Billed as the world’s oldest automobile museum, the William E. Swigart, Jr. Automobile Museum (or Swigart Museum) is a bit different from many of the other automobile museums I’ve visited in Pennsylvania. Unlike many other museums, like the AACA Museum in Hershey, the Swigart Museum doesn’t have flashy graphics and high-end lighting. Instead, they let the very high quality of their car collection speak for itself.

And, let me tell you. While I’m not a huge car guy, the collection at the Swigart Museum is so impressive that even a non-aficionado can appreciate the grandeur of their collection.

The Swigart Museum was started in 1920, just 25 years after the first patent was issued for a gasoline-powered automobile. At first, the cars were the private collection of William Swigart, a Huntington, Pennsylvania, businessman. Soon, however, Swigart began displaying the cars both inside and outside his insurance offices in downtown Huntingdon.

Even from the beginning, the collection focused heavily on disappearing car companies. Because of this focus, the Swigart Museum contains many extremely rare cars, and, in some cases, one-of-a-kind automobiles.