Toyota museum toasts 30th anniversary with 'Automotive Culture Reference Room'

By CARSIFU | 13 March 2019


NAGOYA: The Toyota Automobile Museum, a Toyota Motor Corporation cultural facility located in Nagakute City near here, announced today that the "Automotive Culture Reference Room" would be opened on April 17.

The museum has been revamping its permanent exhibits in stages since 2015 in preparation for its 30th anniversary this year.

Since opening in April 1989, the museum has been collecting reference materials on automotive culture in Japan and around the world — in addition to actual vehicles.

Car badges.
Car badges.


The collection contains about 200,000 items comprised of books, magazines, and catalogs, and about 15,000 additional cultural literature items.

Of this collection, a total of about 4,000 cultural items under the theme of Mobility and Culture will be on display.

An exhibit of about 140 automobiles tells the history woven by automobile makers, following the trajectory of how the automobile was received by society after its launch into the world, and its evolution to date.

This exhibit succeeds in the telling of a story without the use of a single life-size vehicle.

With 800 miniature cars as the centerpiece display, various artifacts, including a poster advertising the world's first motor show and the world's first miniature die-cast model cars, provide a visual narrative of the diversely woven fabric that is automotive culture.

World's first miniature die-cast model car: Ford Model T (1914, U.S.).
World's first miniature die-cast model car: Ford Model T (1914, U.S.).

Keywords