AACA Museum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
AACA Museum

The AACA Museum with the Hershey Kissmobile outside
Established	26 June 2003; 21 years ago (2003-06-26)
Location	161 Museum Drive Hershey, PA
Type	Transportation museum
Collection size	130

The AACA Museum is a super cool transportation museum. It's located in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in the United States. This museum is a special kind of non-profit organization. This means it uses all its money to keep the museum running and teach people. It's dedicated to saving and sharing the history of American cars. Even though its name sounds similar, it's not officially part of the Antique Automobile Club of America.

The museum is huge, about 71,000 square feet! Inside, you can see over 130 different vehicles. These include cars, buses, motorcycles, and other cool automobile items. They are displayed in fun, themed settings. You can see vehicles from the 1890s all the way to the 1980s. The AACA Museum is also connected to the famous Smithsonian Institution. It's also part of the American Alliance of Museums, which helps museums be awesome.

Some of its most important collections are the Cammack Tucker Collection. This collection has the most Tucker cars in the world. Another big collection is the Museum of Bus Transportation. In 2014, the museum even won a special award. It received the NAAMY Award of Excellence from the National Association of Automobile Museums.

Awesome Collections to Explore

The AACA Museum has some really unique collections. You can see rare cars and even old buses.

The Cammack Tucker Car Collection

The AACA Museum is home to the biggest collection of Tucker 48 cars anywhere. These cars are very special and rare. This amazing collection is named after David Cammack. He was a historian and loved collecting Tucker automobiles. When he passed away in 2013, his entire collection was given to the AACA Museum.

The Museum of Bus Transportation

When the AACA Museum first opened in 2003, the Museum of Bus Transportation joined in. They leased space on the lower level of the museum. Here, they show off their collection of 22 classic buses. As of 2020, the Museum of Bus Transportation owns about 33 buses. Most of these cool buses are on display at the AACA Museum.

A Look at the Museum's History

The AACA Museum, Inc. started in 1993. It was created as a charity group. Their main goal was to build a museum. This museum would help save all kinds of historical motor vehicles.

In 1996, the group bought 25 acres of land. This land was in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It was chosen as the spot for the future museum building. Building the museum was going to cost a lot of money. In 2000, a special trust promised millions of dollars. They also pledged three rare 1947 Tucker Torpedo cars. A lot of the other money was raised at the AACA's yearly car shows. These shows are held in Hershey, PA.

The museum officially opened its doors on June 26, 2003. It started with about 70 cars. These cars were either given as gifts or loaned by club members. The AACA Museum didn't just line up cars in rows. Instead, they made the displays educational and fun. They added scenery and special designs. These designs matched the time period when each car was built. This helps visitors feel like they've stepped back in time. In 2013, MSNBC even named the museum as one of the 12 car museums in the USA worth visiting.

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