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Sources & Links

The primary aim of Sources is to list photographic websites and picture libraries on the internet. Any successful search on these websites will involve careful use of search terms and combinations (often through Advanced Search).

Other Links, towards the end of this listing, will connect a motoring historian to other useful websites or organisations.

My thanks to John Wise and many others for input into this first listing. Anyone wishing to find further websites should consider Alan Glaze’s excellent booklet 500 of the world’s greatest motoring history web sites, published in Manchester in 2011 by Universal Motoring History Enterprises (47 pages, A5 size). Astonishingly, this booklet gives no details about obtaining copies or the cost and therefore an email to websites@motoring-history.com will be needed. See also under Motoring History below.

 

SOURCES

Aerial Photography: websites for Britain are http://www.luftwaffeuk.com/, http://www.njcpublications.co.uk/photos.htm, http://www.ukaerialphotos.com/, http://www2.getmapping.com/Products/Historic-Photography, and http://www.citiesrevealed.com/

Aerofilms: formerly owned by Simmons Aerofilms this collection now seems to be part of English Heritage’s collection, see below under English Heritage.

Alamy: this is a large commercial service with much archival material http://www.alamy.com/

Antique Automobile Club of America: images going back to 1938 of veteran cars in use http://www.aaca75.org/index.php?option=com_rokin&Itemid=93

Austin Harris: based on the LAT Autocar collection this brings to light much early motoring material http://www.austinharris.co.uk/

Autocar, see under LAT below

Autohistory: one of the few websites for moving pictures of early motoring history http://www.autohistory.tv/

Automobile Reference Collection, Philadelphia Free Public Library http://www.freelibrary.org/ The collection is described at http://libwww.freelibrary.org/collections/collectionDetail.cfm?id=1 but can be searched on the website’s Home Page

Baldwin collection: when Nick Baldwin’s collection was acquired by the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust a sizeable part was digitised and is well worth searching http://www.bmiht.com/baldwincollection/

Beaulieu: the National Motor Museum’s collection is vast. It is possible to search the portion now digitised, either here or at the Heritage Image Partnership www.motoringpicturelibrary.com

Belgian collections: this service enables you to search some intriguing collections. Click Online Catalogue for detailed searches http://www.cegesoma.be

Bentley: The W O Bentley Memorial Foundation: an excellent source of high-quality information and articles about the Bentley motor car and its history. http://www.wobmf.co.uk/  In particular, look for Foundation Corner (available from the Home page) http://www.wobmf.org/foundation-corner, where there is a wonderful series of PDF articles on Bentley topics.

Bentleys: this website comprehensively includes photographs of vintage Bentleys http://www.vintagebentleys.org/

Bodleian Library: digitisation of their Johnson collection of ephemera which includes a wonderful collection of transport literature, fully scanned www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/toyota

British Association of Picture Libraries and Associations: useful links to other sources http://www.bapla.org.uk/

Brooklands: a large collection of motor racing photographs arranged alphabetically. Somewhat fiddly to use but well worth the effort http://www.brooklandsarchives.co.uk

Bus photo collections: superb Chris Hodge collection, gives access to 20th century bus and coach history http://www.minibusales.co.uk/oldbuspics/homepage.htm

British Library/Collect Britain: the BL’s Collect Britain website is now within their Online Gallery, not quite so easy to search. See also Heritage Image Partnership http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/index.html

Corbis: this is one of the largest general commercial picture libraries http://www.corbisimages.com/

Country Life: can be useful for period images http://www.countrylifeimages.co.uk/

Creaseys Motor Bodies: this is a wonderful photographic archive, set up by the great grandson of H G Creasey, who founded H G Creasey & Sons, commercial vehicle body builders based in Knebworth. Stephen Creasey is always looking for dates and identifications of the vehicles to make the site more informative http://www.hgcreasey.co.uk

Dacre-Stubbs photographs UK and Australia 1940s onwards, mainly sporting: http://www.motormarques.com/dacre-&-martin-stubbs-collection

Dale LaFollette motor racing photographs: http://www.vintagemotorphoto.com/

Detroit Public Library: well worth searching this website, photos and more. Look under Special Collections but it is now charged for http://www.detroit.lib.mi.us/NAHC/manuscripts.htm

Enfants terribles French site with motoring interest: www.photos-anciennes.com

English Heritage: has engineering material http://www.englishheritageimages.com/

Europeana portal: a service to link all European galleries and museums etc http://www.europeana.eu/portal/

EYall: this is a Polish website with superb motoring material https://www.eyall.com/

Ferret motorsport archive 1930-2000: http://www.ferret1.co.uk/

Flickr: members put up much historic material http://www.flickr.com/

Fotosearch commercial library: http://www.fotosearch.co.uk/

Francis Frith commercial picture library: useful for specific places http://www.francisfrith.com/

Hall-Caine family early cars: http://www.hallcaine.com/automobilia.htm

Heritage Images commercial picture library: http://www.heritage-images.com/

Hispano Suiza images: http://www.shorey.net/auto/miscellaneous%20pictures/Hispano%20Suiza/htmltree.html

Historic Vehicle Research Institute:University of Brighton http://www.hvri.org/

Hulton Getty: the largest commercial picture library www.gettyimages.com/archival

Huntley films archive: http://www.huntleyarchives.com/search.php

Hustwitt, & National Archive of Transport (NA3T): for mainly commercial vehicles http://www.transportphotos.com/road/

Illustrated London News: now contained within Mary Evans Picture Library http://www.maryevans.com/collections.php?collection_no=C00016&usr=notlogged&job=

Imperial War Museum: http://www.iwmcollections.org.uk/qryMain.php

Jack O’Lantern collection: mainly Rolls-Royce and Bentley from a famous dealer www.rick-ford.co.uk

Klemantaski motor sport collection: http://www.klemcoll.com/

Lartigue: a guide to the French photographer’s archive http://www.lartigue.org/

LAT, Autocar archive: http://www.latphoto.co.uk/ See also under Austin Harris

London photos: no longer maintained but retains interesting links http://www.photolondon.org.uk/

Magnum commercial picture library: http://www.magnumphotos.com/

Marque: an Australian motoring collection, mainly modern photos http://www.marque.com.au/gallery/

Mary Evans picture library: an important general collection www.mepl.co.uk

Michael: a European portal to cultural sites http://www.michael-culture.org/en/home

Mitchell & Kenyon: early motion pictures of British industrial locations http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/mk/

Motoring Art: Tony Clark’s splendid listing of motoring artists down the decades www.motoringart.info

Motoring history: films and photos http://www.motoring-history.com/

Moving history: a guide to UK film and TV archives in the public sector http://www.movinghistory.ac.uk/

National Museum of Photography, Film and TV, Bradford: millions of images but not fully digitised http://www.nmpft.org.uk/

Neill Bruce collection of motoring photographs: www.brucephoto.co.uk Some of the collection has now been dispersed

New York Public Library: a wonderful resource for early brochures and photos http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgtitle_tree.cfm?level=1&title_id=454055  & http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm

Officiel de la Mode, Jalou Gallery: long run of a French fashion journal but containing motoring salons and concours http://patrimoine.jalougallery.com/lofficiel-de-la-mode-archivesp-13-1920.html

Old Classic Car: enthusiasts’ website http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/

Old UK photos: possible interest for context http://www.oldukphotos.com/

Panhard Levassor: C. S. Rolls’s 1898 car in Norfolk http://www.teampanhard.org/

Pathe News: wonderful resource for early news clips http://www.britishpathe.com/

Peter McFadyen photography: A superb website of vintage and historic motor and motorcycle sport photography, available to buy.  Classified by year and then by event.  Also a series of books on themes such as “A Vintage Year [Year]” or “Motor Racing at Oulton Park in the 1970s”.  Explore! https://www.petermcfadyen.co.uk

Photographic libraries: useful links to other resources http://www.photographiclibraries.com/

Picture Australia: a superb central site for national and state library and archive collections http://www.pictureaustralia.org/

Popper: large commercial picture library now part of Hulton Getty http://www.popperfoto.com/

Roger Viollet: useful French collection with good motoring collections http://www.roger-viollet.fr/accueil.aspx

Science Museum: London Science & Society library www.ssplprints.com & http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/Index.asp?clientinfo=0&image=&txtkeys1=&btnshow.x=&btnshow=&lstpasteboards=

SMMT photo library: motor shows 1903-98, some nice material http://smmt.org/news/photolibrary.cfm?photocategory=3430&catid=3472&sid=-1&tsid=241&maincatid=550#cgi.script_name#?&tsid=#url.tsid#&catid=#url.catid#&maincatid=#url.maincatid#&sid=#url.sid#

Sterling Times: a patriotic collection of British cars owned by the Duveen family http://www.sterlingtimes.co.uk/

Stilltime: another Hodges website of early motor photographs from The Motor and other journals, plus dealers http://www.stilltime.net/

Surrey Vintage Vehicle Society: a large gallery of early photos sent by members http://www.svvs.org/

Topfoto: a large commercial picture library http://www.topfoto.co.uk/

Transport Archive: aero, ships, trains http://www.transportarchive.org.uk/

Trove: the National Library of Australia’s searching system across a wide range of materials, see also under Picture Australia http://trove.nla.gov.au/

Trucks: Chris Hodge website of old truck and commercial vehicle photos http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/2010/10/more-classic-trucks-from-the-c.html, and with careful scrolling down a long list the other Hodge website http://chrishodgetrucks.co.uk/gallery/Truck-Archive/Earlier yields early material as well

20th Century images, mainly northwest England: very evocative collections http://www.20thcenturyimages.co.uk/

Victorian era: useful early transport images http://victoria.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/

Victoria & Albert Museum: the Lafayette collection of veteran car images http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1158_lafayette/

 

OTHER LINKS

Automobilia 85-45: a German website that lists production figures for cars, commercial vehicles and military vehicles from all over the world.  Its creator, Hans Lipp, is a member of our German equivalent society, Automobil-Historische Gesellschaft, and is always seeking updates, corrections and additions  http://www.automobilia8545.de

British motor manufacturers: http://www.britishmm.co.uk/history.asp?id=178

British motor museums: http://www.ukcar.com/museums.html

Car Magazine Reviews: a New Zealand website http://www.carmagreviews.co.nz/

Cloverlands Model Car Museum: Based in Montgomery Powys, with stunning exhibits (and photography), and with a newly (February 2016) acquired  further major collection from Canada.  Well worth a visit: the RREC, the Riley Car Club, VSCC and others have visited http://www.cloverlandsmuseum.org.uk

Classic Cars 101: What is a Classic Car? An American website full of wonderful further links to sites with tips for buying a classic car, resources for restoring them, classic car maintenance, classic car shows and museums, and finally miscellaneous classic car resources. Because it is an American site, the definition of classic car is wider than that for the UK (we in the UK define classic cars as those made after World War II) and covers all cars that were “built in limited production numbers and were quite expensive when new” – from any period. http://www.titlemax.com/articles/classic-cars-101/

Collections Trust: a link to other resources and knowledge of collections and collecting http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk/

Directories: an essential source for digitised English directories 1750s-1919 http://www.historicaldirectories.org/

Doulton Motoring Ware: a website celebrating the motoring designs produced principally for motoring inns, from 1905 to 1928 www.doultonmotoring.info

Driving Ethically: Understanding the sustainability of electric cars: an in-depth piece by Auto Trader magazine on the sustainability of electric cars. This is a good starting point to understand how the rising demand for electric vehicles (EVs), the mining and manufacture of EV components and the lifecycle of EVs all play into long-term sustainability efforts. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/cars/electric/understanding-sustainability-electric-cars/

Enrich UK: a great loss was this website portal of digitised resources around Britain, searchable from a single source. This link lists some of the former co-operating sites http://web.me.com/xcia0069/nof-projects-export.xls

Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs: http://www.fbhvc.co.uk/

Flight Magazine: whole run digitised, some motoring interest, searchable and easy paging http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/index.html

French early science and technology journals: online searching, click Catalogue to see a remarkable collection of digitised material http://cnum.cnam.fr/

French magazines, back issues: useful when you’re searching for something long ago and rather esoteric http://www.labibliothequedusouvenir.com/ & http://www.journaux-collection.com/index.php

French motoring history sources: http://www.auto-collection.org/

Grace’s Guide: to industrial history http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/wiki/Main_Page

Intute: a listing of academic and other resources for research http://www.intute.ac.uk/cgi-bin/browse.pl?id=201787

Leland-West: an American site of classic car insurers.  They list collectors’ cars to watch, but also update their blog regularly – and they have an archive.  The site is used by a young enthusiast, Daniel, and his father to help with their joint modelling projects, and we want to encourage that enthusiasm.  It’s also a rather good site. https://www.lelandwest.com/blog/listing.asp?2019/4/4-collector-cars-to-watch-in-2019

Le Zèbre: a fascinating website run by Philippe Schram in France, covering Le Zèbre, Amilcar C6, BMW 3.0 CSL and the racing driver AndréMorel  www.lezebre.eu

Michael Sedgwick Trust: for publishing serious works on motoring history.  We are delighted to announce the launch, in July 2018, of the Trust’s new website.  The site is very much work in progress, and there will be more additions in future weeks and months. http://www.michaelsedgwicktrust.co.uk/

Motor show dates down the years: you can search for UK and European shows http://www.pietro-frua.de/london.htm

Motorbase: classic car information http://www.motorbase.com/

Motoring Historians Western Australia: http://www.classicrally.com.au/mhwa_members.htm

Nineteenth-Century Motorist Project: A website on the who, the why and the how of the earliest of motorists. http://19thcenturymotorist.org

Pan-European Motoring History: a live, regularly updated website run by distinguished motoring historian Thomas Ulrich: secretary of the Automobilhistorische Gesellschaft (the German equivalent of our SAHB), valued member of the SAHB and co-organiser of the biennial European Conference for Automotive History.  Full of wonderful images of known and unknown motor cars, news, events and reports. https://www.pan-european-automobile-history.com

Parts Geek – Automobiles of the Early 20th Century: a series of fascinating articles on the early development of the motor car, brought to our attention by a young American student in New York.  We heartily encourage the enthusiasm of the next generation of budding motoring historians. http://www.partsgeek.com/mmparts/automobiles_of_the_early_20th_century.html

PreWar Car: one of the best websites for regular news of early and classic cars http://www.prewarcar.com/

Royal Automobile Club archives: an excellent resources listed at  http://www.royalautomobileclub.co.uk/about-the-club/The-Club-Archives

Scharchburg Archives, Kettering Univ., USA: http://www.kettering.edu/archives/ for Chrysler, GM, Ford and other major collections

Society of Automotive Historians: our friends and colleagues in the United States of America http://www.autohistory.org

Speedreaders: transport book reviews http://www.speedreaders.info/

Speedway Motors: An Automobile History Timeline, recommended to us by a Girl Scout troop in Tucson, Arizona, USA who have found the SAHB Sources & Links page useful in their Automotive design research and who wanted to contribute this extra link. We encourage all youngsters to get involved in automotive history, so we are pleased to add it here. https://www.speedwaymotors.com/info/automobile-history-timeline

Toyota history in the USA: We received an email from a group of young students in New York, USA who are building scale models of all kinds of automobiles.  They shared this article with us: https://www.carcovers.com/resources/history-of-toyota-cars/ – and asked whether we could add it here in Sources & Links.  We very much want to encourage the next generation of motoring enthusiasts, and we like their initiative, so our response is “have fun – and keep up the great work!”

Transport archives: a listing of resources around Britain http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/users/ms/rchs/archives.htm

Le Zèbre: See under L