About

Frederick Lanchester is perhaps best known for designing and building the first all-British motor car (in 1895), but he also published papers and books detailing the first scientific principles of flight, and theorised about the principles of colour photography before it was reality, and devised military strategies that underpin business management courses still taught today.

Thanks to many legacy gifts, the work of archive collectors and extreme enthusiasts over the years, and with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, we can put on show, and bring to life, his collected sketchbooks, notebooks and correspondence. The online archive enables examination of his many patents and automotive blueprints, which together celebrate and validate Lanchester's place at the heart of British engineering, and ensure he truly lives up to his description as "Britain's own Leonardo Da Vinci."