HistoricAerials.com

04/14/2026

Finally digging into the interviews with Dr. Emily Doucet and Dr. Daewook Kim. Listening, transcribing, and realizing just how much depth they’re bringing to the documentary, Bird's Eye View. Their expertise shows, and it’s going to really elevate this film.

By the way, Dr. Doucet's book, "Inventing Nadar: A History of Photographic Firsts" is releasing a week from today! You can still pre-order it here: https://www.dukeupress.edu/inventing-nadar

03/24/2026

We finally did it. The Historic Aerials app is here.

If you already have an account, you can log in and access your saved imagery and work right from your phone.

For years, people have asked for a way to explore historic aerial imagery on the go. Now you can.

One feature we love: tap a button and see your exact location on imagery from decades ago. Stand somewhere today and see what it looked like in 1958.

03/17/2026

For a long time people have been asking us: “𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗮 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗽𝗽?” We've been quietly working on it. Here's a sneak preview.

It’s been really exciting watching this come together. Looking forward to finally getting it into people’s hands.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

02/26/2026

In 1906, Americans saw the destruction of the San Francisco earthquake in a way no one ever had before, from 2,000 feet in the air.

There were no airplanes. No drones. No satellites.

Just a 49-pound camera lifted by a train of kites over a burned-out city.

In 1906, Americans saw the destruction of the San Francisco earthquake in a way no one ever had before, from 2,000 feet in the air.There were no airplanes. N...

02/19/2026

If Nadar could send one message forward from 1858, it might sound something like this.

(Yes, this is satire.)

But the history is not.

Our latest article examines his aerial experiments, the volatile collodion process, and the origins of aerial photography as a technical discipline.

Read it here: https://blog.historicaerials.com/nadar-birth-of-aerial-photography/

02/05/2026

This is the oldest surviving aerial photograph ever taken.

Boston, 1860. Photographer James Wallace Black is in a hot-air balloon with Samuel Archer King, exposing fragile glass plates coated in wet collodion while the city drifts slowly beneath them.

The result, “Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It,” looks simple by today’s standards. But it only exists because photography had just learned how to move.

Nine years earlier, the wet plate collodion process changed the rules:
• shorter exposures instead of long, unforgiving minutes
• glass negatives that could be printed and shared
• a workflow that could survive wagons, fields… and balloon baskets

The invention of this process was the moment cameras became mobile enough to leave the ground and start showing us the world from above.

https://blog.historicaerials.com/how-wet-plate-collodion-opened-the-sky-for-photography/

01/06/2026

As of January 1, works first published in 𝟭𝟵𝟯𝟬 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻, and the fine print matters more than you think. For map researchers, historians, preservationists, and urban analysts, that includes a major milestone: 1930 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps.

The article we just published breaks down:
• Why January 1 is the only date that matters
• How copyright used to be an opt-in system (and why that still affects maps today)
• Why some Sanborn sheets have been public domain for decades while others only became free this year
• How revision slips, renewals, and missed paperwork created a legal minefield for researchers

Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gqAUqWkD

12/19/2025

Image analysts note an anomalous silhouette over Manhattan, winter 1953. Conclusions deferred until after the holidays. 🎄✈️

Sometimes historic imagery captures more than streets and buildings.

Happy holidays from all of us at Historic Aerials.

11/27/2025

From all of us at Historic Aerials, Happy Thanksgiving!

As you gather with family and friends, we’re grateful to be part of the way you explore the past—one flight line, one frame, one story at a time.

11/26/2025

Three days before Ohio State and Michigan line up, “The Game” looks like just another blue-chip showdown. But its roots run back to the 1830s, when bad maps, swampy ground, and a stubborn little port called Toledo pushed both states to mobilize militias and draw rival survey lines across the same strip of earth. Read more to learn why this fight has always been about more than football: https://blog.historicaerials.com/from-the-toledo-war-to-the-game-how-a-survey-error-fueled-the-michigan-ohio-rivalry/

11/13/2025

It’s wild how much the landscape can change.

For more than 50 years, the GM Desert Proving Ground in Mesa, Arizona was one of the toughest automotive test sites in the world. Engineers pushed new vehicles to their limits—extreme heat, choking dust, and nonstop punishment designed to expose every weakness.

Today, the entire site has been transformed into a master-planned suburban community. If you didn’t know the history, you’d never guess what happened on this land.

See the evolution from above and explore more forgotten proving grounds here: https://buff.ly/JATtR5H