I didn't know that the Detroit Historic Museum had an extensive car collection, the historic society has been collecting for 90 years

news story and video that is worth watching here: http://detnews.com/article/20110219/METRO01/102190368/Part-of-Detroit%E2%80%99s-history-kept-under-wraps

Part of the approximately 60 car collection are:

an 1870 Phaeton Carriage made for the worlds fair,
a 1963 Chrysler Turbine that would run on diesel fuel, unleaded gasoline, kerosene, vegetable oil and even tequila
a 1911 Ford Model T keeps company
a 1963 pre-production Ford Mustang and John Dodge's 1919 coupe.
A 1963 Cougar II concept car by Ford
A 1956 Packard Patrician: an aristocratic sedan, this was the last year for Packard. A 1947 Kaiser
A 1949 Buick Super 8:
a rare one of 7 built 1959 Chrysler Crown Imperial, with a 413 and a stainless steel top. When sold it was the most expensive American car, it went for about $7,500 when most houses sold for about $4,500

The society started collecting items in the early 1920s and obtained its first car in 1954 — a 1905 Cadillac Osceola donated by Henry M. Leland, who founded Cadillac and Lincoln.

Thanks to Marc for letting me know about this story!

The Schlumpf Collection is on display in France at the National Museum in Mulhouse, the Cité de l’Automobile

The Schlumpf Collection may be the most prestigious car collection in the world. This is demonstrated by the two of the only 6 made Bugatti Royales, including the famous Coupé Napoléon, the 150 Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Maserati, Maybach, Mercedes models, etc.

One of the Royales they acquired when they purchased the Shakespeare collection, in 1964, which was a total of 30 Bugattis and a gallery of those being loaded on a Illinois train is here: http://svammelsurium.blogg.se/2010/june/en-dag-i-illinois-1964.html

It was in a former Mulhouse woollen mill, with its typically 19th century architecture, that Fritz Schlumpf established his fabulous collection of 437 cars belonging to 97 different brands. With part of on display at the Cité de l’Automobile, it is certainly a must see if you get to France

www.collection-schlumpf.com/en/schlumpf/ learned about it from http://www.sportscardigest.com/schlumpf-collection-profile-and-photo-gallery

The collection was seized by the workers employed by the Schlumpf brothers, who had collected for years, and topped off their collection when Hispano Suiza needed to liquidate many of the Bugatti assets in 1963 after having purchased the Bugatti company. The Schlumpfs puchased Ettore Bugatti’s personal Bugatti Royale and many original spares and patterns—over the strong objections of the managing director and Roland Bugatti, Ettore Bugatti’s surviving son.

In 1971 the union of workers that had been restoring the cars, building restaurants, and a hotel that would have housed guests to the collection, went on strike, and years later the French government seized all of the Schlumpf assetts, including 437 vehicles. The strike was part of what forced the brothers to flee to Switzerland, echoing Bugatti's flight to Paris in the 1937 strike. Read all about it http://www.sportscardigest.com/schlumpf-collection-profile-and-photo-gallery