Bluesky launch website archiving old aerial photographs

Press Release:
Aerial photography specialist, Bluesky, has launched a brand new web service offering an online window to the largest collection of UK based historical aerial photographs. Visitors can search through millions of aerial images dating back as far as the 1940s by simply entering a postcode, address or grid reference. Detailed search results, including the age and ground coverage, of every image that matches the search criteria are displayed and the visitor can choose to purchase either a hard copy print or digital image file. Old Aerial Photos is a joint venture between Bluesky and air to ground oblique photography experts Skyscan.

“This is an important development for anyone with a personal or professional interest in the past,” said Rachel Tidmarsh, Managing Director of Bluesky. “By giving visitors to the website the ability to search through literally millions of images with just a few clicks of a mouse we are bringing together for the first time a valuable and comprehensive record of our past. Many of these images have previously only been available to archivists or those with specialist knowledge of how to find them, now it will be easy for everyone to search through these historic collections.”

Visitors to Old Aerial Photos can search through a number of historically significant collections of both vertical and oblique aerial photography. Through an ambitious and ongoing acquisition programme and agreements with a number of historically important private, commercial and government organisations Bluesky has already secured, and will continue to do so, unrivalled access to a photographic record of the country’s past. Bluesky’s own team of photographic experts have collated and formatted information about every image creating a Master Aerial Database that powers the online service.

Images that are available to purchase from the website include some of the earliest commercial aerial survey images, military photography from World War II and one of the largest collections of oblique photography in the UK. Offering a record of most major UK cities and towns, transport and utility infrastructure and commercial property developments Old Aerial Photos is an invaluable resource for anyone with a personal or professional interest in local studies, genealogy, boundary disputes, environmental land use research or town planning, for example.

Old Aerial Photos is a joint venture between aerial imaging, remote sensing data collection and processing specialist Bluesky, and air to ground oblique photography experts Skyscan.

Customers will be required to pay a £9.95 fee before searching the database. For more information please visit the website.