H H Franklin Club

The Club owns & operates a museum building in Hickory Corners Michigan called The Franklin Automobile Collection, it is a 6805 sq foot building on the campus of the Gilmore Car Museum. The building houses 13 Franklin automobiles and related automobilia that are displayed in an interpretive manor with extensive explanatory information. The Collection tells the unique story of the Franklin Automobile and its place in the history of the American automobile industry. The Collection is a critical part of the Club's mission of education and historic preservation. The Franklin Automobile Collection opened to the public in 2010. The campus of the Gilmore Car Museum is open twelve months a year. Additionally the club holds its archive of original Franklin historical media that has been digitized at The Gilmore Museum. The Gilmore Car Museum is a public, 501 (c) (3) dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of the American automobile. The Club also has a scholarship program. The Club provides scholarships / grants to students with an interest in engineering or automobile restoration to attend the Club's week long Trek held annually Union College. The program is currently expanding. Also the Club provides scholarships to qualified students in Engineering and Auto Restoration at their College or University with a maximum award of $2,000 per student. Further the Club makes contributions to the McPherson College Auto Restoration program based upon the level of participation of restoration students at our annual Trek.

As part of it mission of historic preservation, this past fiscal year the Club expanded it program of making available replacement parts for Franklin automobiles, as well as reprints of manuals & reproduction merchandise. Where the need was the greatest for selected models, reproductions of brake drums, steering mechanisms, exhaust systems and lesser parts were made available to Franklin owners at a modest mark up to preserve the road worthiness and safety of the cars for public exhibit.

The Club continued its program of publications and operation of its web site. It is distributed to libraries, museums, and approx 700 Club members three issues of The Air Cooled News, a magazine which contains historical articles relating to Franklin automobiles and other early air cooled cars. Quarterly it publishes the Franklin Service Station which contains articles of a technical nature. The Club publishes a second edition of the book The Franklin Automobile Company via print on demand. The book is available worldwide through online book sellers. The Club continued to update and improve its web site www.franklincar.org this year. The web site provides information of a technical, historical, and educational nature for members and the general public. The Club makes available on its web site its digitally preserved collection of over 10,000 engineering drawings prepared by the company between 1902 & 1934. Since they were made available on the web 100,000 drawings have been downloaded. Also available are pdf versions of Club historical publications on the history of the car as well as Franklin Company parts and operations manuals. The club continues to work on its project of digitizing its remaining archive materials for eventual permanent storage in the archive at The Gilmore Car Museum. In addition, the club sells merchandise consisting of owners manual reprints, sales material, and clothing.

Scholarships, Stipends, and related Contributions made.