'The Art of Selling' is unveiled at the British Motor Museum

Published: 13/12/2019

The British Motor Museum’s Archive will unveil an online catalogue for their Archives Revealed project, entitled ‘The Art of Selling’ on Monday 23 December.  The unique collection of Sales and Press Material originating from British Leyland and their competitors at home and abroad has been catalogued thanks to funding from The National Archives, The Pilgrims Trust, The Wolfson Foundation and The Foyle Foundation.

In June 2018 £30K was awarded, to pay for the employment of an Archivist, Katie Finn, to sort and catalogue the collection, training volunteers to work on the collection and on future new projects, as well as archive materials to rehouse the documents. Work on the project began in Autumn 2018 and so far as taken well over 3,000 hours to complete. Over 500 boxes have been sorted and nearly 16,500 items have been catalogued, with another 5000 items to be added in 2020.

Charlotte Gallant, Archivist at the British Motor Museum said “We are delighted to unveil ‘The Art of Selling’ after 14 months of intensive, time-consuming but very rewarding work. This wide ranging collection includes everything from original drafts of press releases on a new vehicle, to the marketing and selling of a car along with maps, posters, dealer information and much more. The culmination of this project will be that this once inaccessible collection is opened up to the widest possible audience and we hope the public will enjoy seeing the collection for the first time.”

For the first time the public will be able to browse the catalogue online on the National Archives database ‘Discovery’ www.discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk where people can search for a particular marque or model.  Whilst anyone interested in viewing the material in person, can book an appointment at the Museum’s Reading Room and request which documents they would like to look at.

For more information about the British Motor Museum and it’s Archive (British Motor Industry Heritage Trust – BMIHT) visit www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/archive and for full details of the other successful Archives Revealed Cataloguing projects see www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/finding-funding/archives-revealed