As a passionate lover of all things automotive, one of my favorite finds in any city I visit is a good car museum. There’s nothing like taking a stroll through America’s rich automotive history, and who better to curate a car museum than the Antique Automobile Club of America. Featuring a wide range of automobiles and other automotive memorabilia, a day at the AACA Museum Hershey, is an absolute must if you are in the Hershey – Harrisburg area.
Even though the AACA Museum in Hershey, PA only opened it’s doors in 2003, it’s an extremely well regarded car museum. It’s collector-oriented roots have allowed it to gather a deep collection of automobiles that reflect the majority of the key stages in Automotive history. The museum is of such high quality that it’s been recognized as an Affiliate Museum by the Smithsonian and is considered to be one of America’s greatest automobile museums by Autoweek. It only took one step into the lobby of the AACA to see why .
Because the AACA began as a collector driven museum, they have the ability to bring in a large variety of rotating exhibits of vehicles that aren’t often seen in this kind of venue. These hotrods in the lobby had me drooling!
The AACA also owns a pretty deep collection of vehicles that they use in their permanent exhibit area. They’ve chosen to display their vehicles in different vignettes that showcase some of the different automotive eras.
All the exhibits featured more than just cars of course, there was a ton of automotive memorabilia that would make any picker drool.
In between these vignettes, there were other temporary exhibits like “The Art of the Build: Rods and Kustoms”, which features one-off and unique custom productions.
The AACA Museum features a lot more than just cars though. They have a nice collection of motorcycles on permanent display, as well as some pretty rare Indians as part of their “Indian Nation: Indian Motorcycles and America” exhibit.
They also feature a collection from the Museum of Bus Transportation that includes this famous guy from Forrest Gump!
If you’re lucky when you visit, you might even get a chance to catch a glimpse of the sweetest ride in Hershey, PA. That’s because the AACA Museum currently has the Hershey’s Kissmobile Cruiser on long term loan!
On top of all this, the AACA Museum also features a permanent display with hundreds of hood ornaments, a collection of other automobiles in their reserve collection that rotate in and out of the museum, and will be opening the worlds largest and most complete collection of Tucker 48 Automobiles in October 2014. The museum is definitely worth a visit for any automobile lover. Depending on how thorough you are, plan on spending anywhere from 1.5 – 3 hours going through this incredible collection of automobiles.
Looking for other Attractions or Hotels Near the AACA Museum in Hershey? Check out the Visit Hershey Harrisburg website for fun activities and great savings.
Details for the AACA Museum Hershey, PA
161 Museum Dr
Hershey, PA 17033
717.566.7100
aacamuseum.org
This spring i have been to classic car museum, too. Love the post, love the photos. It’s clear it has been quite an experience.
Thanks Laura!
Wow, what a museum! It’s crazy how quickly the industry has changed! Thanks for sharing your visit!
I love the bus from Forrest Gump!! What a fun museum…
We love cars and those are definitely some sexy classics. But I’d like to take a spin in the Hershey Kiss Mobile!
I would definitely take that Kissmobile for a ride :-)
Now this is intriguing. I’m not much of a car enthusiast but I’m fascinated by the 1940s and 1950s – including automobiles – and that museum looks delectable from the nostalgia-lover’s point of view!
Leyla, That’s a common misconception about many car museums. The well executed ones typically have a lot of memorabilia from different eras and can be fun for everyone.
That looks like such an amazing museum. I love old vintage cars.. You made some great pictures
Couldn’t stop drooling over any of those, but especially some of the bikes. Miss my motorcycle something bad. What a cool museum!
Dan,
It was one of my favorites to date. A lot of car museums have small bike collections as well with some surprising pieces.
We were in Hershey a couple of years ago but I didn’t know there was a car museum there.Went through the chocolate museum & took there partial city tour on our way home from Virginia after going to NASCAR race in Martinsville.What we saw we loved.Your pictures are great.Thanks for sharing.