UNCERTAINTY surrounding a mysterious set of chocolate bar adverts looks set to be unwrapped by a new website.

The University of York has launched the site to try and uncover the identities of Rowntrees' Aero girls - and put to bed question marks over the identity of their stars which have left historians stumped for decades.

The York Digital Library showcase follows the quest of researchers Kerstin Doble and Francesca Taylor to discover the stories behind a series of 20 portraits of young women commissioned for the bar's advertising campaign in newspapers and magazines from 1951 to 1957.

The pages reveal how their search led them from the battlefields of the Second World War, through polite society in post-war London, to present-day celebrity, with plenty of surprises along the way.

This comes as the mystery of the identity of the sitter in an Anthony Devas painting, titled ‘Art Student’, was solved just last week.

Barbara Pitt, who now lives in South Africa, was 17 at the time of the sitting and attending Goldsmiths College School of Art.

She was living in Chelsea with artist Adrian Ryan, whom she married in September 1952.

Barbara Pitt, an artist and teacher, said: “I sat for quite a few well-known Chelsea artists who were friends of Adrian’s, but mainly for Anthony from 1951-57. Unfortunately he died in 1958, at the age of 47, a dear friend.”

Project curator Kerstin Doble added: “When we started the project, we were not even sure if the Aero Girls were real women.

"There is so much human interest behind these portraits - the stories we have collected touch on art, social history, fashion, the changing role of women, even the Profumo Affair.”

Second World War veteran Frederick Deane is the last living Aero artist and

was able to provide the names of two Aero Girls, advertising agency employee Rhona Lanzon and the Vogue model Myrtle Crawford.

Many of the other Aero Girl sitters also worked in the creative industries, as painters, lithographers, film directors and dancers.

The new website is packed with archive images of the girls and can be found at
http://digital.york.ac.uk/showcase/aerogirls.jsp

Anyone with more information can email borthwick-institute@york.ac.uk