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May I just state the obvious that the photos were taken as official shots and thus arguably Crown Copyright, for which there is now no restriction in Canada. However, de facto possession and all that means that Ford of Canada understandably has rights of reproduction of their stock. I for one respect that attitude.
Secondly, I know only too well that the garbage bin, skip, call it what you wil is still receiving archival material and I know that there has been a deliberate policy in somce cases in the UK of trashing rather than donating. I also believe to be true that a motor manufacturer lost its archival production records because someone wanted the filing cabinet they were in, and everything was dumped and now they have zilch EXCEPT copies turn up of info previously supplied, pre-binning, and so some information has been resuscitated.
It then relies on employees say to retrieve them. This has happened in one case with a photo album from 1940/41 that will be repro'd. in due course for an exhibition when the building closes in December.
In GM's case I know that they woke up to the potential of the archive. With Ford, blame the Slave Labour allegations that resulted in the closure of an archive and full-time historian and removal of all records to Dearborn. Dearborn has I believe now catalogued their holdings after some years? They also received Oakville's records as well.
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