During this second year of our current exhibit, Selling Lifestyle and Leisure: Art, Advertising, and the Automobile, we decided to recreate some of our favorite advertisements or artworks featuring motor vehicles on display at the Seal Cove Auto Museum. Who else to dress up and pose but the museum’s staff?
We also couldn’t have done it without the help of two incredible volunteers; Mary Ellen Martel, photographer, and Thom Willey, lighting specialist.
To start off, we photographed (above) Bill Barter, Curator of Visitor Services, and Peter Brown, Senior Mechanic, with the 1910 Pierce Arrow 36-UU Runabout on loan to us from the Paine family. We hit it out of the park right off the bat! Or, should we say (in tennis terms), we aced it?
We followed up with a recreation of a 1960s calendar print of the 1904 World Fair in St. Louis, that features the museum’s 1904 Knox Surrey Touring car. This award-winning automobile was originally built for the president of the Knox Company, Elisha H. Cutler, who is at the tiller in the original print. At the tiller in the recreation is Raney Bench, Executive Director, joined by Collections Care Manager Marcia Mcfarland up front and Curator of Education Jenna Beaulieu in the backseat.
Finally, we rounded out the series with a recreation featuring a 1913 Indian motorcycle, our Store and Events Manager, Patrick Callaway, our Director of Development and Membership Mel Rice-Schoon, and Mel’s dog, Duke.
The exhibit is up for one more month, so come check it out before the season ends on October 31. Once November rolls around, we will disassemble and transition into the next exhibit, Engines of Change.