Society for the Preservation & Appreciation of Antique Motor Fire Apparatus in America

Finding Aids for Collection

A beautifully restored vintage fire engine

Collections Finding Aids and Lists of Archival Materials

The SPAAMFAA Library and Archives consists of more than 120 feet of shelved materials, flat files, vertical files, and thousands of photographs, books, and fire service periodicals. We collect materials on the design, manufacturing of American fire apparatus including sales literature, parts lists, repair manuals and fire apparatus blueprints. The collections include information on hand-pulled (manual), horse-drawn (steam) and motorized (gas & diesel) equipment from the smallest details to the complete operating machine.

This massive collection is in the process of being organized, sorted and indexed. We hope to eventually make large amounts of this collection viewable online, but as a starting point we invite you to peruse various inventories, indexes, and finding-aids.

Manufacturer Collections

The SPAAMFAA Archive has material from more than eight-hundred different fire apparatus and equipment manufacturers. The so-called “manufacturer collection” contains advertising literature, catalogs, service and parts manuals, spec. sheets, blueprints, delivery records and photos, correspondence, clippings, and other documents.

We have created a spreadsheet (a finding aide) which inventories the general contents of each box and each folder within each box. While some objects are called out specifically, it is intended to be be a general summary as opposed to a detailed index of the tens of thousands of items in the collection.

Download the PDF file below:

Manufacturer Collection a Finding Aid

Photo Collections

The SPAAMFAA archives includes dozens of large photo collections from well-know fire apparatus photographers and buffs.

These photos, and slides — numbering in the tens of thousands — are sorted and stored in a number of various ways. Some photographers stored their images in boxes or file drawers and organized them by location, whereas others kept them in photo albums, perhaps sorted by vehicle manufacture or year. Ultimately, we have lofty goals of indexing, scanning, and digitizing these images to make them more accessible. In the meantime, a small selection of these images are avaliable to view online in our SmugMug account.

View the photos on SmugMug:

SPAAMFAA SmugMug

Book Collection

In 2018, longtime SPAAMFAA member, and fire bookophile, Tom Scott chose to donate his entire collection of fire service related books (more than 2,600 volumes) to the SPAAMFAA Archives. This single donation, comprises one of the largest firefighting history book collections in the world.

Tom’s book collection was more nearly seventy-years in the making.

An index of the books in the SPAAMFAA Library coming soon.

Historical Archives lists Indexing the Collections

Prior to 2015, the SPAAMFAA Archive and Library was located in Hershey, PA as part of the Antique Automobile Club of America (ACA) Library. Long-time SPAAMFAA archivist Ed Peterson, maintained and published a bi-annual “Archive List” indexing the contents of the collection, and for historical purposes we’re sharing one of the most up-to-date lists, (created circa early 2000s).

Download the PDF file below:

Archive List – circa early 2000s

Boyer Fire Apparatus Collection

An index of our complete build records from the Boyer Fire Apparatus Co.

…Coming soon.

Maxim Fire Apparatus Collection

An index of our complete builder’s photos and records from the Maxim Fire Apparatus Co.

…Coming soon.

Sanford Fire Apparatus Collection

An index of our complete build records from the Sanford Fire Apparatus Co.

…Coming soon.