The Motoring Picture Library has just added 5,000 images from the National Motor Museum Trust’s Bill Brunell Photographic Collection to its website www.motoringpicturelibrary.com, a valuable addition which will be of great interest to the motoring enthusiast and professional researcher alike.

A professional photographer, Bill frequently competed in rallies and trials, most famously partnering the Hon. Victor Bruce in 1926 when they became the first Englishmen to win the Monte Carlo Rally. His daughter, Kitty, who features in many of the photographs, also took part in many motoring events including the Monte Carlo Rally of 1929, driving the Talbot 14/45 that she had designed the body for and which became known as the Sportsman’s Coupe. Talbot was so impressed, both with her driving and design skills that it built another car for her for 1930, known as ‘Kitty II’.

Motoring Picture Library Manager, Jon Day said: “Brunell’s photography, shot mainly on glass plate in the 1920s and 1930s, is an evocative reminder of the golden age of British motoring, capturing perfectly the mood and spirit of the era. From street and social scenes to events, trials and rallies throughout Great Britain and Europe, Brunell’s images are an important historical record with artistic merit in their own right.

“These fantastic images have taken National Motor Museum staff and volunteers over three years to digitise from the original glass plate negative as well as researching the content of each picture. The original negatives have subsequently been re-packaged and archived within the Museum collection.”

The Beaulieu based Motoring Picture Library which contains an archive of over one million photographic images, is one of the most comprehensive sources of motoring photographs anywhere in the world, supplying pictures not only to the enthusiast but also commercially to the publishing, broadcasting and advertising industries.