Ford launches website devoted to historical photographs, offers them for sale

Ford launches website devoted to historical photographs, offers them for sale

Throughout the long history of the motor car one name has been been at the forefront almost since its invention - Ford (although we could all just as easily be driving around in "Wintons" if Henry Ford's main competitor in those early days had kept pace!). Still going strong over 100 years on and with innumerable feathers in its cap such as the GT40 Le Mans winner, not to mention the 15-million-seller Model T, Ford's place in automotive history is assured. And what a history it is!

Now it is possible to view (and to own) images of that 108-year history as Ford moves to put its entire collection of images into digital format. Not just historic photographs but also advertisements, dealer literature and the like. Basically every illustration of the Ford motor car; a catalogue of over 1 million pictures. So far only a tiny proportion - 5,000 - have been digitised, with another 5,000 to follow by the end of the year but the scope of this thing is enormous. Not to mention the cultural significance of many of the items and the importance of preserving them for future generations, which is why the creation of this resource is laudable.

The book The Ford Century is a great chronicle of the first 100 years of this company and contains a great many of the pictures that can now also be found on the new website Ford Images. I highly recommend the book if you wish to discover the story behind this ubiquitous company and I'm off now to have a look around this new website.

Toot-toot!