As of 2019 there were more than 170 automobiles, 12 aircraft, 3 antique carriages, and 21 non-car artifacts (motorcycles, boats and bicycles). The facility includes more than 2,000 square feet (190 m2) of archival collections.[1]
The aviation collection includes a P-51 Mustang racing plane used in Thompson Trophy Races.[2] The oldest car in the collection is an 1897 Panhard et Levassor, while later acquisitions include the first production DeLorean from 1981 and a self-driving car named DEXTER which was team Team Case's entry in the DARPA Urban Challenge 2007, in which it placed in the top 20.[3]
The collection began as the Thompson Products Auto Album, which was also founded by Crawford. Crawford explained that when he started collecting the cars, it was simply because it seemed a shame to let them be scrapped, which was the typical fate of almost all antique machinery at the time. He saw value in saving a few historically significant examples.[6]
In 1990, the museum sold off almost 70 automobiles by putting them up for auction with Sotheby's.[7]
To pay down debt, the museum sold or auctioned 44 cars in 2009, 24 of them through RM Auctions in October.[8][9] The deaccessions proceeded over public protest and the objections of Kay Crawford, the widow of founder Frederick C. Crawford.[10][11] The museum also sold a Goodyear F2G Corsair it had purchased from Walter Soplata and a Airco DH.4 originally acquired by Crawford.[12]
As of 2018, the museum featured two major exhibits: Setting the World in Motion, featuring cars and airplanes made in Northeast Ohio,[13] and REVolution: The Automobile in America, telling the story of the automobile in America.[14]
The museum dismissed its director, Brad Brownell, in 2023 due to disagreements over object use philosophies.[15]
