As you can see from the pics below, this is a really first-class facility, housing over 100 vehicles from 1800's wagons and carriages through automobiles produced up until 1966:
The staff is all-volunteer and they do a very nice job.
Studebaker was in business from about 1850 through 1966. During the 19th Century, they were a premier producer of all kinds of carriages, wagons, and buggies, winning many prizes at expositions around the world. You can see some of these vehicles here:
Right around 1900 they started to get interested in producing motorized vehicles and at the beginning, those vehicles were electric. These two are from 1911...looks like you could climb in and just boogie along!
During the 1920's and 1930's, they were producers of high-end automobiles similar to Packard, Auburn, Cord, and Chrysler. You can get a taste of the styling and quality of these cars:
Studebaker went into receivership in the early 1930's, but produced some beautiful autos after emerging from reorganization up until the start of WWII. During the war, all production was devoted to military contracts and automobile production didn't resume until 1946. By that time, of course, the big three (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) steadily gained domination of the automobile market, and, while Studebaker had some success in the late forties and through most of the 1950's, by 1959 the company was losing money and never returned to profitability. They did, however, produce some "distinctive" cars during this period:
Unfortunately, production in South Bend ended in 1964 and production in Ontario ended in 1966. This was the very last Studebaker built in 1966:
After exploring the Studebaker Museum, I headed on north and west through Chicago to Waukegan, IL, where I'm spending the night. I'll be going to the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Auto Museum in Hartford, WI tomorrow, then west into Iowa.
Miles today: 243
Total: 956