#Archive30: Day 19 “Archive mystery” a chance to help out and solve some mysteries online…

18th April 2020

It’s Day 19 of the Archive30 challenge and today’s theme is “Archive mystery”.

Although we have thousands of pages, photographs, blueprints and patents digitised and available to look at online, there are still plenty of mysteries held within the archive.

To make the archive even more useful and searchable, it would be great to add more information to the images, tagging them or adding a better description of the item. (Each of the following images links through the record in the online archive)

Some like this chassis for an armoured car – taken in front of a white sheet for use in a manual, but little more is known about it.

This fine limousine, we think was photographed in Small Heath Park where many publicity taken were taken, but where exactly? Are those trees still there? Is this car still on the road, maybe a relative owned a Lanchester like this one?

Another photograph for a manual featuring the novel cantilever suspension to the left, but more details about this photo or useful tags to help searching would make it even more useful for researchers.

Another publicity shot in the park, an older model this time, but still quite enigmatic.

The sketchbooks provide even more mysteries, with wild ideas that never made it onto the road…or into the air, but perhaps they could if we knew more…

And if you have some technical understanding then details about these performance graphs for the MkVIII hybrid petrol electric engine, they could provide insights into this groundbreaking technology that is over 90 years old!

There are many ways you can get involved with the collection through our volunteering programme, but if you have some spare time and would like to get involved in checking over some of the items online already the please get in touch.

When the current lockdown situation subsides then we are always looking for volunteers to work with our with our archivist to catalogue and research the collection as it grows, support the outreach team to promote and demonstrate the collection, both within the space and/or out in the community and help widen the archive and its networks by linking up with local history groups, or special interest projects, or anything else that takes your fancy.

You can see all of our #Archive30 tweets on Twitter and to get involved through volunteering, drop us an email volunteer@lanchesterinteractive.org.