AUBURN, IN -- I first met Matt Short at Pebble Beach in August of 2007. I had wisely signed up for a pre-show media tour of the Concours entries on Sunday morning and I was lucky enough to be assigned to a small group of only four journalists, with Matt as our docent and tour guide. And what a tour guide he was.
Duesenberg was the featured marque in 2007 and there is simply no one more knowledgeable. Matt knew every car – knew the history, the current and previous owners and what degree of restoration had been performed. His knowledge and the level of detail about each car was beyond my capacity to absorb – it was great.
He took us behind the velvet ropes, and allowed us to get up close and personal with each one.
I was able to interview several of the owners and get pictures of them with their prized possessions, including some exclusive pictures and a really lucky interview with Harry Yeaggy, the owner of the speed record setting 1935 Duesenberg known as the “Mormon Meteor.” Later that afternoon, it was judged the “Best of Show.”
All of this I owed directly to Matt. I was not only grateful but fascinated to know more about my “docent,” so when I had the chance to meet him again on his home turf, I took the opportunity to learn more at the feet of the master. You see, Matt is not just an over achieving amateur enthusiast, he is the Curator and Executive Vice President of the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana.
The Museum is located in the actual facility where first Auburns, then Cords and finally Duesenbergs were designed and built. It features the restored showroom where these beauties were displayed. The building itself is an art deco masterpiece and is the perfect setting to display the Museum’s unrivaled collection.
The ACD Museum, as it’s known to insiders, first opened in July, 1974 with 10 borrowed cars. At that time, only the showroom had been restored. When it opened, the museum owned none of the originals on display, but over the years has expanded both its collection and the building that houses these priceless artifacts of automotive history. The Museum now has over 100 cars in the collection that’s housed in its 120 thousand square foot completely restored facility. There’s also a banquet and event space which is available to the public for weddings and other special events, which helps to cover the operating expenses of this magnificent space. Matt points out that when you rent this facility, you get the entire museum and your guests are able to enjoy all of the displays, in addition to the catered meal. Last year there were 42 weddings and numerous events held at the ACD.
Matt’s road to becoming the curator began at age 10 in a small town in Michigan. He was the son of the minister of the First United Methodist church in Hastings, MI. As a youngster, his best friend was an 80-year-old local auto mechanic who was a parishioner at his father’s church. Together they talked cars, pored over issues of Hemmings Motor News and went to car museums. Matt’s favorite place in the whole world became the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan and his ambition was to become a curator of such a place.
He wrote to Randy Mason, who was then the curator of transportation at the Henry Ford, and was advised to avoid the field entirely since there were no jobs and no money. He said if Matt really wanted to do this, he must get a bachelor’s degree in history, a graduate degree in museum practice and read everything available about cars. Undeterred, he took the advice about preparations and didn’t worry about the money. He secured an internship at the Dearborn Museum where he met Mason who chided him for “not listening” and pursuing this career in spite of his warnings. They are good friends today.
After his internship, Matt went on to an additional graduate program in museum administration at the University of Michigan and worked at the Michigan Historical Museum. From there he became curator and executive director of the Ransom E. Olds Museum in Lansing, Mich. When he was offered the chance to become part of the ACD, he literally took both a demotion and a pay cut in order to work at the museum of his dreams. The hard part was explaining the decision to his new fiancée. He had just proposed on Friday and he started his new job the following Monday. He was making less money and would be moving 100 miles away but everything worked out. He got the girl, got married and worked his way up to the curator position. Now he’s also executive vice president of the ACD.
He’s especially proud of the collection and the fact that out of sixteen thousand museums in the US, only 750 are accredited and the ACD is the only accredited “car” museum in the USA (Note: The Henry Ford does not consider itself a “car” museum, but is also accredited). He’s also proud of the fact that in a town of only 12,500 people they have over 100 volunteers. He points out one individual who alone has spent 700 hours in the past year dusting the cars.
The ACD has over 65,000 visitors annually and is open every day except Christmas, New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving. When you first enter the museum, you are immediately transported into the golden age of automotive design and luxury. As you step into the actual showroom full of gleaming models that glisten as if new, you are struck by the fact that there’s so much to look at and so much to see that the feeling is overwhelming.
The signature annual event is The Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Festival, which takes place every year over Labor Day weekend. It includes an informal rally of A, C, and D’s in the parking lot of the Museum; a classic “cruise in” car show in downtown Auburn that takes over the town square and most of the adjoining streets; a Pancake breakfast; an Ice cream social; the Saturday classic car parade through the heart of Auburn featuring over 300 A, C, and D’s and the Kruse Labor Day Weekend auction, whose headquarters are also located just outside of the town.
All of this fun starts on the Tuesday before and continues through Sunday of every Labor Day weekend. The actual dates for 2008 are August 26-31. This is a total immersion event for true believers and simply a lot of fun for the rest of us.
For more information: http://acdmuseum.org
Or send snail mail to the ACD Museum at 1600 South Wayne Street (P.O. Box 271), Auburn, Indiana 46706
Call at: (260) 925-1444 or Fax at: (260) 925-6266
For information about Kruse Auctions: www.kruse.com
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