HUDSON – “Edu-tainment” is the theme and aim of the American Heritage Museum, according to Hunter Chaney, the museum’s director of marketing and communications.
“As we see it, all our exhibits turn something static into something real,” he said.
Speaking to members and guests of the Hudson Historical Society at the Nov. 29 meeting, Chaney said the museum, which opened in 2019 on lower Main Street, offers historic education and entertainment from the Revolutionary War through today.
The museum had its beginnings when it was founded by Bob and Caroline Collings in 1979, as the Collings Foundation – a non-profit, educational foundation, originally organized to exhibit major war artifacts. Their son, Rob Collings, now heads the Foundation.
His parents still reside near the property and “Bob” Collings is billed as “the Museum’s No. 1 volunteer,” according to Chaney.
When the foundation selected the Stow/Hudson site, it was initially unpopular with Stow town officials and some residents who were concerned about increased traffic in the Stow/Lake Boone area, Chaney reported, but the proposals for the hangar and the museum were eventually approved. A new entrance street was inaugurated, and there is now an easily seen entrance and sign on lower Main Street in Hudson.
In the early 1980s, the foundation acquired its first World War II bomber, and it also began collecting classic cars.
“We now have 28 cars dating from 1901 to 1940s, and they are all operational,” said Chaney.
The cars and a vintage stage coach compete annually in the museum’s “Race of the Century” on the museum grounds. A battle between Revolutionary War and British soldiers is also staged annually on the 100-acre site between Hudson and Stow, bringing hundreds of visitors.
The museum features “one of the world’s most extraordinary collections of historic tanks, armored vehicles and aircraft,” Chaney said. They are on display chronologically from the Revolutionary War through today.
Their biggest collection of tanks was donated by the estate of the late Jacques Littlefield of California.
“We auctioned some of them as a fundraiser, and retained others,” said Chaney.
For several years, the foundation has brought their vintage planes to airports in cities throughout the country, offering rides in World War II aircraft, but the practice has been temporarily halted after one of their B-24 bombers crashed in Connecticut in 2019.
In keeping with the “Edu-tainment” theme, the Museum hosted a talk on the Battle of Pearl Harbor on December 7, featuring a civilian plane which was rescued from Rogers Air Force Base in Hawaii after the bombing.
Museum staff is currently working on a “Hanoi Hilton” exhibit from the Vietnam War era, and will unveil it in a “Homecoming” exhibit on Feb. 11, 2023.
For more information, visit https://www.americanheritagemuseum.org/.
RELATED CONTENT
The Battle of Bunker Hill comes to Hudson
