About The Automotive History Preservation Project

What is It?
The Automotive History Preservation Project is creating a digital library (repository) of any and all documents, drawings, images, and artwork created by and for the automotive industry. This Project is already saving - through digital capture - any and all materials that were created to design, build, and service the automobile and those created to inform and sell these vehicles and components to the public.

The Project estimates that its initial success will be to capture at least 5 million page images of material in 3-5 years.

The project's core is the digital capture, restoration, and preservation of these materials for future generations and for those in the present who deem the information of interest, usable for research and education – and to illuminate the public.

Why Are We Doing It?
Scholars, historians, researchers, museums, and enthusiasts are finding it more and more difficult to acquire key materials essential to telling the story of the automobile.

The digital age has not responded well to the history of the automobile. Too much that has been and is being created regarding automotive history is really entertainment couched as education. Significant is that the industry itself has little concern for its past, focusing on marketing and selling its current vehicles.

Thus, the mission of capturing historical materials has been left in the hands of individuals or organizations focusing on a brand or a specific automobile, or willy-nilly capture of images, snippets and anecdotes. Worse, few standards have been set with this capture - for all intents and purposes, the whim of the individual.

The Project has been developed by the Automotive Preservations Society (AHPS), a not for profit public charity that has been in existence for six year. The Society is a recognized public charity by the Internal Revenue Service (501 c3). For the foreseeable future, the Society will place a majority of its efforts into this Project, overseeing, managing standards, and raising monies to support the effort.

Learn more about the Society by clicking HERE.

How Do We Do It?
The Project 's methodology of using distributed processing and virtual workspaces to acquire, digitize, and make available these materials was developed by the AHPS. The Project has already captured, processed, and made available over 250,000 page images of critical material, using volunteers and part-time professionals.

This means that no central physical plant and no coalescing of workers is necessary - drastically lowering costs and increasing the ability to expand the workforce exponentially.

Access is Critical
There is not value to the acquisition of the materials if they are not accessible to the audience. Therefore, critical in this project is global access of the materials 24/7/365 via the Internet - with as little human intervention as possible.

Unless the materials are easy to find, readily available, and simple to transport to the user, the system will falter. This is the Achilles Heel of paper systems – costs: space, human capital to service and make available the materials, and the HVAC systems necessary to halt the deterioration of paper. And this does not even approach the potential loss due to fire, theft, natural disasters and the like.

Approach
Of significant importance is the clarity and accuracy of the images in size, scale and as true as possible in coloration. Capture will be in accordance with detailed specifications strictly adhered to in the capture by the Project's staff, and as much as possible in the acquisition from third parties.

Examples of Material We Capture

• Automotive Print Advertisements (including aftermarket)
• Automotive Sales Brochures (including aftermarket)
• Automotive Press Kits, Photos and Releases to the media.
• Automotive Internal Correspondence: from design, engineering, sales and service (for example)
• Automotive Design Studies, Engineering Studies, Marketing Programs (for example)
• Sales and Service bulletins, service manuals, sales force tools and programs.
• Period Automotive Magazines and other third-party informational materials

The Process
The approach is to capture paper items via scanning and converting into image files, in either JPG, TIF, or PNG format at resolutions between 150 and 2400 dpi, dependent on the material being imaged. Each file is appropriately scaled to its original size. The files are then restored to as close to original as possible using photo editing software. To see a sample of capture specifications in detail, click HERE.

The images are, where appropriate, collated into a singe file using the PDF protocol, and then loaded on the Society's website in pre-set categories most recognizable, by the public. Our database management software captures significant information to be used in our internal search engine for searches.

Each of these steps can be done by a single person or by multiple persons working on the individual steps. Because the image is captured digitally, they can now be transported over the Internet globally. In simple terms, workers throughout the world can be involved in all or one of the process of digitalization.

The Result
The end result is digital files in PDF format available to view or download. The files are stored in a digital library on the web -,available 24/7/365. The categories and the search engine allow reference of all the material without human intervention. (Help is available during normal business hours in the US - spanning 9 AM EST and 6 PM PT).

The Portal
The Eric B. White Digital Library is in place to coalesce the materials. Visitors can visit the document collection at any time any day and in any situation. Pandemics, natural disasters, political changes, and the like do not limit access. It is open and free.

How You Can Help
You may help us by

• Joining the Society as a dues-paying member,
• Making a cash donation,
• Offering materials to be digitized, or
• Volunteering to help with any or all aspects of the Project.