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Automotive Editorials | Friday, May 09, 2008 | |
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Walter Miller's "whimsical intensity" has led him to make his passion his life's work. Walter is the owner of Walter Miller's Automotive Literature Co. and proprietor of the Museum of Automobile History, located in Syracuse, NY. The literature company and museum boast the world's largest collections of automotive literature and automobilia, respectively, and are featured on www.autolit.com.Miller has combined his life's passions -- collecting automotive memorabilia and literature, and travel -- into his businesses. He also has an interest in cars, owning several collectible cars - with an affinity for Porsches - and 19th and 20th Century history. He started collecting early in life, beginning with coins at age four. Later, he became interested in cars, and began selling automobile ads he clipped from pre-World War II magazines, like LIFE and The Saturday Evening Post. 
"My interests were more toward ads for expensive cars, like Cadillac and Packard, and the more graphically pleasing ads of the period," he said. "My parents would drive me to flea markets and car shows where I would set up a small booth and sell ads." He said he still has several boxes of magazines from the period at home in his attic. "Once a collector, always a collector," he said, laughing.The Syracuse native continued to collect and sell auto literature from his home, and later, college dorm room. He was awarded an undergraduate degree from SUNY Binghamton, where he majored in management and had a minor concentration of history courses. He went on to earn an MBA from McGill University. Miller decided he wasn't cut out to work in the corporate world and focused his attention on selling automotive literature. 
The literature business, Walter Miller's Automotive Literature Co., was started in 1976 and currently fields more than 1,000 inquiries a week. The business offers 2 million pieces of automobile literature for sale, including books, manuals, brochures, billboards, toys and promotional literature. Some of the specialized literature includes buses, fire and stationary engines, motorcycles, hearses, auto racing, snowmobiles and snowplows, tractors, experimental vehicles sales and service, and gas and petroleum products. Also available are billboards, made between 1949 and '81, that advertise autos, soda pop, beer, gas stations, bread, movies, tires, chewing gum, and petroleum products.Most of the items are found through advertising for automobile literature in car magazines, like Road & Track and Car and Driver, over the past 25 years, mostly in classified sections. Miller has had a full-page ad in Hemmings Motor News since 1976, which he believes is a record. He travels extensively to buy literature, logging thousands of miles over the years. He has purchased literature from single pieces to entire collections, like the one amassed by the late Floyd Clymer, publisher of Clymer auto manuals, popular in the 1950s and '60s. "When Floyd Clymer died in 1971, the company that bought the publishing business (later sold to CBS) wasn't interested in his collection of memorabilia," Walter said. The collection, he said, included "thousands of books and a fabulous section of motorcycle memorabilia that filled a tractor-trailer." At one point, the collection of automobilia was housed in the literature company's headquarters, along with all the literature for sale. "I had the stuff piled up from the floor to the ceiling, it was incredible. Everyone said, 'This is like a museum.' So, it occurred to me that opening a museum was a good idea. It has helped my (literature) business, too," Miller said. 
After much planning and preparation, the museum opened in October 1996. Located at 321 N. Clinton Street in downtown Syracuse, N.Y., the 12,000 sq.-ft. display area hosts 10,000 items, in a floor-to-ceiling "Victorian wallpaper" style. There are no cars, only automotive memorabilia. Posters, lithographs, paintings, dealership and roadside signs, letters from historical figures, racing memorabilia, sculpture, model cars and trucks, pedal cars, rare advertising, license plates and almost everything automotive fill the museum's two large display areas. There also is a gift shop where models, magazines, posters and other items are for sale.
The museum also features special exhibits, such as the "People Movers," a group of models and designs of electric autos produced by industrial design students at Syracuse University. The class decided to donate the exhibit to the museum for permanent display rather than each student keep their contribution.The autolit.com site launched in October 1997. Originally, it was a static site that promoted the text-based lists of literature available for sale. The site was redesigned in early 1999, with more features and information for visitors. It is the Web where Miller sees his businesses expanding. "The Internet has opened up my inventory to hundreds of thousands of people," he said. "In the future, we are planning on doing a much better job on the Web." |
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