olyslager foundation

[nuyt]

Hello,

I have some pretty stupid questions here:

As a relative newcomer to the world of military vehicle enthousiasts I have recently acquired several second hand and out of print books that happen to be a goldmine of information to me.

Several books by Bart Vanderveen are among these.

Yesterday I bought in an Antwerp second hand store a Vanderveen book on US passenger cars in the 30s. The book was published by the Olyslager Foundation.

I was wondering if some one could tell me more about that foundation? Was its only purpose studying old vehicles? Does it still exist? What was the relation with Wheels and Tracks magazine? Were both Mr Vanderveen and Olyslager Dutchmen?

The thing is they did a wonderfull job publishing all those books that I have started collecting now.

I know Mr Vanderveen passed away some years ago and I know several among you know him well. If someone thinks these are impertinent or stupid questions I apologize...I am just trying to fill some gaps historiography-wise. I guess there may be others of the younger generations or of those to come that would like to know more about the backgrounds of these brilliant and authoritative publications.

Kind regards,
Nuyt


Overvalwagens!

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by ericnuyt
I was wondering if some one could tell me more about that foundation? Was its only purpose studying old vehicles? Does it still exist? What was the relation with Wheels and Tracks magazine? Were both Mr Vanderveen and Olyslager Dutchmen?

Bart Vanderveen used to work for Piet Olyslager, both Dutchmen. Bart worked from the Olyslager foundation's office in the UK (read more in the last issue of W&T).
Olyslager's main business was, and apparently still is today, to collect all sort of (technical) automotive information. A well known product - to me anyway - was their Vraagbaak car repair manual series (comparable to Haynes repair manuals). Although Mr. Olyslager's name is prominently displayed on Bart's books, these books about old vehicles were not the main business of the Olyslager Foundation.

Later Bart convinced Winston Ramsey of After the Battle to publish Wheels & Tracks and a number of his books on military vehicles.

H.

[Bill Murray]

Just to add a bit:

I cannot yet find my entire corrospendence file with Bart (the early years) but I can give some recollections.

Best I remember, Bart started writing, on his own time, for Old Motor Magazine. I think my first issue is around 1966 or so.

As Hanno states, he convinced Piet that there was a market beyond their vehicle repair manuals and started the first of many publication efforts. I never really asked Bart what his relationship with Piet was but I believe he was "Country Managing Director" for Olyslager in Britain when he started doing the books. I know that in the first few years he maintained an office in their Head Office. On subsequent visits, he seemed to be working out of his house, different location altogether. Then he returned to Holland and continued on. I would imagine he left Olyslager as the last two times I visited him in Holland he was employed by AutoDump Sindorf I think it was called who dealt in selling off used military vehicles amongst other things.

I stopped travelling to Europe in 1989 and soon after was canned by SAAB and could no longer keep up with the research so our correspondence more or less ended there.

I asked before on another thread but anyway, has anyone tried to access his collection yet? Again, it is supposed to be at the library of the General George C. Marshall Museum at Zwijndrecht.

Cheers
Bill

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Bill Murray
I asked before on another thread but anyway, has anyone tried to access his collection yet?

The people I know who have tried told me the B.H. Vanderveen Collection is not accessible and has been "thinned out".

H.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Bill Murray
to ask how the collection could be accessed.

Bill, why no simply ask Mr. Jaap de Groot, owner of Bart's collection? (Link to his museum's site through the thread CMP restoration at Marshall Museum, Netherlands.)

Alternatively, ask editor-in-chief Winston Ramsey of After the Battle.

H.

[Bill Murray]

Hanno:

I did not know the details of who now owned the collection.
As to the other memo, thank you sincerely, that is why I asked.
I am rather impulsive but hopefully not going to charge off like a bull in a China shop.
Maybe I should let it just lie.
And I deleted the post to not cause any more grief for anyone.
Bill

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Bill Murray
I am rather impulsive but hopefully not going to charge off like a bull in a China shop.
Maybe I should let just lie.

BIll, I'm not stopping you (on the contrary ) - just make sure who's China shop to target as you charge off!

H.

[Bill Murray]

I got it, Hanno, I got it.

Now it is 7 minutes to tea time and I'll really get on a roll.
Check the for sale section.

Bill

[nuyt]

for the info!
Nuyt

Overvalwagens!

[Rob van Meel]

About two years ago I have tried to go and see the Bart Vanderveen's colection/library at the Marshall museum in Zwijndrecht. In order to gain entrance I contacted (I believe) a mr. Roozendaal of that museum by telephone. He would check with mr. De groot, but failed to return the phone call. In my second phonecall some weeks after, I was told that mr. de Groot did not think it okay to have a look at the books in de Vanderveen collection. At that time I was trying to find more chassisnumbers of British 'B' vehicles to combine these with alloted blocks of census numbers.
Although I tried to explain again the reason of my interest, the answer was the same.

[nuyt]

Thanks,
Today I was at the Delft Army Museum and talked to the staff. I was told the Olyslager library was now held at the Nederlands Centrum voor Autohistorische Documentatie (NCAD). Their website (www.ncad.nl) confirms that.
HTH

Nuyt

Overvalwagens!

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by ericnuyt
I was told the Olyslager library was now held at the Nederlands Centrum voor Autohistorische Documentatie (NCAD).

But the Olyslager library is not the same as the B.H. Vanderveen Collection

H.

[Bill Murray]

I just made a rather fruitless search on Google to try to get some history on the Olyslager Organization, maybe after page 5 I gave up too early.

However, I do know that the organization predated Bart's initial publishing efforts by at least a fair bit.

Two assumptions here. First, in collecting data and info for their workshop handbooks it would be fair to imagine that the Olyslager folk may have gotten a lot more than just the dry technical stuff from manufacturers/importers in Europe.

Maybe not so much in the area of photos, but certainly serial number ranges, modifications etc. Maybe more of interest to David but still of interest. Honestly, I never even saw one Olyslager manual so I don't know what they contained but the Haynes manual equivelants here in the US are pretty comprehensive.

Secondly, the Olyslager Organization "supported" Bart's efforts over many, many years. Whatever was published must certainly remain in one form or another in their possession and I would not be surprised if materiel that was supplied to them for publication but not used for whatever reason may also be in their library.

Some of the materiel Bart exchanged with me were second generation photos etc. with instructions as to how they were to be cropped etc. for publication which I am sure he had supplied to Olyslager's publication technical people. My guess is that some if not all of that materiel may form part of their collection referenced earlier.

It might be an idea for one of you folks living there to try to contact whomever is in charge of this collection to see if my thoughts have any merit.

To be sure, Bart's personal collection could contain a great wealth of materiel that he never passed on the the Olyslager Organization and that may be harder to access but at least it seems to me to be worth the effort to find out.
Bill