The museum will be closing at 3:30 on Saturday, October 25, 2025 for a private event.

 

Visit The William E. Swigart Jr. Automobile Museum

Where You Can Experience Automotive History

The Swigart Museum is the oldest automobile museum in the United States.

When you visit the museum you will learn about the historical significance of the automobile, while viewing our many displays, and our one-of-a-kind automobiles in our collection.

Our automobile collection was started in 1920, just 25 years after the first patented combustion engine automobile. It was started as a collection that was made available for public viewing during business hours at Swigart Associates. It was later registered as a separate automobile museum, which is still thriving today.

The Swigart Museum collection contains automobiles and carriages dating back to 1896. You can see between 30 to 35 automobiles on display each year at the museum. Because our collection is so vast, each year while the museum is closed over the winter, we change the displays to give everyone the opportunity to see more of our collections. We also have a featured display each year of one of our special automobiles in the center of the museum.

During your visit you will experience more than just cars. The Swigart Museum features the excitement of early automobile racing and old cars that are depicted in prints, paintings, and photographs from renowned automobile artists such as Ernest Montaut and Peter Helck.

You will find a large collection of Jim Beam collector automobile decanters on display on one of our beautiful antique display cases.

In what is believed to be the largest collection of automobile emblems, badges, and license plates in the country, familiar labels from Ford, Packard, and Oldsmobile are displayed alongside the emblems of forgotten models. Car badges, a sign that the motorist belonged to an automobile club, are also on display. The license plate exhibit represents every state in the union and includes only a fraction of the plates in the museum's collection. This important collection of automobilia also includes automobile lamps and horns, hood ornaments, and other accessories that added to the pleasure of driving.

One corner is devoted to a collection of vintage Fisher-Price toys, including classics such as the Snoopy Sniffer and the Corn Popper push toy. Everything from wooden pull toys offered during the company's first year (1931) to toys popular a decade ago brings to mind the pleasure of these childhood favorites.

There's something for everyone of all ages to enjoy at the museum

Although two of our cars on display were movie stars we consider all of our cars to be exceptional like our 1910 Buick Five Passenger Phaeton that was part of President Theodore Roosevelt's campaign parades. These are just a few of the examples of historical vehicles on display at the Swigart Museum.