Wiley

Museum Receives Artifact Belonging to Former Auburn Automobile Company Export Manager, Robert Wiley

AUBURN – The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum has acquired a travel clock that once belonged to Robert Wiley, former export manager of Auburn Automobile Company. This item is very significant and not only ties into to Wiley’s personal history, but also to Auburn Automobile Company’s global success.

Don Aiken, building supervisor for the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum, obtained the clock many years ago at Wiley’s estate sale at the former Wiley family residence on Morningstar Rd in Auburn. Wiley frequently traveled for the company and would take this clock with him while doing business for the company. Part of his duties as export manager was to set-up a dealership network around the world to market Auburn Automobile Company automobiles. The clock, still in working condition, is bound in leather with a gold trim plate and was originally manufactured in Germany. On the face of the clock are various locations around the world with their corresponding times. If Wiley was in Paris, France and needed to call Tokyo, Japan then he would use this clock to see what time it was in Tokyo to determine if business hours had started for the day.

Museum marketing director, Gran Roberts, is thankful that that the clock survived throughout the years, “Mr. Wiley helped establish dealers in all 48 states in the U.S. and in 101 foreign countries around the world. I am sure he relied heavily on this clock to tell him what time it was abroad or at home and helped him go about his daily business around the world. The impact of Mr. Wiley’s work is still being felt by the museum today. The Auburn Automobile Company shut its doors more than 70 years ago and the work Mr. Wiley was responsible for still generates business and visitors to the museum from all over the world.” The museum has many other items belonging to Wiley that can be seen in his restored office located in the Export and Domestic Sales Gallery located on the Level II of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum.

The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum exhibits over 120 classic, vintage, antique and special interest cars in the 1930 art deco headquarters of the former Auburn Automobile Company. The museum is open daily, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. It is accredited by the American Association of Museums and listed as a National Historic Landmark.