Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum, Auburn, Indiana

 We drove up to Auburn, Indiana, today to visit one of my favorite museums and one to which Trish had never been.  It is the Auburn-Cord-Deusenberg Automobile Museum and it is located in the original factory showroom at the Auburn-Cord factory in Auburn.

This beautiful Art Deco building is perfectly restored as the home for approximately 150 Deusenbergs, Austins, and Cords.  The Austin Company was founded here in 1900 and expanded to produce Cords here as well under the presidency of E. L. Cord.  Cord pioneered front wheel drive, superchargers, and even pop-up headlamps.  The designs are beautiful. Here is a 1936 model:

While the Cords and Auburns were built in Auburn, the Deusenbergs were built near Indianapolis.  The whole company went out of business in the Great Depression in 1937.

It was a joy to see a fairly small town project preserve more than just local history in this way.  This first quality collection also tells the stories of the more than 100 different car companies that in early years were in Indiana. 

You can see that there was absolutely no shyness about color in those days.