An upgraded exhibit deserves an upgraded name, right?

So when our transportation exhibit (formerly known as the Automobile in American Life exhibit) re-opens in early 2012, its new official name will be…

Driving America!

You can already see signs with this new design scheme beginning to be put into place across the exhibit, so keep your eyes peeled for more sneak previews as we roll out (ha!) more details of this transformed exhibit.

Meanwhile, our conservation team is hard at work to make sure our automotive collection is ready to shine, not only for the exhibit itself but also for our digitization efforts – check out this short video with conservator Clara Deck as she explains how we’re working on vehicles like the 1914 Detroit Electric (Clara Ford’s personal vehicle!) and the Mustang prototype (which another of our conservators, Derek Moore, is working on in the below photo in our temporary photo studio).

This week, we also completely disassembled the projection booth and screen of the Drive-In Theater, for its new entrance re-orientation inside the finished exhibit. It’s the first time since the original exhibit was introduced in the late 1980s that you can see all the way to the back of the museum – at least, for the next little while!

What do you think of the new exhibit name? How do you think vehicles will be presented under this new name?