Race to the Museum: Voting opens Dec. 21

By NMAH

In the museum, there is a cabinet full of keys—keys that fit the 73 cars in the museum’s automobile collection. Fourteen of these cars are on display in America On the Move, but most are in a Smithsonian building miles away from the National Mall, sitting under car covers and the watchful gaze of curator Roger White (savvy blog readers will remember Roger as the curator who collected the Vince and Larry crash dummies in July).

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Lozier cars racing at Brighton Beach, New York, 1907

Now the covers are coming off some of those cars and the public can—FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER—tell the museum which two cars should come back to the National Mall for a limited time this winter.

In the coming days, Roger will introduce us to eight of the jewels of the Smithsonian car collection, covering 120 years of history and presented in order from the oldest to the newest. Beginning December 21, you can vote for your favorite. The two vehicles with the most votes will be rolled out of deep, dark storage and put on view at the museum from January 22 to February 21.

Check back each day through next Tuesday, when the voting for “Race to the Museum” opens.

Kate Wiley is Public Affairs Assistant at the National Museum of American History.