<VV> Detroit Historical Museum/Fort Wayne (Long commentary)

[Dale Dewald]

At 14:25 5/24/07 -0400, Garth Stapon provided this link:

>http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=8992

which discusses the sad fate of a collection of historical cars donated to 
the City of Detroit. Then,  at 21:30 5/24/07 -0400, Clark Hartzel wrote:

> >>snip<<  It was sad seeing cars that were donated,
>sitting uncovered, with dust and bird poop all over them.  Many windows in
>the building were broken and pigeons made it their home.  The Detroit Area
>Corvair Club even offered to restore the 1960 Corvair for them but they
>weren't interested.  Anything run by government is screwed up!  They ought
>to sell the cars to collectors, which would "save" the cars, and make
>Detroit some money. >>snip<<

What I found interesting about the whole debate was the controversy 
concerning a collection of Packards that were loaned to museums in 
Ohio.  It seems that there was some understanding or assumption that these 
cars could not be used for anything other than static displays. To me, this 
reveals a rather alarming narrow minded-ness among some people (government 
officials?) who are supposedly interested in preservation.  Consider for a 
moment the disposition of those Packards as compared to the other cars 
languishing in the Ft Wayne warehouse:

1)  They are no doubt being kept in proper storage and are regularly on 
display to the public.

2)  The Packards are obviously being maintained in operating condition and 
get exposure outside of their host museums for parades and reportedly for 
an ad hoc museum-based limousine service (which seems fitting for the marque).

3)  Apparently some of the cars are mechanically reliable enough to be 
loaned or rented to people outside of the museum staff.

The main point is that the loaned Packards are at least being used for 
their intended purpose rather than being allowed to sit and rot. However, 
the most controversial latter situation merits further consideration.  All 
too often, historical automobiles, tools, machinery, etc get set up in 
non-working static displays which, while it prevents them from being lost 
to the scrappers torch, do not offer much more than a visual reference to 
the past.  This is much better than looking at pictures of the same objects 
but often does not give the viewer any appreciation of the acquired skills, 
knowledge, hard work, sweat, (perhaps even blood) that their ancestors 
experienced when living with these objects on a day-to-day basis long 
ago.  To my mind, the ideal museum might have several vintage autos, 
machines, or whatever is of interest kept in a condition such that visitors 
(perhaps for a fee) could operate the real thing for themselves to fully 
experience the sights, smells, noise, vibrations, etc.

Some examples of this concept do/have exist(ed):
a) Some 15 years ago my wife and I visited Greenfield Village (part of the 
Henry Ford Museum complex) where, at that time, one could rent and drive a 
Model T Ford (we unfortunately ran out of time to do this).  For those 
unfamiliar, driving a T is more like driving a tractor than a car.  I know 
GV still has a fleet of Model T's for visitors to have rides in, but I do 
not know if there still are any opportunities for the public to actually 
drive them.
b) Quite a number of railroad museums (check here - 
http://www.railroaddata.com/rrlinks/Engineer_Experience_Programs/ ) offer 
visitors the opportunity to rent a locomotive (mostly diesel-electric, but 
some steam) and operate it under supervision of their staff.  Imagine the 
historical perspective and appreciation one would get of being, for 
example, an apprentice fireman on a steam locomotive for a few hours:  The 
noise, smells of grease and smoke, heat from the fire, and sore back from 
shovelling coal could not be replicated by even the most sophisticated 
display.

I think it would be very interesting to have a couple of Corvairs available 
at our CORSA Conventions (perhaps for rent - and maybe a Falcon, VW, or 
Valiant for comparison) that could be driven by visitors to obtain a 
hands-on historical experience.  This might be easiest to do at the 
autocross, but could perhaps work for some sort of tour that permits the 
driver to experience a variety of roads.

Sorry to be long on this...but it has been something of interest to me lately.

Dale Dewald
Hancock, MI