Seaside Series: Mary Seelhorst

Mary Seelhorst will present: The Platonic Ideal of a Sports Car: James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5.

True crime, twisted provenance, pop culture, philosophy, folklore, museums, movie-making, mythbusting, and an unsolved mystery figure into this presentation by exhibit developer Mary Seelhorst. This fast-paced, heavily illustrated session explores the making of an automotive icon that’s endured and grown since the car was introduced in the 1964 James Bond film, Goldfinger.

Seelhorst addresses the perceived authenticity and value of the original movie cars, their slippery provenance, and the DB5’s resurrection in movies, real life, and the collective imagination. In addition, she reveals previously unknown facts and fresh insights about the 1997 theft of the tricked-out movie car—still missing—uncovered by a documentary filmmaker working on a forthcoming series about the car’s disappearance.

Mary Seelhorst is an award-winning independent exhibit developer and writer who played a personal role in the story of the stolen Goldfinger car, which will be revealed in the presentation. Her work focuses on the history of technology and popular culture. In the last 20 years, her museum work has increasingly centered on automotive exhibits, including projects
for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, The Henry Ford, the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant Museum in Detroit, and the Brumos Collection in Jacksonville, Florida.