Custom 1956 Ford pickup, part of the upcoming Ford F-Series: The Truck that Grew Up with America exhibit at the LeMay. Photos courtesy LeMay – America’s Car Museum.
Located in Tacoma, Washington, LeMay – America’s Car Museum bills itself as the largest automotive museum in North America, and thus strives to produce exhibits of interest to as broad an audience of automotive enthusiasts as possible. While some of the museum’s displays are permanent (like the Harold E. LeMay Grand Gallery, containing 45 cars from the collection of Harold and Nancy LeMay), others are updated regularly to ensure that frequent visitors enjoy fresh material. For 2015, the museum has announced two new exhibits, along with an update for a popular ongoing display.
1949 Ford F-Series pickup.
On January 10, 2015, the LeMay will open Ford F-Series: The Truck that Grew Up with America, recognizing 13 generations of the Ford F-Series pickup, a truck that has topped the best-selling vehicle list in the United States for over three decades. Introduced in 1948 as a stouter alternative to Ford’s earlier car-based pickups, the F-Series has evolved over the years from a work truck to the family vehicle of choice for those towing travel trailers or boats. Available leather seating, automatic climate control, and high-end audio systems have replaced the F-Series’ formerly spartan interior, and Scott Keller, the LeMay’s chief curator, calls the Ford pickup, “…a bellwether of cultural change in the United States.”
1950 Oldsmobile 88 Series station wagon.
On March 27, 2015, the LeMay will debut an updated Route 66: Dream of the Mother Road exhibit, featuring vintage station wagons. Given the resurgence of interest in classic station wagons, likely in opposition to the growing population of crossovers and SUVs, the museum could hardly have chosen a more suitable vehicle for the exhibit. Per Keller, “The station wagon is the ultimate road-trip car, which makes it appropriate to highlight in our exhibit dedicated to the most famous highway in the U.S.. We all have a station wagon story.”
1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS.
Finally, on July 9, 2015, the museum will debut American Muscle, which illustrates the horsepower and performance wars between domestic automakers (including American Motors) that escalated throughout the 1960s. The advent of emission regulations, coupled with fuel shortages and fuel economy regulations, put an end to this particular muscle car era in the early 1970s, and Keller said of the upcoming exhibit, “Muscle cars existed in a feel-good era before the world became truly connected… ‘American Muscle’ illustrates what cars were like before politics caught up with the automobile.”
In addition to the new exhibits, the LeMay has announced a series of “Signature Events,” including Drive the Blues Away, a blues-themed party scheduled for February 7; Wheels & Heels Gala, a black-tie event scheduled for June 26; Cars & Cigars, which will include local microbreweries, wineries and distilleries in addition to food and Montecristo cigars, scheduled for August 1; Vintage Motorcycle Festival, open to pre-1991 motorcycles, scheduled for August 22; and the Pacific Northwest Concours d’Elegance, scheduled for September 13.
For additional details on events or exhibits, visit LeMayMuseum.org.
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