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In photo albums, photographic images play Photographs in this first volume begin
a key role. Only photos of large format and high with ancient modes of travel : walking, boats, or

quality should be compiled, offering useful content bullock carts, using unpaved dirt roads, during the
and clarity of details, except when absolutely early days when automobiles were a rarity. By the

necessary. 1940s, national highways began to be systematically
A book lover and an avid reader, Director constructed, using human as well as elephant

Sarawut Songsivilai perceived the need for the labors, in conjunction with early road-making
Department of Highways to have its photographic machinery.

album, so he asked me and Mr Thongchai The 1960s was another difficult period
Likhitponsawan, President of the Association of in highway construction during the Communist

Thai Archives, to compile one such volume, to be insurgency. Lives of engineers, staffs, and labors
presented by the Department for our visitors, as well were lost. Those are the stories which should be
as to be distributed to educational institutions. preserved and transmitted to future generations.

After agreeing on working principles in No- I strongly hope that Department of Highways

vember 2020, the editorial board immediately began Photo Album : The Early Years presents, through
searching for historic photographs from various photographic images, a collective memory of each

sources such as Thongchai Likhitponsawa’s private and every member of the Department staff past and
library, private collections of fellow collectors, the present. It stands as a testimony to the Department’s

Department of Highways’ database, as well as those great and valuable contribution to the society
from former directors. All images were photographi- worthy of a commemorative volume, and additional
cally duplicated with high-quality cameras, selected, volumes to come.

described with sources referenced. This editorial
work was greatly assisted by Mr. Wichian Meekaew, Anake Nawigamune

former editor of Department of Highways’s Thang National Artist 2020
Luang magazine. Monday October 4, 2021

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