The Lager Lovelies are safe. Yesterday, their history was secured for the nation when thousands of tins of Tennent's - the beauties on their labels lovingly preserved - were handed over to Glasgow University, part of an irreplaceable archive of Scotland's great brewers.

Ann and June, Linda and Heather, Penny and Pat; the Lager Lovelies were among the country's best-known faces. Now they are in the careful hands of archivist Iain Russell.

"Tennent's initially showed pictures of hills and glens, then they included a model, Ann, in the foreground," Mr Russell explained. "After a wee while they realised that all the mail they were getting was about Ann, from people like squaddies serving overseas, and the Lager Lovelies were born."

Ann - her second name was Johansen - made her first appearance in 1962. Tennent's was to print other Lovelies on its lager cans until 1991. Lager Lovelies changed over the years, transforming from the demure Ann and her contemporaries into the raunchier pin-ups of the 1970s and 1980s before taming down again for the early 1990s.

One beauty, however, remains unaltered. The first - and perhaps the best - wasn't a Lager Lovely: She was a Stout Stunner. Venetia Stevenson, Hollywood starlet and wife of singer Don Everly, is still to be found on bottles of Sweetheart Stout. "She appeared on the stout in 1958 and she is still on it now; that's half a century now," said Mr Russell.

The Scottish Brewing Archive was founded when Lager Lovelies were still the rage, back in 1982. It was designed to preserve all that was best in Scottish beer, and not just tins. It now contains everything from original equipment to thousands of labels, beer trays and mats, and adverts. All the main brands of old are represented.

"We have Younger's brewing books dating back to the 1700s," Mr Russell explained. "That means we have all the recipes for traditional Scottish ales and beers. If somebody wants to resurrect a brand, we have all they need."

Tennent's was once the biggest brewer in the world, exporting its lager across the empire. Its Lager Lovelies helped lift the spirits of squaddies in farflung postings - and irritate many female drinkers, now almost as big a market for the product as men. The pictures had to go.

Mr Russell doesn't have a favourite Lovely but he does have a favourite can. It shows Ann, showing her legs as gets out of a Tennent's "service van". The only problem was the picture was cropped. Poor Ann - a dignified and happily married lady - was printed on thousands of beer tins clambering her way out of the seat of a "vice van".