The British Motor Museum is proud to announce that it will be the new home of the physical Autocar Archive. Autocar is the world’s longest-running car magazine and its archive has been available to access digitally since 2023 through a partnership with Exact Editions.
Following the completion of that project, a new home has been sought for the physical copies and future bound volumes of its title, which turned 130 years old this week. The Archive at the British Motor Museum was the obvious choice.
Autocar’s own volumes will shortly join the Museum’s existing collections, one of the world’s largest and most outstanding archives of magazines, photographs, drawings, motoring literature and film covering the motor car and Britain’s motor industry.
Following the digitisation and combining of its respective physical archives, some gaps have been identified in the collection. Autocar and the Museum are inviting readers and collectors to contribute to the physical archive to make it whole. In the future, researchers visiting the Museum in person will also be able to search Autocar’s digital archive through a dedicated terminal.
As part of the launch, Autocar editor-in-chief Steve Cropley and editor-at-large Matt Prior walked the Museum for a special immersive episode of their My Week in Cars podcast, which is published on 5 November on all major podcast channels.
Stephen Laing, Head of Collections & Engagement at the British Motor Museum said: “Our internationally recognised collections of cars, objects and archive material tell the myriad of stories behind the development of the car; the people who designed, built and sold them; and the growth of the motor industry since its inception. As the world’s longest-running car magazine, Autocar has provided a continuous commentary on the motor car for a century and more. Together we can continue to capture the stories from today and those in the future."
Autocar editor Mark Tisshaw said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with the British Motor Museum for this very special project. The Autocar Archive tells the history of the motor car in real time back to 1895 and the digitisation of the archive was a huge moment for the brand in making this accessible to all. There is no better place for our physical archive to reside, being so close to so many of the cars we have told the story of over the past 130 years. We would love to hear from any readers or collectors who can help make the archive a complete one and would urge anyone who would like to contribute to this project to reach out to the British Motor Museum.”
A complete set of What Car? magazines, Autocar’s sibling title at publisher Haymarket Automotive, has also been donated to the British Motor Museum’s Archive as part of this partnership. What Car? dates back to 1973 and all future bound volumes of What Car? will head straight to Gaydon in the future. If you can help contribute to the physical archive or for more information on what gaps need filling, please click here.
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