About Us

About the REOTM

The R.E. Olds Transportation Museum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization governed by a Board of Trustees. It preserves and promotes Lansing’s automotive heritage, its lasting impact on the mid-Michigan community and the American automotive industry.

It is dedicated to Ransom Eli Olds, a Lansing inventor, entrepreneur, financier, and one of Lansing’s most notable automotive leaders. Olds created the principle of the assembly line in the automobile industry and founded two local automobile companies: Olds Motor Works (1897) and REO Motor Car Company (1904).

The R.E. Olds Museum was incorporated in 1977 on the incentive of a study task force of the Greater Lansing Chamber of Commerce. After site selection and renovation, the Museum opened to the public on May 18, 1981 at its present location. The Museum rented its building from the City of Lansing until February 2018 when the city sold it to the museum for $2.

Today, the museum houses an extensive collection of automobiles, engines, and other automotive materials significant to the transportation history of the region. The James D. Butt Archives contains hundreds of thousands of pieces of ephemera such as photographs, drawings, manuals, newsletters, and other records.

The R.E. Olds Transportation Museum and the Bates and Edmonds Engine Company offices are resources within the Lansing Stewardship Community of Motor-Cities-National Heritage Area, an affiliate of the National Parks Service. Operations are funded primarily through the financial support of members and donors.