Oklahoma Aerial Photography : Home

Government agencies have produced the largest number of aerial photographs although there are commercial services such as Tobin. The Federal government’s aerial photograph program began as a direction from the Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal administration in the 1930s. The photos were to provide a natural baseline for scientific planning for land use and soil conservation, with soil erosion from wind and water being a primary federal concern. 

Aerial photographs have been flown for the Agricultural Stabilization and Conversation Service (ASCS), the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), the USGS, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), the Federal Highway Commission (FHC), and the Defense Mapping Agency (now called National Imagery and Mapping Agency). 

Geographers, geologists, urban planners, farmers, agricultural land planners, land owners, lawyers, fishers, soil scientists, architects, anthropologists, and others.

• The photos are usually arranged by county, then year. The photos are marked with a flight and frame number at the top of the photos, e.g., AQS-219. The date of the flight is then printed in the opposite corner.
• The individual photos of each county were compiled into a composite mosaic photo that shows the whole country and serves as an index for the individual photo sheets.
• One can use another map, such as a road map for orientation, to locate a specific point of interest on the index, and then identify and find the corresponding photo sheet.
• Without the mosaic, finding a particular geographic area is difficult, but not impossible.

Aerial and satellite images allow one to create images from varying altitudes above the Earth. The images allow researchers to see and accurately portray patterns of land use on a local, regional, continental, or global scale. Collectively they are referred to as remotely sensed images and the process is called remote sensing. 

Aerial photographs are taken from an airplane flying at various altitudes. Common altitudes are 5,000 to 60,000 feet, and generally the lower the altitude the greater the detail. Photographs taken from airplanes began with Wilbur Wright’s 1909 flight over Centonelli, Italy. World War I and World War II stimulated the greatest advances in the technology of creating and using aerial photography. Beginning in the 1930’s, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and Tennessee Valley Authority began using aerial photography to help create topographic maps. 

The three standard paper print sizes for aerial photographs are: 
 

• 9 inches by 9 inches, called standard contact size (Scale 1:40,000)
• 18 inches by 18 inches (2X enlargements) (Scale 1:20,000)
• 36 inches by 36 inches (4X enlargements) (Scale 1:10,000)

The value of aerial photography is that they provide a record of land use and have been used in courts-of-law as a record of the position of a river at a given date (to help determine land ownership as the river shifts its course), use of the land before the flooding behind a newly created dam, location of buildings, change in land use from forest to a cultivated area and to urban sprawl, etc. ASCS and SCS used aerial photos as the base upon which soil type boundaries are compiled, yielding soil surveys.

Collections of Oklahoma aerial photographs can be found in a number of different locations around the state: 

Oklahoma Department of Libraries (ODL)
200 N.E. 18th Street Oklahoma City, OK 73105 
(405)521-2502 or (800)522-8116  

Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) 
Oklahoma Petroleum Information Center 
2020 Industrial Blvd. Norman, OK 73069 
(405)325-1299 or (800)330-3996  

Oklahoma State University (OSU)
Edmon Low Library 
Stillwater, OK 74078 
(405)744-5000 

The University of Oklahoma (OU)
Bizzell Memorial Library 
401 West Brooks Norman, OK 73019 
(405)325-3141 

The holdings for the statewide aerial photographs date back to the 1930s, with the OGS and OSU having more current sets. There is much overlap of holdings, but some holdings are unique. The negatives (in various physical condition) are legally held at the National Archives. 

• Arkansas River
• Chickasha River
• Grand River
• Verdigris River (also at OGS)
• Canadian River & North Canadian River
• Cimarron River
• Red River
• Washita River Watershed (also at OGS)

The Documents Collection also has a set of three DVDs that contain the moasic keys to the Oklahoma aerial photographs from the late 1950's-1990's (variously).

The moasic keys give access to the actual aerial photographs. OU Government Documents does not have most of the actual aerial photographs to go with the moasic keys, but as the moasic keys are electronic and allow for in-depth zoom, they may be just as useful to your research as the aerial photographs themselves. And if not, they will alert you to which actual aerial photo you need to locate at another local library (Oklahoma Geological Survey Library in Norman, Oklahoma Department of Libraries in OKC, Oklahoma Corporation Commission in OKC, and OSU in Stillwater).

Make an appointment with the Government Documents Librarian to utilize this resource in the Collection.