2011

Time is an ocean, but it ends at the shore

Bob Dylan, “O, Sister”

There’s an old tale about two hipsters in a small rowboat, bobbing on the ocean, dawdling away the day and absorbing the splendor of the watery world around them. One says to the other, “Man, look at all the water.” And the other says, “Yeah, man, and that’s just the top.”

I recall the tale this morning as I reflect on the year that has passed, and the year to come. It’s a truism, perhaps a cliché, to say that the units of time we impose on the flow of life as it washes over us are artificial. Of course, we need those units to organize what we do – how else might we arrange to do things together? “Meet me this afternoon at 4", or “My baby’s leaving for Tanzania at the end of the month,” or the always-curious “Daylight Savings Time begins next Sunday” are essential constructs of social organization. If you want a trippy thought-exercise, try sometime to imagine how early humans managed their affairs without any shared sense of how to measure and talk about time, and seasons, uncertain of the Sun God’s plans for the future.

Welcome back to another Mystery Monday! This week’s photograph is most definitely a change of scenery and the exact location is unknown. We know the state and county, but its up to you to find it on Google Maps! I’ll provide a hint later in the week if no one is having any luck finding it.

If you’ve been playing for a while, then you know how this works. If not, be sure to read the guidelines below.

As always, the more descriptions and observations you leave, the more fun Mystery Mondays are!

Welcome back to another Mystery Monday! Can you believe it’s December already?

If you’ve been playing for a while, then you know how this works. If not, be sure to read the guidelines below.

As always, the more descriptions and observations you leave, the more fun Mystery Mondays are!

Welcome back to another Mystery Monday! We hope you had an enjoyable and relaxing Thanksgiving!

If you’ve been playing for a while, then you know how this works. If not, be sure to read the guidelines below.

As always, the more descriptions and observations you leave, the more fun Mystery Mondays are!

Welcome to this week’s Mystery Monday Contest!

If you’ve been playing for a while, then you know how it works. If not, be sure to read the guidelines below.

As always, the more descriptions and observations you leave, the more fun Mystery Mondays are!

Its officially November, and why not kick off the first Monday of the month with a great Mystery photograph?

If you’ve been playing for a while, then you know how it works. If not, be sure to read the guidelines below.

As always, the more descriptions and observations you leave, the more fun Mystery Mondays are!

We often receive stories from our customers when they give one of our photographs as a gift. Every story seems to focus on how the recipient reacted when they saw the photograph. Here’s a great example of what I mean:

“When Dad opened that box, the expression on his face was amazing. Here was a big, rough and tough farm boy, staring at it with tears in his eyes. He couldn’t thank us enough. Later, we asked Mom if she thought he liked it. She said “He only took it in and out of the box about 10 times!” We cannot thank you enough for helping to make this great man’s difficult year much more special!"

Welcome to this week’s Mystery Monday Contest! After reading our guidelines below, leave your observations as to what this photo could be and where it might fall on the map. The more descriptions and observations, the better!

Welcome to this week’s Mystery Monday Contest! After reading our guidelines below, leave your observations as to what this photo could be and where it might fall on the map. The more descriptions and observations, the better!

Welcome to this week’s Mystery Monday Contest! This photo will be challenging, but not as challenging as last week’s. The big sign on the building in this photo should give you enough clues to get started!

After reading our guidelines below, leave your observations as to what this photo could be and where it might fall on the map. The more descriptions and observations, the better!

Here’s this week’s Mystery Monday photo! If you like old cars as much as I do, this picture is especially exciting!

Also, we don’t know this photo’s exact location yet. We have a good idea of its general location, but we haven’t been able to track down an address. Needless to say, this will put your research skills to the test!

Lastly, after reading our guidelines below, leave your observations as to what this photo could be and where it might fall on the map. The more descriptions and observations, the better!

We’re excited to announce that we’ve made 52 counties in Texas available for free interactive browsing. That’s an incredible 389,785 photographs! All you need to do is type in a current address and our system will locate photos near that location. (Links are provided at the bottom of this post.)

This technology is still under development and we’re looking for suggestions on how to improve the way everything works and feels. Please email any ideas or thoughts to suggestions@vintageaerial.com.

Here’s October’s first Mystery Monday photo! Can you believe its already October? Anyways, after reading our guidelines below, leave your observations as to what this photo could be and where it might fall on the map. The more descriptions and observations, the better!

We are excited about the upcoming publication of Vintage Waterville, the next volume in our Vintage Communities Book Series. In this book, we will present photographs taken from our photo archive, as well as from the collections of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library and the Waterville Historical Society. These pictures range from famous landmarks (the Columbian House, the old railroad bridge) to more obscure homes and outbuildings that, although not widely known, tell the story of Waterville in all its variety. We will not attempt in this book to tell the full story of Waterville. We have a very different purpose. We want, instead, to use these photographs to suggest the breadth of life as it has been lived, and still is lived, in Waterville. And, even more importantly, we hope that by making this suggestion, others will be intrigued enough to help us expand on the story by sharing their memories of Waterville, whether those memories are stored in the mind or are reflected in aging photos that have gone unviewed for years.

Here is the long awaited Mystery Monday photo! After reading our guidelines below, you can leave your observations as to what this photo could be and where it might fall on the map.

This Friday we will reveal this photo’s location in the comment section of this post along with the winner!

Here is the long awaited Mystery Monday photo! We’re sorry we couldn’t post one for the past several weeks! After reading our guidelines below, you can leave your observations as to what this photo could be and where it might fall on the map.

This Friday we will reveal this photo’s location in the comment section of this post along with the winner of a Free 8×12 print! of their choosing!

Here is the long awaited Mystery Monday photo! After reading our guidelines below, you can leave your observations as to what this photo could be and where it might fall on the map.

This Friday we will reveal this photo’s location in the comment section of this post along with the winner of a Free 8×12 print! of their choosing!

Another week, another mystery! Here is the entry for this week. Read the guidelines below, then comment and be sure to include a link to a corresponding map. Then, this Friday we will reveal this photos location in the comment section of this post!

Another week, another mystery! Here is the entry for this week. Read the guidelines below, then comment and be sure to include a link to a corresponding map. Then, this Friday we will reveal this photos location in the comment section of this post!

Friends,

We at Vintage Aerial are deeply grateful for your interest in our site and your participation in the excitement that surrounds our archive of historical photographs. Your engagement with the community that has built up around our photos has helped confirm for us the immense value of what we’ve begun building.

Our company is small – it is owned and operated by a small group of amateur historians and programmers who’ve invested their time and money in a shared vision of the company and what it can become. In a very short time (little more than one year), we’ve scanned more than 3 million photos and have developed our own technology that seamlessly ties each photo to its unique location so they can be found by address, intersection, or coordinates. This technology makes it much easier for you to find, so they’re readily available online to people like you, who want to look at them, share them, and talk about them. As large as that accomplishment is, it reflects only about 1/8th of the photos in our film archive, so we have lots more to do.

Another week, another mystery! Here is the entry for this week. Read the guidelines below, then comment and be sure to include a link to a corresponding map. Then, this Friday we will reveal this photos location in the comment section of this post!

Another week, another mystery and now with the ability to zoom! (Zoom.It) Read the guidelines below, then comment and be sure to include a link to a corresponding map. Then, this Friday we will reveal this photos location in the comment section of this post! And, enjoy the latest twist, brought to you by Zoom.It.

UPDATE: We’ve added a close-up of the building on the right.

Another week, another mystery and now with the ability to zoom! (Zoom.It) Read the guidelines below, then comment and be sure to include a link to a corresponding map. Then, this Friday we will reveal this photos location in the comment section of this post! And, enjoy the latest twist, brought to you by Zoom.It.

Below is a word cloud made up of the words that most often appear in the stories from our customers. The larger the word, the more often it was used. With hundreds of stories on our site this is a pretty cool collection of words!

Have you shared your story yet? Get started, by finding your photo here.

New twist for this week; the mystery is to reveal who Michigan State was playing in this game. Hint – “The photo is from 1984”

Another week, another mystery – now with the ability to zoom! (Zoom.It) Read the guidelines below, then comment and be sure to include a link to a corresponding map. Then, this Friday we will reveal this photos location in the comment section of this post! And, enjoy the latest twist, brought to you by Zoom.It.

This 1988 photo shows some of the changes since the 1973 photo I commented on. The dairy cows are still in the pasture and those same fields are being worked by the fifth generation of Oplands since the farm was settled in 1892 by my great grandfather. My parents still live in the original home where my dad was born and raised. Thanks for another great glimpse back in time!

— Karen Opland Hauser

Another week, another mystery – now with the ability to zoom! (Zoom.It) Read the guidelines below, then comment and be sure to include a link to a corresponding map. Then, this Friday we will reveal this photos location in the comment section of this post!

My Grandparents bought this farm in 1935. Two of my uncles had an airport here until the mid sixties. My grandfather raise register Brown Swiss cattle until he passed away in1957. It is now a housing project that was built in then 90’s.

- Glenn Bard Jr.

This past week we got a visit from the internationally known photographer, Bruce Dale. His photos are beautiful and his stories inspiring. Check out this video to get a glimpse of his work.