If you are a history or geography enthusiast that posts on Social Media sites like the popular “Then and Now” here is your opportunity to use a free site to get your historical black and white aerial photographs. You can now use the Aerofilms photographic archive to locate your "Then" photographs which has now been taken over by Historic England. A link to their website is included below in this post.
Whilst
I the have always been a mapping enthusiast the maps that have always most
appealed to me either drawn or photographed are the oblique genre where you can
visually see buildings and geographic features laid out on the map but in a
three-dimensional format. The classic purely vertical maps either drawn or
satellite generated although interesting do not carry the aesthetic appeal of
oblique maps. It is about maps being considered by me as artwork rather than
purely having a scientific cartographical purpose. See a good example of
Vertical verse Oblique Photographic Views on Page 6 of the Aerofilms Library
Index Book linked to below in this post. It’s the use of oblique views in older
historical maps that are appealing to me. Whilst thanks to them now being very saleable over the internet that this genre is starting to appeal to our
young contemporary artists.
It
was not so long ago that Black and White Aerial Photographs were considered the
most technically advanced way of viewing geography and history from the above. Back in 1962 I sent off for the 7/6d Library of Aerial Photographs
produced by Aerofilms and Aero Pictorial Limited and proceeded to purchase some of their interesting photographs.
Here
is the Leaflet advertising the booklet from which I decided to order their booklet.
Here
is the Library of Aerial Photographs Booklet (1962) itself. It is 62 years old
and has been on my bookshelf all of those years. I still enjoy looking through
the photographs and appreciating how many exist covering a huge variety
of subjects. It is the way they have structured content in the booklet by
adopting a classic attempt at Library Classification that appeals to my data
centric mind along with this also applied to the Appendices. No Google search
in those days. (1962).
It
has to be acknowledged that although Google Maps and Google Street View have
using GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite capabilities brought mapping
into the 21st Century they cannot achieve the splendid oblique views
that can be obtained from an aircraft. Now the advent of drones can exceed all these oblique capabilities and once they are organised both nationally and internationally
we will have the perfect oblique visual resources. These capabilities will be
inclusive of both still and moving photographs (video) eventually extending
into full 3D and virtual reality functionality. I am personally looking forward
to “flying” down a river from its source to the sea under and over all the
bridges from a drone perspective.
Its
important to acknowledge the part played by Aerofilms Limited in both
originally creating this archive and now handing it over to Historic England.
In 1995 The Times reported that Aerofilms had 1.2 million photographs between
1919 and 2006 spanning over 75 years.
Read
the Wikipedia link below on Aerofilms history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerofilms
To
use the Aerofilms Archive use the Historic England link below
https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/archive/collections/aerial-photos/
By
a strange coincidence in a recent old map book I purchased it had stored inside
it the cover part of a Hunting Group Review dated February 1981 (Original
owners of Aerofilms) with a cutting of an article on the so called Rampton Map
Tapestry inside of it.
Link
to part of the Hunting Group Review (1981) found in an old map book with the
article on the Rampton Map Tapestry.
Link
to details about the Rampton Map Tapestry on a European History Site.
https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/2064107/Museu_ProvidedCHO_Nottingham_City_Museums_and_Galleries_BLDIDCT166793
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