ABSTRACT
Today, motor-related museums are among the most popular of museums. 1 These include different types of institutions: science museums, industrial museums, transport museums, corporate museums, folk museums, and so forth. The story of motor museums is almost as old as the automobile itself. One of the earliest science museums, the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in France, received Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot’s steam tractor in 1800, 2 while the Smithsonian obtained Stephan Balzer’s “experimental carriage,” an early automobile built in 1894, and put it on display in 1899. 3 However, it was in the German-speaking part of Europe where motor museums took shape and evolved in multiple directions. The short-lived Museum der Geschichte der Österreichischen Arbeit (Museum on the History of Austrian Work) displayed two electric cars in 1893, spearheading similar displays by other science museums. 4 It was followed by the Deutsches Museum in Münich, which set up a distinct transportation division at its inception in 1903.
