The JBS Collection's restored convertible owned by Amelia Earhart is in Dearborn, Michigan for six months.
Originally owned by the famed American aviator, the 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton C will be on display at The Henry Ford Museum through late May 2025.
The museum has a rotating exhibit showcasing automobiles from the National Historic Vehicle Register. The register is a record of the nation’s most significant vehicles.
In March 2023, the Cord was the 33rd vehicle inducted into the National Historic Vehicle Register. In honor of its induction, the car was displayed under glass on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
“Growing up in the Midwest, there are institutions you come to love and revere at a very young age, and The Henry Ford Museum was—and always will be, for me—one of those special places,” said Jack Boyd Smith Jr., the car’s owner, in a press release.
“This is a great achievement for what is truly a remarkable automobile,” Smith said. “Amelia Earhart's 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton Convertible is woven into the fabric of American history.”
The Henry Ford Museum receives more than one and a half million visitors each year. The museum has many campuses and exhibits. Its artifacts include Thomas Edison's laboratory, the Wright Brothers' bicycle shop, Abraham Lincoln's chair from the Ford's Theatre and the Quadricycle—Henry Ford's first car.
The Cord was pictured in 1936 with Earhart alongside her Lockheed 10E Electra airplane. After the aviator's disappearance the vehicle passed through several owners. It was eventually disassembled and parted throughout the country.
In 2018, Smith Jr. purchased the Cord from previous owner Ray Foster. Foster had worked for years to reunite the vehicle's original body, frame and engine. Smith Jr. worked with the restoration experts at Nappanee's LaVine Restorations to restore the car.
“My goal as a collector is to find and preserve historical vehicles like the Cord and share them in new and interesting ways with the world,” said Smith Jr., “and I can't imagine a better place for the Cord to be, for the next six months, than The Henry Ford Museum.”
“Preserving Amelia Earhart's Cord is one of my greatest achievements as a collector, and we hope so many museum visitors get to enjoy this exhibit,” Smith Jr. said.
