Although the physical museum located in Los Angeles has been closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Peterson Automotive Museum has created a number of terrific online activities that you and your family can enjoy from the comfort of your home.
The first option you may want to consider is for the whole family to take a livestreamed “Vault” tour which, when you visit in person would cost $28.00 (USD) per person. Due to the unprecedented events of the shutdown all over North America, the Peterson Museum has brilliantly created this one-hour virtual tour and is offering it at the incredible price of only $3.00 (USD)! That’s a discount of 86%! Just put the tour up on the biggest screen you have at home, gather the whole family around and explore some of the most fascinating examples of automotive history in existence. You even get to ask questions from the staff on hand!
“Although we wish you were with us at the museum, we can now extend the stories of our collection to a global audience and give our patrons, you, more access to the cars than ever before! Led by our Collection Manager, Dana Williamson, you will get to see things no tour has before, going under the hoods and even inside some of the vehicles! In addition to this, Michael will take you to areas of the vault that are typically restricted to the public.
The 60-70 minute tour will cover the gems of the Vault and we will have staff working to field all comments during the tour. If we don’t get to your comment or cover a particular vehicle, we will respond to all questions after the tour ends. The tours are live, so please make sure to comment if you have questions and we’ll try our best to get to them.”
ABOUT THE VAULT After an extensive renovation, the Vault presented by Hagerty® has more than doubled in size and now features over 250 vehicles from around the world. Discover some of the most iconic and rare cars, motorcycles, and trucks spanning over 120 years of automotive history on the largest guided automotive tour in the United States. Tours traverse the many themes and ideas behind some of the most important cars in the world, providing an immersive experience exploring the history of the automobile, from early legends to stunning modern supercars. See turn-of-the-twentieth-century cars, head-of-state vehicles, American classics, the personal rides of Hollywood legends, award-winning hot rods, cars that pushed the boundaries of innovation, and many other surprises.
But that’s not where the activities available from the Peterson Automotive Museum end. Not by a long shot. The PAM has a great website with three categories of free online educational activities for the younger “gearheads” in your family:
LIVESTREAM/VIDEO ACTIVITIES In this section, the museum began by livestreaming their typical daily educational activities, but have since loaded many of them onto YouTube and created links you can visit at any time. Peterson Educational Assistant Micaela will read to you the storybook Go Dog Go, Director of Education Jason and Micaela will teach you how to make your own license plate, and both will also walk you through a video on the history of the automobile. There’s also a video on how to create a balloon-propelled car and a lesson of force and motion.
COLOURING ACTIVITIES This section holds 16 downloadable colouring pages of cool cars including vintage hot rods, racing cars, a 1966 VW beetle, the Back to the Future DeLorean, and even one page that lets you design your own car!
BUILDING ACTIVITIES This final section includes interesting educational information on all things automotive including instructions on how to build your own racecar, automotive movie trivia, how to build your own piñata car, how to build racetrack roads for your Hot Wheels and matchbox cars and much more.
So, there you have it. If you and your family love cars and are starting to feel a little “cabin fever”, then make plans to visit the Peterson Automotive Museum online. You’ll have plenty of fun exploring the world of automotive culture right from your own home!
