Automobile Quarterly Collection
The photographs made available by America's Packard Museum come from its Automobile Quarterly (AQ) collection. AQ was a hardbound, advertising-free periodical, published from 1962-2012, which focused on everything relating to automobiles. The complete finding aid to the collection is available.
Questions? Email us.
NHPRC Grant: The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) awarded the Museum a one-year grant, " Processing and Digitizing the Automobile Quarterly Collection," Award RH-104737-24, to process the AQ records The NHPRC, located within the National Archives, provides opportunities for the American people to discover and use records to broaden public understanding of our democracy, history, and culture.
The Images: There are about 728,000 photographic slides and negatives in the collection, consisting of images taken during the magazine’s history. Professional photographers shot all the images, and while AQ published some, only their staff saw the rest. Most of the images are color negative transparencies taken with 35mm cameras.
What is Available: About 5,500 car models are available in the AQ collection. The Museum staff is currently digitizing a variety of brands and models, and the numbers will continue to grow. As owners of the Automobile Quarterly collection, the Museum is committed to digitizing the images of all represented brands, not just Packard.
Copyright: All images are protected by copyright and/or related rights. Users are free to use the images in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to their use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). America’s Packard Museum makes no warranties about the images and cannot guarantee the accuracy of this Rights Statement. You are responsible for your own use. America’s Packard Museum recommends trying to contact the individual photographer or their estate. Any images used should be credited, using the complete citation found on the bottom of the item page. All images reproduced are for one-time use only. Images may not be copied, modified, or altered without prior written permission.
Organization: The AQ staff kept the images in folders by brand, model, or subject. Each folder may contain a variety of image types: 2x2” slide transparencies or 35mm, 4x5” and 8x10” negatives, and the specific organization of the negatives was usually random. The Museum team organized the images as best as possible, generally in order by exterior, interior, and engine images, and assigned a number for each.
Descriptions: The information provided in the Descriptions usually comes from the Photograph Identification Sheet written at the time of the photo shoot, or valuable data written on the folders themselves.
Dates of Images: One piece of information often not recorded on the Photograph Identification Sheet was the actual date when the photographers took the pictures. Why this information was not recorded is not known. When possible, approximate dates are provided. In some cases, there may be an accompanying note, date stamp on slide transparencies, or other documentation that may give clues as to the date.
Digitization: The images are digitized for archival purposes. The digital file is a faithful representation of the physical image at the time of scanning, includes any imperfections, including color shifting or scratches, on the original image, and is not retouched or edited for aesthetics. As noted on page iv in the FADGI Technical Guidelines, "digitized material should document the appearance of the original at the time of capture, not what it may once have looked like if restored to its original condition...Certain digital enhancements should be avoided such as: Colorization, color restoration, digital infill, excessive cropping of the image area, over sharpening, de-saturation, blurring, removal of blemishes in the original such as stains, dust, or scratches, and other transformative image processing. The alteration of cultural heritage images such as the addition, removal, or changing of image details, including the addition, changing, or removing of individuals, subject matter, scenery, or the unrealistic changing of color or light are not acceptable."
Color Shifting: Many of the images are decades-old color negatives. It is a natural process for the dyes in color films to fade over time, and the rates at which they decay differ. Cyan, magenta, and yellow dyes decay at different rates, which can cause the overall image to shift towards one color. This can result in an image that is reddish or another color. The AQ images were scanned as they are, with no attempt to adjust for the color shifting on the original. Users can adjust the colors as they prefer on their own computers.
For user convenience, if images have heavy color shifting, a second copy was scanned with all the cyan removed during scanning. These are identified with "adj" at the end of the file name.
Duplication: Many of the images may appear to be duplicates, but there are often subtle differences in angle, color, contrast, or tone. The Museum team scanned every image. To save on digital file space, and to make the images easier to view, usually three images of the same shot were selected for public display.
Image File Quality: Different equipment was used at various stages of the project. Most slide transparencies are about 670x1000, 180 dpi, 24 bit; or 511x341, 400 dpi, 24 bit. Most 4x5" negatives are about 4032x3024, 72 dpi, 24 bit; or 1954x1564, 96 dpi, 24 bit. Most 8x10" negatives are about 3640x2707, 72 dpi, 24 bit.
AQ Books: The AQ staff maintained a reference library, and these titles are available in the online catalog of the Turnquist Library.
AQ Index: Bob Schmitt at CarLibrary.org compiled a complete index to the entire run of the magazine.
AQ Online: Many of the published issues are available in the Internet Archive.
AQ History: The publication was well known for quality writing and photography about historical automobiles, the automotive industry, personalities, and related subjects. The mission of AQ was to produce a publication “to truly reflect the grandeur, the majesty, the adventure that is the automobile.” From its inception, Automobile Quarterly was instantly recognized as a pillar of the automotive community and was held in high acclaim by anyone who had any association with the automobile including automotive manufacturers, journalists, historians, racing enthusiasts, and vintage automobile collectors worldwide. Automobile Quarterly was the gold standard for writing about automobiles.
Lloyd Robert Scott Bailey (shown here) published Automobile Quarterly from 1962 until 1986 when he sold it to CBS Magazines, who then sold it in 1988 to Kutztown Publishing. In 2000, Gerry Durnell, owner of Automobile Heritage Publishing & Communications, LLC purchased the magazine. He died in 2011, and his widow, Kaye Bowles-Durnell, ceased publication in 2012 and stored the materials. In late 2018, she donated the Automobile Quarterly collection to America's Packard Museum in Dayton, Ohio.
The following table provides the names of the Editor, Senior Editor, Executive Editor, Publishing Director, or members of the Editorial Board, and publishers. The information was found on the title page of each issue. From 2001-2012, the name of the publisher and editorial office location was not provided.
|
Editor |
Publisher |
Subsidiary of |
In Association with |
Editorial Office Location |
Years |
Volumes |
|
L. Scott Bailey |
Automobile Quarterly, Inc. |
|
|
New York, NY |
1962-1968 |
1-6 |
|
Don Vorderman |
Automobile Quarterly, Inc. |
|
|
New York, NY |
1968-1974 |
7-12 (number 2) |
|
Beverly Rae Kimes |
Automobile Quarterly, Inc. |
|
|
New York, NY |
1974- 1976 |
12 (number 3)-14 (number 2) |
|
Beverly Rae Kimes |
Automobile Quarterly, Inc. |
|
Princeton Institute for Historic Research |
Princeton, NJ |
1976- 1981 |
14(number 3)-19 (number 2) |
|
L. Scott Bailey |
Automobile Quarterly, Inc. |
|
Princeton Institute for Historic Research |
Princeton, NJ |
1981-1986 |
19 (number 3)-24 (number 2) |
|
Thomas L. Bryant |
Automobile Quarterly, Inc. |
CBS Inc. |
|
Princeton, NJ |
1986 |
24 (numbers 3-4) |
|
Lowell C. Paddock |
CBS Magazines |
CBS Inc. |
|
Newport Beach, CA |
1987 |
25 |
|
Lowell C. Paddock |
Diamond Communications |
|
|
Newport Beach, CA |
1988 |
26 (number 1-2) |
|
Lowell C. Paddock |
Automobile Quarterly, Inc. |
Kutztown Publishing Company |
|
Wyomissing, PA |
1988 |
26 (number 3-4) |
|
John F. Katz |
Automobile Quarterly, Inc. |
Kutztown Publishing Company |
|
Wyomissing, PA |
1988-1990 |
26 (number 3)-28 (number 1) |
|
John F. Katz, Jonathan A. Stein |
Automobile Quarterly, Inc. |
Kutztown Publishing Company |
|
Wyomissing, PA |
1990 |
28 (number 2) |
|
Glenn F. Johns, Jonathan A. Stein, Julie M. Fenster |
Automobile Quarterly, Inc. |
Kutztown Publishing Company |
|
Wyomissing, PA |
1990 |
28 (numbers 3-4) |
|
Jonathan A. Stein |
Automobile Quarterly, Inc. |
Kutztown Publishing Company |
|
Kutztown, PA |
1991-1992 |
29 (numbers 1-3) |
|
Jonathan A. Stein, Michael Pardo |
Automobile Quarterly, Inc. |
Kutztown Publishing Company |
|
Kutztown, PA |
1992-1994 |
29 (number 4)-33 |
|
Joanathan A. Stein |
Automobile Quarterly, Inc. |
Kutztown Publishing Company |
|
Kutztown, PA |
1995-2000 |
34-40 (number 2) |
|
Joanathan A. Stein |
Automobile Heritage Publishing and Communications |
Kutztown Publishing Company |
|
Kutztown, PA |
2000 |
40 (numbers 3-4) |
|
Gerry Durnell |
None listed |
None listed |
|
None listed |
2001-2011 |
41-51 (number 1) |
|
Kaye Bowles- Durnell |
None listed |
None listed |
|
None listed |
2011-2012 |
51 (number 2)-52 (number 1) |