1932 Styling Wooden Packard Shovel Nose

[Andrew U]

Inherited this.  Grandfather worked at the Packard Plant in Detroit, MI.  Brought it home for his kids to play with.  My dad gave it to me.  It's 19 inches long, 7 inches high, 7 inches wide and around 10 pounds.  Can't find anyone to tell me about it.  Is it worth anything, would a museum want something like this?  Appreciate your help.

[Matt Harwood]

If you're interested in selling, I'm interested in buying...

[TerryB]

Packard Museum in Ohio might be able to give you more information about it.

[Ozstatman]

See my comments on PackardInfo.com about donating it to the Packard Proving Gounds.

 

If you're  not considerig donating it, I may be interested in buying it and making the donation myself. But as Matt has already indicated he would be interested in buying it, he has first dibs.

[Andrew U]

Thanks for all the information and help.  I have decide to donate the model to a Packard museum near me.

[JV Puleo]

As just a caution...look into the ownership of the museum before you donate anything. One of the peculiarities of the old car world is that many, if not most of the "museums" are really private collections on public display. When the person underwriting the museum dies ... or becomes tired of the expense, the collection goes up for sale. We need only look at the number of former "museum" cars for sale to grasp this. Public museums do the same thing, calling it "deaccessioning". It's not dishonest and it is a way to dispose of legacies that do not fit the museum's criteria but it can be very disheartening for someone to donate a cherished heirloom to a museum only to see it up for auction a year later.

[Andrew U]

Thank you.

[TerryB]

15 hours ago, JV Puleo said:

As just a caution...look into the ownership of the museum before you donate anything. One of the peculiarities of the old car world is that many, if not most of the "museums" are really private collections on public display. When the person underwriting the museum dies ... or becomes tired of the expense, the collection goes up for sale. We need only look at the number of former "museum" cars for sale to grasp this. Public museums do the same thing, calling it "deaccessioning". It's not dishonest and it is a way to dispose of legacies that do not fit the museum's criteria but it can be very disheartening for someone to donate a cherished heirloom to a museum only to see it up for auction a year later.

My wife and I recently donated historical land documents to our local historical society.  They were thrilled to get them.  As part of the donation process we signed papers the essentially said we give up ownership and future claims to these documents and the historical society can best decide what to do with them.  This practice is very common today.  I have no problems with their eventual sale of them if that ever happens.  No museum or library or historical society can keep everything forever.

[Andrew U]

I appreciate all the information.  Thanks

[JV Puleo]

6 hours ago, TerryB said:

My wife and I recently donated historical land documents to our local historical society.  They were thrilled to get them.  As part of the donation process we signed papers the essentially said we give up ownership and future claims to these documents and the historical society can best decide what to do with them.  This practice is very common today.  I have no problems with their eventual sale of them if that ever happens.  No museum or library or historical society can keep everything forever.

That is the common practice. More often, public museums decline donations that don't fit their theme or, if they accept them do so with the understanding they will be sold. All of that is perfectly legitimate. Documents are an excellent example of the sort of artifact that belongs in a museum where it can be readily accessed by interested scholars. They rarely have much intrinsic value so no change of management will see them as a "fund raising" asset.  I've donated rare books to a museum collection expressly so that others would have access to them. It's an idiotic  and rather shallow fantasy to believe that everything is on the internet.

 

By way of example, in the 70s, the late and very highly respected Ed Roy prevailed on some of his friends to leave or donate their cars to the Lars Anderson Museum. Shortly thereafter the museum management changed, it was merged with the Boston Children's Museum and much of the collection was sold. This was a huge embarrassment for Mr. Roy since many of the benefactors were still alive and active and this was clearly not their (or his) intent when they made their donation. The merger failed and the museum eventually went back to it's original location and goals but the damage was done.

[Rod P]

Or you can have it on 'permanent loan' in writing with museum, and when no longer displayed, reverts back to you/ heirs.