Boyertown Museum

Dinner Event

admin — Sat, 04 May 2013 14:34:48 +0000

STEAM COFFIN – Captain Moses Rogers and The Steamship Savannah Break the Barrier

We have an exciting opportunity to extend to the general public! There are a few remaining seats for an event at the Boyertown Museum, sponsored by the Lehigh Valley SAE, on Thursday May 16, beginning at 6:00 pm.

John Laurence Busch, historian and author of STEAM COFFIN – Captain Moses Rogers and The Steamship Savannah Break the Barrier, will be talking about the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

The evening will include dinner and an optional tour of the museum. Dinner will be shredded pork barbeque, rolls, potato and pasta salad, baked beans, bologna and cheese trays, chips and pretzels. The cost is just $15 per person. An optional tour of the museum is at a discounted cost of $5 (non-museum members), all payable at the door. You could not dine in a restaurant for $15 per person, let alone an evening with a fascinating speaker!

STEAM COFFIN has received widespread praise and acclaim, as evidenced by over twenty positive reviews in periodicals from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. John’s book tour for STEAM COFFIN so far has taken him from Maine to Georgia to Montana, where he has given well over 100 presentations to date before a wide variety of audiences.

John will be available for book signings following the meeting. Books will be offered for purchase at a special price in the museum gift shop on the night of the event, but you are welcome to bring your own copy as well.

Please RSVP before these seats sell out (May 13 last day reservations accepted). Please call (610) 367-2090 or email the Boyertown Museum.

Read more about the author here and more about the Lehigh Valley SAE here.

Celebrate Fegely’s Reading Diner at the Boyertown Museum

admin — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:01:06 +0000

In May 2011, Fegely’s Reading Diner reopened at the Boyertown Museum as an exhibit, eight years after Fegely’s Family Restaurant closed its doors. Celebrate the Reading Diner and its history on May 18, 2013 with a day of diner activities and history! Special video and slideshow presentations on the Reading Diner and diner history will be shown throughout the day. Also scheduled is a special presentation on the history of pies. Speaker Nancy Roan of the Goschenhoppen Historians will make your mouths water when she talks about the prominence of this food dish in Pennsylvania German Culture. Visitors will be able to enjoy a cup of coffee and slice of pie during Ms. Roan’s presentation, which is scheduled for 2:00pm.

All activities and refreshments are included with Museum admission.

Reading, Pennsylvania Company Takes Center Stage at Museum

admin — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:16:00 +0000

On April 25, 2013, the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles opened its newest exhibit, On Merit Alone: The Story of Acme. Using two late 19th century bicycles and two brass era automobiles, the exhibit traces the history of the Acme Manufacturing Company, builder of bicycles, to the Acme Motor Car Company and later the S.G.V. Company, both of which built fine automobiles. The company’s factories were located at North Eighth and Elm Streets in Reading, Pennsylvania. Typical of the era, Acme tried to modernize after building bicycles to the motorized era, and succeeded for a few years before selling to the S.G.V. Company, which dissolved a few years later.

More than just a company history, On Merit Alone: The Story of Acme also focuses on Acme’s role in early automobile racing. A form of advertisement, races were used by early car companies, including Acme, as a way to market and prove the reliability and endurance of their product. Another focus of the exhibit is the effect bicycles and bicycling had on the women’s rights movement. A women’s model Acme bicycle model will be on display, and will be used to demonstrate how women were able use the bicycle as a means to buck strict Victorian traditions and ideals.

Boyertown Museum Welcomes Conestoga Wagon into Collection

admin — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:35:39 +0000

The Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles is pleased to welcome into its collection of vehicles a ca.1827 Conestoga wagon built in Berks County, Pennsylvania. This impressive artifact from our country’s earlier years was used to transport grain from Berks County to Philadelphia, making a stop at Reading stores on the return trip to drop off merchandise purchased in the big city. Conestoga wagons such as this one were the main freight haulers in the days before trucking.

Though the Conestoga wagon has been on display at the Museum for many years, it was not actually part of the Museum’s collection. It was here on loan from the Historical Society of Berks County, which recently deaccessioned the Conestoga wagon. The Museum has been fortunate enough to attain it and make it a part of its collection, where it can continue educating visitors about life and commerce right here in Berks County.

Nellybelle, Star of “The Roy Rogers Show,” to Appear at Museum

admin — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:50:32 +0000

Nellybelle, a 1946 Willys Jeep used in The Roy Rogers Show, will be the centerpiece of our new exhibit Branding Roy Rogers: From Nellybelle to Lunchboxes at the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles beginning December 1, 2012 and running through the end of February 2013. Still in excellent shape, Nellybelle often had a mind of its own on the television show. Though owned by Roy Rogers himself, Nellybelle was driven on the show by sidekick Pat Brady. While Nellybelle is enough of an attraction in and of itself, there will also be plenty of Roy Rogers merchandise on display. Roy Rogers was one of the most recognizable faces in the 1950s, and second only to Disney cartoons in product licensing. Visitors will be able to see some of these toys and advertisements that helped make Roy Rogers and his gang such an integral part of American popular culture.

UPDATED: By popular demand, the exhibit has been held over to March 31, 2013! Take advantage of this extended engagement time to come see Nellybelle before she drives down those “happy trails!”

Berks-Mont Business Association 2012 Fall Expo and Home Show

admin — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:35:06 +0000

November 2, 3-7 pm (Business to Business)

November 3, 10 am-4 pm (Open to the Public)

The Boyertown Museum will be hosting a Fall Expo and Home Show for two days beginning November 3, 2012. On that day, vendors will be showcasing their businesses to other businesses, while on November 3 the Expo will be open to the public. Visitors will have a chance to win an iPad3, an LCD TV or a Kindle Fire. Admission to the museum and the Expo are free.

Celebrate a Vintage Christmas at the Boyertown Museum

admin — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:23:38 +0000

Beginning in mid-November, the Boyertown Museum will be having a special Christmas exhibit to coincide with the holiday season. Vintage toys and decorations will help enliven the festivities. Two exquisite 1920s Ford trucks will be on display and decorated for the festivities. One of these two trucks is a 1924 Ford Model TT with some very interesting modifications—a multi-level operating electric model train track! These trains will be run on December 7, 2012, during the Boyertown Holiday House Tour, on which the Museum will again be a stop.

A 1924 Ford Model TT truck hides antique toy trains behind its doors.

Charles Duryea’s Pennsylvania Autos

admin — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:31:25 +0000

Charles Duryea, in a portrait taken while he lived in Reading, Pennsylvania.

A new display at the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles traces the history of automotive pioneer Charles Duryea during his time in Pennsylvania. Duryea built cars in both Reading and Philadelphia. His attempts at building a more “scientific auto” did not meet with great financial success, but the mark he left on automotive history is undeniable. In conjunction with the Museum’s annual Duryea Day event, six of his Pennsylvania-built cars will be on display. These six examples will trace the different phases of auto design Duryea implemented while he worked in Pennsylvania. Included in this display is his last car, a Duryea Gem, which has not been on display at the Museum since before moving to its current location at 85 South Walnut Street.

The display, entitled, “What a Motor Vehicle Should Be: Charles Duryea’s Pennsylvania Autos” will run until October 31, 2012.

Museum Day Live! Event Returns

admin — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 14:32:11 +0000

The Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day Live! event returns to the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles, offering free admission to Museum Day Live! ticketholders on September 28, 2013.

The Museum Day Live! Ticket will be available to download beginning in August at Smithsonian.com/museumday. Visitors who present the Museum Day Live! Ticket will gain free entrance for two at participating venues for one day only. One ticket is permitted per household, per email address. For more information about Museum Day Live! 2013 and a list of participating museums and cultural institutions, please visit Smithsonian.com/museumday.

July’s Feature Vehicle

admin — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 16:56:42 +0000

1958 Ford Mister Softee truck

1958 Ford truck donated by Mr. Henry Gaffey of Herkimer, NY

Brothers William and James Conway of Philadelphia founded Mister Softee, Inc. in 1956.

Two years later, Mister Softee outgrew the Philadelphia plant, and operations were moved to Runnemede, New Jersey. It was then that Mister Softee ordered the fleet of trucks that would make them so well-known throughout the Northeast. Over the next few years, the Boyertown Auto Body Works would build several thousand of these ice cream trucks, which used a repurposed Merchandiser body design. The Boyertown Auto Body Works also built ice cream trucks for Howard Johnson’s, Jolly Roger and other vendors, but the Mister Softee trucks were their most profitable and visible customer.

This truck was donated to the Museum by its original and only owner, Mr. Henry Gaffey of Herkimer, New York. Henry operated this truck for 21 years, finally retiring it to his garage in 1980. In the 1990s, he used it as a parade vehicle, bringing back many memories to the Mohawk Valley community.