During your visit to the Crawford Auto Aviation Museum exhibits Setting the World in Motion and REVolution: The Automobile in America bring the history of transportation to life. Featured in the automobile museum exhibits are items from the impressive collection of 140 antique automobiles, 21 non-car transportation artifacts, 10 aircrafts and 3 carriages and sleighs. The Automotive Marque Files, which include automobile brochures, owner manuals and advertisements, add further significance to this already impressive collection.
Setting the World in Motion
Explore the impact of Northeast Ohio on the auto and aviation industries during the first half of the 20th century. After John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in the late 19th century, Cleveland became the center of global change in the transportation industry especially for urban transportation. By the 1930s over 100 auto manufactures called Northeast Ohio home. Delve into the lives and times of manufactures, their products and how they changed America’s transportation industry as you explore items from the Crawford Auto Aviation Collection. Additionally, you can learn how transportation affected Ohio’s culture through the National Air Races and the Great Lakes Exposition, held on Cleveland’s lakefront in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
REVolution: The Automobile in America
From stainless steel to early recreational vehicles, REVolution is split into seven sections that portray the transformation of the automobile design and technological changes in America from the 1890s to the 21st century.
Invention & Design
Explore the earliest automobile designs including those made by Karl Benz, automobiles in mid-transition from the horse carriage and the first luxury vehicles in Invention & Design. This section of the exhibit also features more recent concept vehicles.
Tire Tech
The tire has always been a feature of the automobile design. Discover how manufactures have been using different techniques to improve the quality of the tire for centuries, from its smoothness, to its grip on the road, to tires that can improve gas mileage in Tire Tech.
Alternative Fuels
Alternative Fuels compares early automobile designers’ knowledge of what kind of fuel would propel their vehicles to the advancements made today. On display you can view multiple fuel types and learn about how they have affected the transportation industry.
Need for speed
Discover how early automobile designers pushed their vehicles to new speeds in order to demonstrate to the public the endurance of their designs and learn about the races once used to test the speed of vehicles. On display in Need for Speed you will find early sports car designs.
Road Trip
Not only did consumers look for automobiles designed for speed, but those that could endure long distances. Discover 2 of the “around the world” cars on display as well as a model of a Jordan House Car, one of the earliest recreational vehicles.
Accessory Corner
While many drivers today would not dream of purchasing a vehicle without a windshield or bumper, such accessories were once a luxury to automotive consumers. Accessory Corner examines the early car accessories that many of today’s drivers take for granted.
Stainless Steel
See 4 stainless steel automobiles on display in Stainless Steel. Questions such as why an automobile maker would build a vehicle with this material along with others are answered in this section of the exhibit.
- Don’t forget your camera. Personal photography is permitted at the Crawford Auto Aviation Museum unless otherwise noted. Tripods and other special equipment are not permitted unless prior permission has been obtained from the museum’s staff.