OTA historical photos archive to hit World Wide Web

TORONTO — As part of OTA’s 80th anniversary celebrations, an extensive collection of almost 1,000 photos, depicting the development of trucking in Canada and significant developments in trucking history, is being digitized and stored by the association in electronic format.

In conjunction with its annual conference in Toronto kicking off today, the OTA has announced that its vast collection of historical photos will soon be able to be viewed from OTA’s web site.

The collection depicts the development of the trucking industry spanning from the invention of the first diesel vehicle through to the modern day engine. The collection also includes photos of past OTA chairmen, conventions, OTA members and their fleets, association publicity campaigns and lobby initiatives.

“Among researchers and historians the OTA collection has been of considerable interest for many years,” said OTA President David Bradley. “The move to digitize the collection dovetails perfectly with OTA’s 80th anniversary.”

Officially started by the OTA (then known as the Automotive Transport Association) in the 1950s, the collection is known as the Canadian Motor Transport Archives and encompasses as many as 1,000 images. The vast collection includes both rare and historically important images.

“The picture and images division of The Canadian Press is aware of the collection and plan to examine the collection in its entirety once it has been moved to electronic format,” says OTA communications manager Rebecka Torn. “At the present time we know we have a valuable collection which we want to preserve for the future.”