A wonderful day at the NB Center

Yesterday, America On Wheels Transportation Museum had our annual volunteer recognition lunch at the NB Center for American Autotive Heritage, owned by Nicola Bulgari. We celebrated our 10 years as a museum and all of us who have been volunteers the full time were recognized. The curator of the NB Collection heard one of the volunteers wondering if the collection had a 1947 Nash, so he called Mr. Bulgari who was in from Rome and was puttering with a work crew. When Mr. Bulgari came over to welcome the volunteers, he drove his 1947 Nash car over so that we could see it, as well as the cars that were currently in the building where the lunch was served. The Historic Vehicle Association US is housed at the NB Center as well, and one of the vehicles they are cataloging right now was in the building with us. It was one of the two electric wagons, built in 1907 by Studebaker, that ran in the tunnel between the Senate and the Capitol in the tunnel between the two. I have posted a series of photos from the day at https://www.flickr.com/photos/brooklands/albums/72157690818295200

NB? What does that stand for?

Nicola Bulgari - it is the American portion of his car collection. The other half is in Rome.

Brooklands said:

Nicola Bulgari - it is the American portion of his car collection. The other half is in Rome.

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Thanks!

Where is this collection?

It is a private collection in Allentown, PA. It was opened to the public when the National Buick Meet was held on the grounds, but otherwise it is private.

Article in yesterday's NY Times about some auto museums closing due to lack of interest.

It is tough sometimes for us at America On Wheels. One day this week we had one visitor, but then other days we are quite busy. It is a lot of work to keep promoting the place, having events, and generally staying in the public eye. The fact that our displays are constantly changing helps. Docents at the Unser Museum said that they have very few repeat visitors, where we have people coming several times a year. Since we got our new board of directors with Mr. Bulgari and Ed Wellburn, we have had some major help in acquiring loans for exhibits, and the fact that we were the first development on the resurgence of the Allentown Riverfront 10 years ago may have hurt the museum at the start, but as development of housing and other attractions come on board, there has been a growth in attendance too. And the number of international visitors is promising too. You can't just open a museum and expect that people will come and continue to come.