Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

David Reports on the Seal Cove Auto Museum

Thursday July 13, 2017                                                                         Most Recent Posts:
Mount Desert Island,  Maine                                                          A Triple Bag With Nancy and Bill
                                                                                                 Oriental Surprise Overlooking Clark Cove

 

 

David went off to the Seal Cove Auto Museum today on a solo venture.  It’s not that I’m not interested in old cars, I am.  But not AS interested as he is and I knew he would stay longer and even enjoy himself more if I wasn’t around to eventually be impatient.  So off he went and this is his report in his own words with his own photographs. 

 

 

If you like history and old cars then a visit to the Seal Harbor Auto Museum should be on your agenda for a rainy day or any day while visiting Acadia National Park. They not only have a great collection of the first automobiles from the “brass era” (1895-1917), but also exhibit clothing and other items from that era, including a fine collection of early motor bikes and motorcycles & children’s peddle cars too.

If that is not enough to pique your interest, you may find the current exhibit on the controversy over automobiles being allowed on Mount Desert Island intriguing. On one side they show how the controversy played out at the turn of the 20th century with the introduction of the “horseless carriage”, and on the other side they show how this same controversy is again manifesting in transportation problems today in the National Park.

Too many cars and visitors are clogging the National Park Loop road and overflowing the parking lots & delaying the shuttle buses. What to do then and now? Initially there was strong opposition to allowing automobiles on the island which even involved prohibition for several years. With overcrowding in Acadia today, some are revisiting this question. What should we do about too many cars in the park? What do you think?

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the exhibits at Seal Harbor Auto Museum.

 

Vintage automobiles from the brass era

 

 

 

 

 

A motorized buckboard

 

 

 

A 1908 Rauch Lang Cleveland Ohio Electric Runabout

 

 

1910 White Motor Company Cleveland Ohio Manufactured with either steam or gasoline engine.  This one is called a Pullman Touring Car.  Sherry says “Pretty fancy”!

 

 

 

This rear entrance makes it a Tonneau Style Carriage.

 

 

This is a Maine manufactured buckboard from Bar Harbor.  It’s of the day, but not motorized.

 

 

Edsel Ford’s 1936 Sedan convertible

 

 

 

 

Some vintage ladies wear from back in the day

 

 

 

 

Kid’s peddle cars

 

Most were lost to the metal scrapping efforts during WWII, but here are a few that survived:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early motorized bikes and motorcycles:

 

1903 Indian

 

1912 Fabrique National, Belgium - Notice it has 4 cylinders and a drive shaft!

 

 

1912 Pierce Arrow MC

 

 

And finally the coolest piece of High-Technology for the day, the Jones “Live Map” gizmo that you could buy for whatever your vehicle and attach it to your speedometer cable. Placing the appropriate travel disk for your journey from A to B, it would then show your progress and where approximately you were on your journey and what to expect next! Pretty high-tech for that day and age I’d say.

 

19 comments:

  1. Love that GPS!. Good job, David, although I would have probably stayed home with Sherry.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Never seen a Jones Live Map in a museum before, they have a real gem there. A nice collection of cars also. I love those inline 4 motor cycles, lots of engineering involved. Bet you had a very fun time there, thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice to hear from Pops!! Neat museum if you love old cars - glad you had a whole day to spend however long you wanted. The wheels are so big..you can see the connection to the horse drawn carriages. Fancy bikes and very cute peddle cars. I know you enjoyed it all! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks like a great day for you, David! Sometime we need to go our separate ways. I leave John, at times, to visit War Museums without me. I do the quick tour where he reads everything. I'm not a fan and he is history fan. Thanks for sharing your day:)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great photos of a day we know you enjoyed!! So amazing that such a collection is located out in the middle of the quiet side of MDI:o)) Just one more thing to love about this special island!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I would love to see all this. Looks very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'd have gotten lost in that museum as well, I love old cars. Just think how they were made without computers and modern machinery. Real craftsmanship to build those cars. Great pictures, too! :c)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yes, I would have probably sent Jim to that museum without me, too, but that Jones Live Map is pretty interesting, as are the motorized bikes. Looks like you had a good day!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh I would love this - what a great collection they have! Those brass era pieces are beautiful. Sure like that three wheel model. The Edsel must have turned heads, it's so classy! Hard to believe the Live Map was available in 1909 - not sure I could read that tiny print while bouncing down the road though :-))))

    ReplyDelete
  10. Love your comments. I think back in the day the motoring public "enjoyed" a lot more stops along the way than we do today so they got plenty of chance to check on their "Jones". ;)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think occasional days spent apart are a good thing, especially living 24/7 in such a small space. Sounds like you had a fun day, David. I'd love that Indian motorized bike! I vote for banning motorized vehicles on the island in favor of more mass transit.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your post was a lot more than just old cars and I enjoyed looking at all the photos as well as reading the narrative. I loved the kids' green peddle car - my brothers had one that was red and within days they found a can of paint and decided to change the color! I liked the 1936b Edsel, and it's hard to believe I was born just 4 years later. I'm still around but would have to go to Maine to see the car!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Neat navigation guide. I've read where Adadia, like many national parks, is struggling with two many cars.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Pretty cool museum, with more than just cars! Didn't know about the 'Jones' GPS, also pretty innovative for the day. We're experiencing Car Week here in Monterey. Lots of old cars, cool to see some of them!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Well, I thought that I wouldn't be very interested in this, but well done, David! These are fascinating. One of those first pictures looks more like a bicycle with a motor than a car, but I guess that it moved and that was all that counted. I'll take the '36 Sedan convertible. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  16. It's hard to imagine with the earliest cars that they even ran!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I would do the same thing, let Steve enjoy his day with cars or planes by himself without me giving the looks.

    ReplyDelete

Your comments are the best part of this blog for me.
I LOVE hearing from you!