an end, it also marks the time when people start to think about where they may make some charitable donations before the tax year is over. In my experience of operating an automotive museum, there are three main reasons someone donates a substantial monetary amount or an artifact.

The first reason is that the donor wants to share their story with the museum’s visitors. Donating family heirloom vehicles or artifacts that are precious to the donor means a lot and the donor sees value in being able to share with people from all over the world. 

The second reason takes a special kind of person. This is one a donor donates just to help support the museum. It could be any monetary amount, or it could be something like a vehicle that is donated specifically for the museum to be able to sell and raise funds to help support the museum.

These kinds of donations are great because a museum can generate a lot of publicity from selling a donated vehicle, which compounds the impact it makes on the museum.

The third reason people donate significant amounts or high-dollar artifacts is simply for the tax benefits. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this and most of the time the donor really does want to help the museum, but at the same time, lowering their taxable income can be a huge financial win. This scenario is usually a win-win.

Choosing the right automotive museum to donate to can only be made by the donor. The museum does not have to be the closest one to you. I’ve actually gone from Georgia to California to drive back a donated vehicle to Miles Through Time Automotive Museum.

My one piece of advice for anyone considering donating anything substantial would be to fully understand why you are choosing to donate to a particular museum and will the museum be capable of meeting your expectations.

For example, if you donate your dad’s car because you want people to see it, will the museum have it on display or will it sit in their storage for three years and then sell it.

What kind of impact do you want to make on the museum with your donation? Some museums receive twice as many vehicle donations a year as Miles Through Time has received in 4 years. Granted, the specific museum I’m referring to has been around for many decades and is set up to store and sell donations annually, if they do not go on the display floor.

Some people want to donate to the biggest museums, just to be able to say they did. Or have the ability to say their car is at a specific museum, and that’s okay too. There are no right or wrong answers or reasons for any of this.

Just have a clear understanding of why you are doing what you are doing and make sure the museum you’ve chosen aligns with you. I hate hearing stories of people being upset because they had one expectation and that did not align with the museum’s abilities. 

In the end, automotive museums have to be able to change exhibits and sometimes raise funds. No matter what an automotive museum does with your donation, as long as it is actually a nonprofit, your donation will help support the museum no matter what. If the museum is not a nonprofit, you can’t expect anything, so also be aware of that.

The North Carolina Transportation Museum is a 60 acre complex with trains, cars, trucks, planes and motorcycles. I’ve had the privilege of visiting, and the original buildings are amazing.

The Panhandle Plains Historical Museum has a focus on the petrol aspect of the automotive industry. Plus, the museum is a full history museum, so there is way more than cars on display.

The CNY Living History Museum is actually three museums in one. You can visit Brockway Trucks, Homeville Museum (local history) and Tractors of Yesteryear.

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.

With Thanksgiving this Thursday, I’m sure you’re very busy, so I will keep this week’s email brief. Remember, if you don’t care to read any of this, all you have to do is scroll to the bottom of the email, and you’ll see the three main automotive museums I mention.

Keep in mind that my intention is not to tell you everything about every museum. All I want to do is make you aware of a place you could visit if you want to. You can click on the hyperlinked name of the museum in this portion of the email or click to read more at the bottom to learn more about the museums.

The theme this week is Hall of Fame. There are quite a few “Hall of Fames” across the country, and each one is unique to the individual museums. In fact, I counted 18 of them. You can use the search function on automotivemuseumguide.com to find all of them. Just type in “hall of fame” and you’ll see them all.

The three halls of fame I share with you this week are some of the oldest additions to the Automotive Museum Guide. Which, of course, is why I chose to update them and share them with you.

First up is the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. This is a 15,000-square-foot museum located at the Daytona International Speedway. As you can imagine, this museum is packed with various racing artifacts.

The NASCAR Racing Hall of Fame is another museum specific to racing but also even more specific to just NASCAR. I’ve been to this museum before I had any idea I’d be engulfed in this automotive museum world.  It is a big, impressive museum located in downtown Charlotte and you do not have to even be a NASCAR fan to have a good time.

The Automotive Hall of Fame is another museum I’ve had the privilege of visiting. This museum isn’t packed with vehicles, although there are vehicles on display. Instead, the museum focuses on a broader aspect of automotive history, beyond just the vehicles.  There is a lot to read and learn at this museum, and if you need to see a few more cars afterward, you can literally walk to The Henry Ford Museum next door.

That’s it for this week. Let me know what your preference is. Do you prefer to just see what the 3 museums are and delete the email? Or do you enjoy some of my automotive museum insights and experience? 

Either way, I hope you find value in learning about automotive museums you can visit.

Have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving!

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 I first started to create the Automotive Museum Guide, I really had no idea how it would take off. Initially, only the biggest automotive museums were listed, like Petersen and The Henry Ford, and then the little museum I started, Miles Through Time.

It wasn’t intentional that only the biggest museums were listed in the guide, but the reality was they were the easiest automotive museums to find to add to the guide. Most of the automotive museums took a lot of research to discover.

In some cases, if you’re local to a small automotive museum, you’d be able to relatively easily find the museum. However, most museum visitors are not local, they are travelers looking for things to do and, often, learning about a car museum to visit wasn’t always possible.

It has taken years to add all the automotive museums all over the world. Adding automotive museums is only one aspect. Maintaining automotivemuseumguide.com to ensure information is as accurate as possible is time-consuming.

Luckily, museums have been sending me updates directly, and people have been sending me information about any museums not listed or museums that unfortunately are no longer operating. 

Between museums sending updates and individuals helping maintain the guide, automotivemuseumguide.com has grown into a very robust directory of automotive museums all over the world that is used by millions. 

I have to admit, I wasn’t really sure how helpful the Automotive Museum Guide would be. I was optimistic it would be useful for people to discover museums, and help automotive museums get found by visitors.

Turns out, automotivemuseumguide.com has become a very useful resource and I will continue to make improvements and maintain the directory. I have no idea what the future of the guide is. Perhaps it will become a part of something larger in the future. 

There seems to be an ebb and flow of automotive museums. Some museums close and new ones are created. Idle Ridge Car Museum is a brand-new museum slated to open in the summer of 2025. 

This museum was created because Jim Feneis set up the James Feneis Charitable Foundation to turn his personal collection into a museum after he passed away. Unfortunately, Jim passed away, but soon visitors will be able to visit and see what a lifetime of collecting looks like.

4Speed on 50 Auto Park is an automotive museum you can visit now. This museum is full of classic vehicles, collectible vehicles and memorabilia, plus there is a full restaurant, 4Speed on 50 Diner.

Not every museum is just a “car museum.” Admittedly, some car museums are pretty much just car museums, meaning they are buildings full of cars and if you’re not into cars, you’re not going to care to visit.

Every “car museum” has the potential to be more, it just depends on how the museum is presented. I created Miles Through Time Automotive Museum as a history museum, an art museum, and, of course, automotive themed. This way, the only visitors that wouldn’t find the museum interesting would not have to be into cars, history or art.

The Frick Pittsburg Museums and Garden is another good example of being more than a car museum. The Frick Car and Carriage Museum displays carriages and some of the first horseless carriages that had a major impact on Pittsburg. 

Plus, the Frick has a garden, art, and other historical artifacts on display that have nothing to do with cars, but they have created a museum that can be enjoyed by almost everyone, especially with free admission.

That’s it for this week. If you ever find a museum is missing, closed, or needs to be updated, just email me, I’ll get it taken care of. If you represent an automotive museum or your favorite automotive museum doesn’t have the “Featured Museum” badge, let me know and I can send it.

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.