Museums to Host Annual “History on the Move” Car Show

Each fall, the Springfield Museums pay tribute to Springfield’s role in transportation history with their annual “History on the Move” Car Show. The eleventh annual event will take place on Saturday, September 6, from 9 am to 3 pm on the museum grounds at the Quadrangle. A wide assortment of muscle cars and vintage early automobiles will be displayed, including many pre-1980 cars and an assortment of vintage automobiles manufactured in Springfield. This year’s Car Show is sponsored by AAA of Pioneer Valley.

Paul Mennett, host of NESN’s Cruisin’ New England television show, will also be on hand with a number of unique muscle cars as part of his ongoing “Super Wheels Showdown” competition. In recent seasons, Mennett has dedicated two entire half-hour programs to the diverse and unique collection of cars and motocycles in the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History. The collection was recently honored by Yankee Magazine in their “Best of New England” issue for the best car and motorcycle museum in Massachusetts.

Ongoing activities that day will include:

Driving demonstrations of a replica of the Springfield-built 1893 Duryea, the first successful gasoline-powered car (10:45 a.m. & 1:30 p.m., main parking lot).
A talk on the early car industry in Springfield by museum docent Jerre Hoffman (11:15 a.m., Wood Museum of Springfield History)
Award ceremony for Best Pre-1950 vehicles, Best Post-1950 vehicles, Best in Show, and People’s Choice; 2 p.m.
Music plus lunches and snacks available in the Blake House Café.

In addition, visitors can also view the transportation exhibits in the Wood Museum, which include an experimental roadster made by the Indian company, an 1899 three-wheeled Knox made in Springfield, two Springfield-built Rolls-Royces, a 1910 Atlas, and a 1903 Stevens-Duryea, the oldest surviving model of its kind. Also on view in the museum is the Wood Museum’s famous collection of Springfield-built Indian Motocycles.

The car show is free with the price of museum admission.

For more information about the event, call 413.263.6800, ext. 300.