Spoils Benefit Auto History (12/4/20)

The Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan, houses one of the state's largest collections of classic and vintage automobiles - over 300 vintage and collector vehicles and motorcycles from across more than a century. In developing the museum, Genevieve (Upjohn) and Donald S. Gilmore sought to tell the history of America through the automobile. The museum is based on Donald’s personal collection afforded through his business career, first with his family’s Gilmore Brothers Department Store and then the Upjohn Company.

I visited the museum in the summer of 2000 while Sue and I were both in Michigan attending professional institutes – Sue at Michigan State University in mathematics teaching and me at Western Michigan University inn program evaluation. The following scans of 35mm prints represent the breadth of the collection. The spoils of the Gilmores' life is a benefit to the history of automobiling.

A room of early Cadillacs:

A Lincoln limo from the early 1920s:

A 1920s Deusenberg:

A variety of early soft-tops:

Even a London double decker bus: