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Gilmore Car Museum

The Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Mich., is about a 2-plus-hour drive from Fort Wayne. The museum's collection of steam-, electric- and gasoline-powered vehicles include a motorized open buckboard, super-chromed 1950s models, Checker cabs, race cars, stylish Auburns, movie vehicles and the much-maligned Edsel. It also displays nearly 500 hood ornaments. Here's a sampling from the history of automobiles. Photos by Lisa Esquivel Long of The News-Sentinel. To see the story, go here.

1906 Waltham Orient Buckboard
The side seat on this 1911 Oldsmobile Autocrat Race Car may look like a "mother-in-law seat," however, a worker said it was where the mechanic would sit. A Maryland man who owned the vehicle from 1911 until his death in 1968 modified the body and raced in it.
1929 Rolls-Royce Springfield Phantom / Tourer
1935 Duesenberg Rollston Convertible Coupe
1923 Checker H-2 Taxicab
1906 Colombia Mark ILVII with lots of brass and lights
The 1959 Metropolitan 2-Door Hardtop by Nash Motors was billed as "Luxury in Miniature."
1958 Ford Thunderbird Convertible
Emblem on the 1958 Ford Thunderbird Convertible
The 1958 Ford Thunderbird Convertible’s interior
Grille of the 1958 Edsel Pacer 4-Door Hardtop
1953 MG TD Roadster
Grille of the 1953 MG TD Roadster
A clear top shows the inner workings of this vehicle
A lion hood ornament atop a vehicle made by Franklin Automobile Co. The company created a direct-air-cooling system that did away with the radiator.
A hood ornament from a 1930 Franklin Series 147
1932 Franklin Series 16 "Airman" Sedan
Interior of the 1932 Franklin Series 16 "Airman" Sedan
A 1948 Tucker movie "replicar" that was used in the film about the car maker.
As drivers hit the open road, they took with them a place to sleep. This 1947 Dufrene 14-foot Camping Trailer was one option.
1948 Packard "Woodie" Station Sedan
A poster on how all the 1939 vehicles seemed to have the same body type.
A woman walks near a Hudson ad.
1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham driven by actor Dan Aykroyd in the film, "Driving Miss Daisy."
A 1930s Shell Station.  Back then gasoline was around 10 cents a gallon.
George & Sally’s Blue Moon Diner is on the grounds. A 1941 Silk City diner known as Joe’s Diner and later as Blue Moon Diner in Meriden, Conn., it was moved to the car museum in 2004 and fully restored.
A George & Sally’s Blue Moon Diner employee serves a worker lunch.
Della Crewe, of Waco, Texas, and her dog, Trouble, set off on a cross-country ride on her Harley-Davidson motorcycle on June 24, 1915. She arrived in New York six months later.
A 1914 Harley-Davidson V-Twin Motorcycle identical to the one driven by Della Crewe of Waco, Texas, in 1915 on her cross-country ride to New York.
A visit to toy car land. Replicas of horse carts, fire trucks, police cars and autos are housed together..
A 1955 Triumph T-120 Bonneville
1947 Indian Chief
1919 Johnson Motorwheel
A display of hood ornaments, including Rene Lalique glass car mascots.
1920s hood ornaments from France, left, and Spain
This 1938 Mercedes SK40 Sport Touring was supposedly hidden underground for 60 years. During World War II, it’s said the German owner - fearing the vehicle would be taken by US or Soviet soldiers - parked the vehicle in his basement garage in Dresden, bricked up the entrance, fill the driveway with dirt and planted a rose garden. It stayed there until the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The instrument panel of the 1938 Mercedes-Benz 540K Sport Tourer
Hood ornament on a 1930 Packard 734 Speedster Sedan
This 1934 Auburn V-12 Salon Brougham is one of five 1934 Auburns from the same collection with matching paint colors.
Pierce Arrow ads
A Pierce Arrow hood ornament takes aim
The 1931 Pierce Arrow Model 41 Limousine comes complete with netting for a top hat storage.
1932 Lincoln KB Dietrich Convertible
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