Welcome

The origins of this site go back many years, when I learned World War II German aerial photography had been preserved for use by the map-making and intelligence communities. Later, in 1979, I was inspired by the ground-breaking photo analysis of Auschwitz-Birkenau by my colleagues Robert Poirier and Dino Brugioni. As digitized historical photography became more available, I was challenged to more generally explore its use for historical research by applying the techniques of imagery analysis. What I have found or chosen to investigate has no special theme or focus, but I hope it is enlightening.   

 

The imagery comes mainly from the National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP) at Edinburgh, Scotland and the U.S. National Archives (NARA). Much of the NCAP holdings are digitized and can be viewed on-line for purchase. Some of NARA’s holdings have been digitized by NCAP and the rest can be researched from the NARA catalog.

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John M.