Historical Aerial Photographs of Maryland, 1937-1990, County Collection
Dates
Last Metadata Update
2018-08
Year of Earliest Photo
1937
Year of Most Recent Photo
1990
Summary
The "Historical Aerial Photographs of Maryland, 1937-1990, County Collection" consists of black and white aerial photos (9"x9", 1:20,000-scale) from several time periods: 1937-1938, 1949, 1951-1953, 1957, 1961-1964, 1968, 1970-1972, 1979-1981, and 1983-1990. These photographs were usually flown or otherwise acquired by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), or the private firm Air Photographics, Inc. (API). USDA and USGS photographs were donated to the Maryland Geological Survey (MGS), mainly by the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA). MGS purchased the copyrighted API photographs. Due to copyright limitations, the public may view the paper API photographs but they cannot be copied [...]
Summary
The "Historical Aerial Photographs of Maryland, 1937-1990, County Collection" consists of black and white aerial photos (9"x9", 1:20,000-scale) from several time periods: 1937-1938, 1949, 1951-1953, 1957, 1961-1964, 1968, 1970-1972, 1979-1981, and 1983-1990.
These photographs were usually flown or otherwise acquired by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), or the private firm Air Photographics, Inc. (API). USDA and USGS photographs were donated to the Maryland Geological Survey (MGS), mainly by the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA). MGS purchased the copyrighted API photographs. Due to copyright limitations, the public may view the paper API photographs but they cannot be copied or distributed. Hard copy or digital scans of the API photographs may be purchased from API directly (contact information: http://www.airphotographics.com/Contact_Us.html).
Although the photographs were flown throughout Maryland, statewide coverage is likely incomplete for any given time period. Photographs are grouped by county (thus the "County Collection" designation) and time period flown.
Note that the photographs in this collection are associated with another MGS collection listed in the National Digital Catalog (NDC) as "Historical Air Photo Index Maps of Maryland, 1936-1990". NDC information about the index maps may be viewed here: https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/4f70c4dee4b08a0b754221e1. The index maps are photo-mosaics, created by overlapping the individual county aerial photographs to approximate the landscape photographed. Commonly, for any one particular time period, more than one index map is needed to cover an entire county. Patrons should view these index maps to determine the individual county aerial photographs in their area of interest. The index maps are available online via the Maryland State Archives (MSA) Guide to Government Records website and the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) JScholarship website. Links to the index map images (as well as other online images) are provided under the "Related External Resources" section of this page. Additional information about MGS's aerial photograph collection (including links to online images) are also provided on MGS's "Aerial Photograph Collection" webpage located here: http://www.mgs.md.gov/publications/mgs_data_preservation/aerial_photos.html.
As of August 2016, all county aerial photographs have been digitized (1200 dpi; all in TIF format; most also in JPG format).
Link to 1930s-1980s County Aerial Photograph Index Maps (MSA Guide to Government Records website; click on View by Agency, enter Maryland Geological Survey under Agency, and scroll down to the county listings).
Link to Scans of Individual County-Based Aerial Photographs (MSA Guide to Government Records website; click on link for desired county; scroll down and click on Details folder next to desired Flight Series; click on Links next to desired Frame under the Description column; click on Scanned/Mixed.
