Auto-Archives to relocate to the NB Center for American Automotive Heritage

Allentown, PA - Auto-Archives, a growing library of automotive and motorsport reference material based in the Denver, Colorado area since 2010, is relocating to the NB Center for American Automotive Heritage in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Led by Littleton, Colorado automotive historian William Taylor, the non-profit organization has gathered, organized, and preserved over 85,000 historic books, magazines, photographs, technical manuals, sales literature, and other ephemera. Its mission will continue to be to preserve and document the rich history of the automobile while providing both physical and online resources for the study of the past, present, and future of the automobile. The archive seeks to involve, inspire, and educate future generations of motorheads.

The organization has been a leader in archiving historic automotive and motor racing research materials as a living collection and was always open to automotive enthusiasts, car clubs, researchers, journalists, historians, and students to view and use. That mission was always hampered by the fact that the collection was split between two locations and with a lot of material also kept in storage. The Auto Archives board has been looking for a single site to house the collection for a number of years.

The NB Center for American Automotive Heritage was founded by noted international jeweler, car collector, and historian Nicola Bulgari. His extensive collection of American cars is housed in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Rome and Sarteano, Italy. The U.S. facility in Allentown, is a 27-acre campus with buildings dedicated to storage, restoration and maintenance of nearly 200 cars each kept in ready to drive condition.

The NB Center mission includes not only the preservation of cars from the golden age of the American automobile industry but the preservation and passing on of knowledge and skills related to all cars of the 20th century. The NB Center seeks to keep the passion for automobiles alive by putting them into their correct historical and sensory context.

The Allentown facility will be opening its new visitor center next year and will have regular visitation schedules in the coming years. Auto-Archives will be integrated into the campus in a building with access for those making appointments to use the library.

Keith Flickinger, Curator and Manager of The NB Center in Allentown and Jed Rapoport, Project Manager at The NB Center will be joining William Taylor on the Auto-Archives Board. Auto-Archives wishes to express thanks to parting Denver based board members Bill Roushey, Christian Braun, who was instrumental in brokering the new partnership and home, Frank Barrett, Geordie Prodis and Jim Bennett. The board extends its appreciation for assistance from Coterie Press, Hagerty, hobbyDB, Toad Hall Motorbooks and its many donors and sponsors over the years.

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