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The Hudson Essex Terraplane Historical Society, Inc., was organized in 1990 for charitable, educational and research purposes.

The Society's mission is to discover, collect and memorialize the history and the products produced by the Hudson Motor Car Company, from 1909 to 1954, and for Hudson products produced by the American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1957. 

 Some of the Reasons We Seek To Preserve The History of the Hudson Motor Car Company

• Founded in 1909 by Howard Coffin, Joseph L. Hudson, Roy Chapin, George W. Dunham and others.
• Sales in its first year of production made it the most successful new marque introduction to date.
• In its second year of production Hudson was 11th in production in the nation.
• 1911: Hudson was one of the first to produce closed models.
• 1916: The first fully balanced crankshaft, which changed the entire industry. Thus the Super-Six name began.
• 1919: A new model introduced called "ESSEX" with all steel body. Sold for just pennies more than Ford.
• 1922: The Essex line included the first truly low-priced closed cars, just $100 over an open car. 
• 1933: The Essex-Terraplane cars came out with choice of either six or eight cylinder engines. Several hill climbing, economy runs, and speed records were established.
• Hudson assembly plants were built in Belgium, England, and Canada.
• Largest production year was 1929 with over 300,000 units delivered. This included the Dover commercial vehicles.
• 1936: Hudson introduced hydraulic brakes with a unique dual system that provided automatic backup by the mechanical parking brakes.
• World War II: Hudson built aircraft parts and huge engines for naval craft.
• 1948: Hudson came out with a radical new concept of the automobile design which is found in all of today's autos. This was the "Step-down" feature---the floor pan was dropped down to the bottom of the frame rather than sitting on the top. The result was a low, wide and extremely well balanced automobile.
• 1951: The ever-famous Hudson Hornet made its debut. The largest six cylinder engine available in any car of the era, the engine produced 145 HP.
• This Hornets burned up the stock car tracks all over the country from 1951 thru 1954, winning or taking 2nd or 3rd place in nearly every race.
• Hudson Motor Car Company, during its time produced quality products and was a leading pioneer with its mechanical engineering and advanced styling.

The Hudson Essex Terraplane Historical Society is a separate corporation from the Hudson-Essex-Terraplane Club. However, the President of the H.E.T. Club does sit on the Society's Board of Directors.