A recent article in MR mentioned the availability of aerial photographs taken in 1938 and covering "virtually the entire 48 contiguous United States". These photos are supposedly available from the National Archives. I have searched their web site without finding anything on these photos. Does anyone know how to get an index of these photos to find ones covering specific areas?
Bill
Historic Aerials http://www.historicaerials.com/ This has aerials and topographic maps from different years depending on what is available
Thanks for the quick response. Unfortunately, this site has only 2006 aerial photos of the area I am interested in. Track has been torn up by this time, I need older photos, that's why 1938 sounded just about right.
Try the topograhical maps
Try the Library of Congress web site at www.loc.gov where there are old maps and photos from many different locales and eras.
Did they say they were available from the National Archives online or just the National Archives? Because the National Archives have mountain upon mountain of materials about anything you can imagine (for instance, the documentation for the Saturn V rocket is so voluminous it would literally fill a 40' container), but vast amounts of it are not digitized.
The 1938 survey was conducted by the Farm Service Agency of the USDA for the War Department, as I recall. I've never come across one singular clearinghouse for the 1938 imagery. The imagery does turn up, online, in a much more distributed manner. Major city libraries or large universities tended to make such things available. For instance, Penn State manages a site that hosts the Pennsylvania imagery from three different decades.
Don't stop at your National Archives. Try State and City ones as well. Our Provincial and City archives boast thousands and thousands of great railroad photo's. This oldie is from the City of Vancouver Archives.
This is from the B.C. Provincial Archives.
If you do find them, post a few, I love old RR pic's.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
In Minnesota the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) has these photos and others they have taken of Minnesota online.
http://dnr.state.mn.us/maps/landview/index.html
Wisconsin offers theirs thru the UW System http://maps.sco.wisc.edu/WHAIFinder/
As posted Minnesota thru the MDNR
Michigan is thru the Michigan at Ann Arbor, and the last time I looked was a pay as you go.
Illinios - http://crystal.isgs.uiuc.edu/nsdihome/webdocs/ilhap/county/ Warning this is NOT seemless.
Iowa - http://programs.iowadnr.gov/maps/aerials/
The article was "Coal mines along the East Broad Top" in the October 2014 issue. The side bar on page 37 says "The photos are preserved in the National Archives, where they're available to the public." I take it from that that they are available from the National Archives, but I'm guessing they probably are not online. I have emailed the National Archives using a contact link on their web page but have not received an answer.
All the info on other sources is appreciated; I have checked the local library and museum without success. I have emailed a contact with the State of Ohio but have not heard back yet. I was just hoping that someone else was familiar with the National Archives data and could get me started there.
Bill,
You're in Ohio? Well the achieves probably are available in hardcopy form stored in the Archieves. You can get them by ordering straight from the Archieve, and I haven't seen anyone with a digital version of the of the photos.
Honestly, call whomever has the best Cartographic program in the state of Ohio, then ask for thier GIS dept. If anyone has scanned the images they would have.
Chris
I haven't looked into aerial photos at this point, but I do know that the USGS has some on top of the many maps they have. I've been on their web site quite a bit lately getting historical topographic maps. Downloads are free and the paper versions are $8-15. I found a topo of my hometown in PA that is dated 1894. I was looking to trace some of the branch lines of the Reading.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
If you model the early 1900s, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps are a good resource. This page lists some states that are available. Apparently some other states, such as Iowa, are available for viewing if you have a library card number.
http://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=96131&p=625797
Here's what a Sandborn map looks like. IIRC, yellow buildings are made of wood, and pink ones are stone or brick.
Steve S
I kind of got fixated on the aerial photos; I was aware of the Sanborn maps, the local Mansfield Memorial Museum supposedly has copies, but the director was reluctant to give me copies or even let me see them, go figure. Thanks for the link, it got me another link to the right department at the Library of Congress and I emailed a librarian. We'll see what kind of a reply I get. Even if I can get the correct Sanborn maps, the aerial photos would be of interest if I can find them.
I got a reply from National Archives. They require a marked up USGS topo map indicating the area of interest and they will research the proper aerial photos for me. They did say the actual time frame for these photos is 1935 - 1948. The problem now is that the topo map files are so large I can not mail them (they exceed the size limit on their end). ZIP doesn't help much. I sent an email asking for suggestions about how to get the maps to them.
You'll need to resize them. What format are they?
Can you link to the map you're using?
Quite a few years ago I was doing some research involving Sanborn and USC&GS maps, and found that Kent State University had a very exhaustive collection. I don't know the current state of affairs there, but it seems like a good place to check, since it might be more convenient for you. If you're able to get to the Washington DC area, you would probably find it worthwhile to visit the Archives in person.
Tom
Getting them was quite easy from the USGS web site. Sanborn maps appear to be available from the Library of Congress, although I have not heard back from them. If it becomes an issue, I will try Kent State. A visit to Washington is not in my future.
Steve
They are PDF's. Resizing may be possible, but the Archives want to see the area I am interested in "in relation to surrounding roads, railroads, towns, streams, etc", so I don't want to loose too much resolution. The area I am interested in is quite small on a 7.5' topo map. Since I now have a contact, I emailed him and asked for suggestions for getting them there.