Recently, genealogists have used aerial photography to identify and locate ancestral sites. Increasingly, members of the legal profession have used aerial photography in the settlement of cases involving property disputes, riparian rights, and transportation rights-of-way. When skillfully interpreted, these aerial images supply geographers, historians, ecologists, geologists, urban planners, archaeologists, and other professionals with a pictorial basis often critical to their studies.

Aerial photographs provide a straightforward depiction of the physical and cultural landscape of an area at a given time. The vast majority of these aerial photographs are held by the Cartographic Branch, spread across various Record Groups and series.Īerial photography became an important part of the mapmaking process in the twentieth century. Nowadays various feature-packed drones open hundreds of amazing possibilities to create wonderful photos and videos, and gives access to unique perspectives and frames that would have previously been impossible or far too expensive for the average. These records date from 1918-2011, covering both domestic and foreign sites. The National Archives holds over 35,000,000 aerial photographs produced mostly by Federal Agencies.

Google aerial view