Larz Anderson Auto Museum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Larz Anderson Auto Museum is located on the grounds of Larz Anderson Park in Brookline, Massachusetts and is the oldest collection of motorcars in the United States.^[1]

The museum is a non-profit educational institution with community events, lectures, children’s programs, walking tours of the park, and an ever-changing series of exhibits on motor vehicles and the automobile's impact on society and culture.

Contents 1 History 2 Carriage House 3 The collection 4 Non-motorized transports 5 Events 6 Library 7 Former holdings 8 References 9 External Links 10 Bibliography

[edit] History

The collection was begun by Larz Anderson and Isabel Weld Perkins soon after they married. In 1899 they purchased a true "horseless carriage" made by the Winton Motor Carriage Company. In the following decades, the Andersons purchased at least thirty-two new motorcars. Their collection also included twenty-four horse-drawn carriages and six sleighs.

As their cars became obsolete, the Anderson's retired them to the Carriage House of their 64-acre estate in Greater Boston. By 1927, the Andersons opened the Carriage House for tours of their vehicles. When Isabel Anderson passed away in 1948, she bequeathed her entire Brookline estate (including mansion, Carriage House, land and automobiles) to the Town of Brookline. She stipulated in her will that the motorcar collection be known as the "Larz Anderson Collection."

[edit] Carriage House

The Carriage House (pictured above) which the museum occupies was designed by noted Boston architecht Edmund M. Wheelwright and completed in 1889. Gigantic in scale, the building stored carriages, housed horses, and even served as home to stable staff who lived on the upper floor. Soon after the Andersons began collecting automobiles, they added a garage on the basement level for vehicle repair.^[2]

[edit] The collection

Of the original thirty-two motor vehicles, the following fourteen remain in the collection:

• 1988 Winton Runabout
• 1900 Rochet-Schneider
• 1901 Winton
• 1903 Gardner-Serpollet
• 1905 Electromobile
• 1906 CGV
• 1907 Fiat
• 1908 Bailey
• 1910 Panhard et Levassor
• 1912 Renault
• 1916 Packard Twin Six
• 1924 Renault Torpedo
• 1925 Luxor Taxi
• 1926 Lincoln Limousine

[edit] Non-motorized transports

In addition to some of the original horse-drawn carriages and sleighs owned by the Andersons or their Weld forebearers, the museum is home to the vintage bicycle collection of Dr. Ralph W. Galen, a local cycling enthusiast.^[3]

[edit] Events

The museum sponsors a variety of activities throughout the year that attract enthusiasts of specific motor vehicles from throughout the Northeastern United States, may of whom arrive in their own rare vehicles to a gathering of like-minded hobbiests.

A sampling of these events includes days devoted to American V8's, British cars, Cadillac LaSalles, Camaros and Firebirds, Corvettes, German cars, hot rods, Italian cars, Japanese motorcycles, Mercedes-Benz, Miatas, microcars & mincars, Packards and other extinct autos, Porches and Studebakers.

The museum also attracts visitors with lectures on various subjects relating to transportation or local history, as well as musical entertainment in "The Carriage House Concert Series".

[edit] Library

The Library and Archives at Larz Anderson Auto Museum are devoted to materials relating automobile, racing and motor transportation history. There are also some documents related to carriages, motorcycles and bicycles. The facility also houses an extensive archival holding of Packard Motor Company materials.

The library is a repository for infornmation related to the state and to the Andersons themselves, including a collection of books, plays, and volumes of poetry authored by Isabel Anderson.

[edit] Former holdings

While maintaining the most precious "gems" of the original Larz Anderson Auto Collection, the museum no longer has the following: 905 Walter Tractor & Victoria Carriage, 1907 Walter Broughm, 1910 American Underslung (designed by Harry Stutz), 1913 Hudson 33, 1917 Ford Model T Estate Wagon, 1918 Dodge, 1920 Dodge Truck, 1920 Dodge Hackney, 1924 Dodge Sedan, 1928 Nash Advanced Six, 1930 Packard Limousine, 1931 REO Flying Cloud 6-21, 1936 Dodge Station Wagon, 1938 Dodge Express Truck, 1939 GMC Truck, 1940 Ford Deluxe Wagon, 1941 Packard Suburban, 1947 Pontiac Sedan and the 1948 Ford Super Deluxe Wagon.

[edit] References

1. ^ Larz Anderson Auto Museum
2. ^ c. 1900, automobiles were a novelty and "auto shops" were even rarer.
3. ^ The Boston Globe

[edit] External Links

• Larz Anderson Auto Museum Exhibits
• Biography of the Andersons
• The Larz Anderson Collection at Harvard University.
• Community Crossroads Foundation

[edit] Bibliography

• Anderson, Larz: Letters and Journals of a Diplomat, New York, 1940.
• Anderson, Isabella Under the Black Horse Flag, Boston, 1926
• Del Tredici, Peter: "Early American Bonsai: The Larz Anderson Collection of the Arnold Arboretum", Arnoldia (Summer 1989)