Museum of Vintage Cars
The town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, is known to every candy lover – it was there that the famous chocolate factory was built in 1903. But if it’s every child’s dream to visit this factory, there’s another “tidbit” for adults in Hershey: the Antique Car Museum. Although small, the museum is very famous in America and one of the top ten in the entire country. It’s also part of the Smithsonian Institute, a group of some of the best themed museums in America. It features restored cars, buses, and motorcycles. Several times a year the museum has special exhibitions dedicated to either a particular year or a particular vehicle. Perhaps all of this has played a role in the fact that the museum is also on the list of the top twelve automobile museums in the world.
The popularity of the museum is understandable – Americans love and appreciate things of historical value, and America’s roads and American cars are a fetish in themselves, to which Hollywood filmmakers have devoted quite a few films. In addition, in times of crisis, family values have come back into fashion. And it’s so nice to show kids the late thirties Rolls-Royce, which may well have been driven by their grandfather-to-be. After all, ordinary Americans donate old cars to the museum’s exhibit.
The permanent exhibit has about 150 cars – all donated by Americans for free. As in any museum, there are its own “stars” here, only on wheels. A separate corner is dedicated to a tanker that belonged to the Atlantic Refining Company in the 1930s. It carried gasoline, but during the 1936 flood the owners donated it to the state – and it was used to deliver free drinking water to the citizens of Harrisburg. Then the truck was going to be scrapped, but enthusiasts bought it back and put it back in full working order – in any case, the truck came “on its own” to the museum for the exhibition.
Also several times a year, the museum holds themed exhibitions, devoted either to trucks, or passenger transport. Now, for example, visitors can learn all about motorcycles, and in the fall there was an exhibition “Auto and Ale”, which, in addition to old cars, featured quite modern products of Pennsylvania breweries.
Charity work is widespread in America, it is an honorable occupation and is welcomed in every possible way. So the founders of the museum every fall organize an exhibition “Food and Toy” – vintage trucks are removed from the premises and set on the entrance to the building. Visitors are encouraged to fill the trucks with toys, canned goods and even gift cards for a variety of amounts for families in need. Exactly the same action takes place closer to Christmas so that children from poor families will have toys under the Christmas tree.
