2011

Stuff we like: Google's Search by Image

Posted on 06/24/2011 by Kevin Marsh in Stuff We Like

Another wonderful breakthrough from Google. We like it.

Mystery Monday (6/20)

Posted on 06/20/2011 by Lance Roper in Mystery Monday

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!

Stuff we like: Dear Photograph

Posted on 06/18/2011 by Sam Melden in Stuff We Like

We really like this site, Dear Photograph, which asks people to “take a picture of a picture from the past in the present.” Check it out.

Calling all Waterville Historians (or any other history buffs)

Posted on 06/17/2011 in Book Series

Each week we post a mysterious photo. We need help identifying it and you all come to our aid and chip in. Whether you are familiar with the area or simply know the tools to find detailed information you have proven yourself time and time again!

The historic Columbian House, Waterville, OH.

So, as we move on to our next book, we need your help! The photos that will end up in our next volume, Vintage Waterville, all have a mysterious quality to them and we need to discover them. So, if you are interested check out the directions below and jump in! We will be posting some of the photos to Facebook and getting as many people involved as possible, and we would love to have you!

Vintage Sylvania Party Photos

Posted on 06/16/2011 by Sam Melden in Book Series

Last week we celebrated the publishing of our first book, Vintage Sylvania. It was a wonderful night attended by many friends and Sylvania residents. If you weren’t able to make it in person enjoy a few photos from the night.

Mystery Monday (6/13)

Posted on 06/13/2011 by Lance Roper in Mystery Monday

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!

Vintage Sylvania Cover

Posted on 06/08/2011 by Sam Melden in Book Series

A sneak peek of the cover of our upcoming book, Vintage Sylvania. Our publishing party is tomorrow! We are all very excited.

The Reality of the Past...

Posted on 06/07/2011 by Sam Melden in Just for Fun

“Occasionally one stumbles into a coincidence that, like an unexpected alignment of windows, momentarily cancels out the sense of historical whereabouts, giving with an overwhelming immediacy an awareness of the reality of the past. The possibility of this awareness is always immanent in old homesites. It may suddenly bear in upon one at the sight of old orchard trees standing in the dooryard of a house now filled with baled hay. It came to me when I looked out the attic window of a disintegrating log house and saw a far view of the cleared ridges with wooded hollows in between, and nothing in sight to reveal the date.”Wendell Berry

Mystery Monday (6/6)

Posted on 06/06/2011 by Lance Roper in Mystery Monday

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!

Becky, from Story County, Iowa.

Posted on 06/05/2011 by Sam Melden in Stories from Customers

A great story from Becky in Story County, Iowa. I wonder how many of our photos have buildings that are no longer standing due to tornadoes?

This farm was owned by my dad, John McCann, at the time of the picture. The map is slightly inaccurate as the property is on the southside of the road. Nearly all of the original buildings were destroyed by a tornado on June 13, 1976.Becky McCann Leuenhagen

Vintage Sylvania

Posted on 06/04/2011 by Sam Melden in Book Series

In just under one week we will have a party celebrating the publishing of our first book! The book is called Vintage Sylvania, and it will be available on June 16th. Check out this article from The Toledo Blade:

“It’s not a history of Sylvania, although there’s a lot of history in it. It’s not a coffee table book, although it contains more pictures than words. The staff at Perrysburg-based Vintage Aerial say the company’s first book, Vintage Sylvania, will be a sentimental journey of sorts for anyone who lived or lives in the Sylvania area, who appreciates local history, and who might have fond memories of the places depicted in its pages.”

Mystery Friday (Part III)

Posted on 06/03/2011 by Jordan Justice in Mystery Monday

Today, I’m bringing another tool to you guys that we use when hunting down the location of photos.

This one is awesome! I’m so excited to show you and then enable you to use it.

The biggest part of my job is working with our GIS software that my colleague, Kevin Marsh developed. You can read more about GIS in another post I wrote a while ago here.

As I trace the flight paths from the old flight maps, they are stored on our server, and linked to the corresponding roll. Using GIS software, we can then export the flight paths to a .kml file, and view them in Google Earth.

So how does this help in the photo search? The amazing thing about Google Earth is that it lets you fly anywhere to view detailed satellite imagery, maps, and terrain. As you can see in the photo below, this is much more helpful than the old county maps I showed you in the last post.

Ready for the best part? You can also click the flight path which will then open the roll’s webpage inside of Google Earth. This allows me to search for other images on the roll, helping me narrow down the exact location for the mystery photo.

And today, we’re proud to be able to give you this same ability. You’ll need to download Google Earth, and also our .kml file of all the flight paths we’ve finished. So, lets use this technology together to uncover something historic.

Mystery Friday (Part II)

Posted on 06/01/2011 by Jordan Justice in Mystery Monday

As you well know by now, we could not find last week’s Mystery Monday resulting in Mystery Friday. So, here’s what happened.

Typically I’ll notice an interesting photo and forward it Sam, who then files it away for a future Mystery Monday post. The only concrete information we have on the photo at first is the date it was taken, and the County and State it is located in. Then sometime later in the week, we utilize some tools that we have, and narrow down the photos precise location. So we did that… and failed.

And that’s what these next couple of posts are really about. Giving you the same tools we have to find the location of this mysterious photo. Why do this when we’ve already spent hours looking? Because we don’t know everything. Time and time again you guys amaze us with your vast knowledge of the surrounding terrain, architectural style, and other fantastic observations. And as we always mention in our Mystery Monday posts, it’s estimated that 40% of our photos document places that are no longer standing. So maybe one you lives where this photo is located and remember when it was still standing.

Alright, so here’s what we know about the photo:

The photo was taken in 1964 and is located somewhere in Beaver County, PA.

Thankfully, we also have a flight map that goes along with the film. It looks like this.

Mystery Monday (5/31)

Posted on 05/31/2011 by Lance Roper in Mystery Monday

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!

Mystery Friday

Posted on 05/27/2011 by Sam Melden in Mystery Monday

We knew this would happen eventually. Every week we post a Mystery Monday photo and, to this point, we have been able to unlock each mystery. This week is different.

Why would we not be able to solve our own contest? Well, when we post the weekly blog post we know where it falls on our old county map once used by the pilot, we know what county it’s in, but we can’t guarantee we will be able to identify it. In fact, there have been weeks we didn’t know the photo’s location until one of our followers found it.
Perhaps this photo is simply difficult to find because it is no longer standing, and when we try to find it using the satellite view on Google Maps, there isn’t anything that resembles this photo.

Did we make an error in scanning or archiving? While we try our hardest to get every photo right, there are 25 million of them and we are bound to make a mistake. This could be our fault. (For more on how we bring these old rolls of film to your computer screen check out these past posts. - Technology & The Art of G.I.S.

Why do we preserve things?

Posted on 05/25/2011 by Jon Richardson in Meet the Team

Why do we preserve things? Anything? There’s the economic imperative against being wasteful of course, so that make sense. But apart from that, why not just keep making new? And what is it about certain things that almost compels us to keep them? Not just keep them, but keep them safe. Because preservation involves protection, protection against destruction, of course, but more than that, protection against any of the works of time. Protection, in short, against change.

So, why do we need things to stay the same? I think, no matter how important and truly moving our memories are, this is about more than memories – I think it’s about understanding. When we experience something we’ve preserved, whether by looking at it, listening to it, walking around inside it, or just holding it in our hands, we’re going back to learn from it anew, and to learn in perhaps a new way. We compare then with now, our selves and our world then and now. Is this thing different in some fundamental way, or does it just seem so at the speeding surface of our lives? Was what we see now, as though for the first time, there all along and we missed it? Or are we different, asking different questions now, seeing things for the first time, though they’ve been there all along? Has it changed, or have we? As we see something old with new eyes, we are rewarded with new insights. Though it may surprise us to find lessons where we only looked for memories we should be glad that we have the sense to protect, to save those things that teach us still.

Mystery Monday (5/23)

Posted on 05/23/2011 by Sam Melden in Mystery Monday

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!

Mystery Monday (5/16)

Posted on 05/16/2011 by Lance Roper in Mystery Monday

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.

Mystery Monday (5/9 - Revealed)

Posted on 05/13/2011 by Lance Roper in Mystery Monday

UPDATE. We have updated this post to reveal the location of our Mystery Monday Photo

This photo is of Sterling High School in Sterling, Illinois, 1974. Map

Mystery Monday (5/2 Revealed)

Posted on 05/06/2011 by Customer Service in Mystery Monday

UPDATE. We have updated this post to reveal the location of our Mystery Monday Photo

Great job everyone! Check out Linda’s comments below for the back story & location.

This photo is from Merced County, California, 1966.</em>

Mystery Monday (4/25 - Revealed)

Posted on 04/29/2011 by Customer Service in Mystery Monday

UPDATE. We have updated this post to reveal the location of our Mystery Monday Photo

This week we had such a great response from Frank Snyder we wanted to use his comment to reveal its location. See his comment below the photo. Great job Frank!

This is the farm where they filmed “Field of Dreams”. We used to live not far from there. The Field of Dreams was one of the places we always took friends and relatives when they came to visit. It’s really cool (the baseball field, not the Iowa weather) in late summer when the corn is tall. You will see cars from all over the U.S. in the parking lot. There’s always an assortment of visitors at the field – there to “have a catch”, hit a few and round the bases, or just sit on the bleachers and take it all in. They do occasionally have local men play a game in the evenings as the “ghost players”. A year or two ago, Kevin Costner and his band (yes, he has a band) had a concert there.

It’s interesting to see a picture of the farm before the movie. The power lines in the upper left part of the picture had to be moved for the movie. They originally ran down the 2nd-3rd base line. The house was modified a little. A bay window was added for the movie so they could see the field better from inside the house.

The baseball field actually sits on two pieces of property. Left and center field has different owners than the farmstead, infield, and right field. And they don’t get along. You will notice that there are two driveways going to the baseball field, and two souvenir stands. More on the feud here: http://www.sportshollywood.com/fodwar.html .

Dyersville, Iowa is on highway 20, about an hour north of Interstate 80. If you were driving through Iowa on I-80, the best route to detour and go to Dyersville is take hwy 61 north from the Quad Cities to Dubuque, then west on 20. If you continue on west, you go through Waterloo and end up at Interstate 35, which take you back to I-80. Pretty much all 4-lane divide highway. Dyersville is also the home of Ertl Toys. They have a farm toy museum in Dyersville.

- Frank Snyder

Preservation

Posted on 04/27/2011 by Sam Melden in Just for Fun

We are in middle of National Preservation Week And while this can be a vague or open-ended concept to some, we think there is significant meaning in the idea of preservation. Whether preservation makes you think of the environment, family heritage or the physical restoration of a valuable item… it is an important concept to consider. And we want to know what you think of when you hear preservation?

For us, at Vintage Aerial, the power of a photo allows us to preserve so much. By connecting yesterday’s memories with photographs from our collection, we hope to introduce your great-grandchildren to your grandparents through a photo of the home or farm they worked so hard for. That is preservation, and that is the work we wan to be about.

But enough about us; what about you? When your time is up, what will still be here? Did you have an impact in making it last? What do you hope to preserve?

(Photo taken from Maureen Taylor’s blog)

National Preservation week will lead into National Preservation Month during the month of May. Look out for great deals and offers from Vintage Aerial to allow you to preserve that which is most important to you.

Speechless

Posted on 04/27/2011 by Sam Melden in Stories from Customers

"This is the back of my grandparents farm, I can not even express the emotional feelings I felt when this came up on the screen. I am so glad I found Vintage Aerial! Debbie Uecker

Even the shortest of stories will never get old. (Read more here.)

Mystery Monday (4/18 - Revealed)

Posted on 04/22/2011 by Customer Service in Mystery Monday

UPDATE. We have updated this post to reveal the location of our Mystery Monday Photo

This photo is Kingsville Elementary School in Ashtabula County, Ohio. Taken in 1968. To see this today check out Whatwasthere.com

Mystery Monday (4/11 - Revealed)

Posted on 04/11/2011 by Customer Service in Mystery Monday

UPDATE. We have updated this post to reveal the location of our Mystery Monday Photo

Taken in Dodge County, Wisconsin – 1976 Pyramid of the Nile. (Map)

"I will surely treasure it for years."

Posted on 04/06/2011 by Sam Melden in Stories from Customers

Dear Vintage Aerial,

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the beautiful photo you found for our family. The photo of our farm was special to my Dad, and I’m glad he got to see it before he passed away. Our family farm was his most sacred place on earth… the land he lovingly farmed… that once belonged to his parents and his grandparents as well. So, this beautiful image is already hanging on my family room wall and I will surely treasure it for years.

Special thanks Tom for your help in finding the photo. Special thanks to Paul and Lisa Clark for visiting me at Dad’s funeral and for your friendship. The photo was proudly displayed at his wake and all of Dad’s brothers and sisters, family members and friends got to share in the memories that Dad’s farm has provided over the years.

Many, many thanks,

Karin Perozek

From our Featured Stories page from a thankful Vintage Aerial customer.

Mystery Monday (4/4 - Revealed)

Posted on 04/04/2011 by Customer Service in Mystery Monday

UPDATE. We have updated this post to reveal the location of our Mystery Monday Photo. See the comments section.

Mystery Monday (3/28 - Revealed)

Posted on 03/28/2011 by Nathan Lewis in Mystery Monday

UPDATE. We have updated this post to reveal the location of our Mystery Monday Photo

This photo was from 1969 in Stearns County, MN. (Map) It is St. John The Baptist Catholic Church. Scroll down for a picture taken 50 years later. Click here to see it on What Was There.

Photo Taken 1969 – Vintage Aerial

Photo Taken 2009 – Meire Grove Gallery

Along Country Roads

Posted on 03/24/2011 by Denny Eilers in Guest Bloggers

We’ve all heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”. When it comes to the family farm, it’s worth even more.

Memories of growing up in the country are priceless. I grew up on an Iowa dairy and hog farm, and even with all the hard work and “extra chores” Dad could dream up for Saturday, the memories are what I now enjoy - driving the tractor when I turned 10, first Holstein calf as a 4-H project and even planting my own one-acre plot of corn and keeping track of costs.

But, a picture of the family farm serves another very worthwhile purpose. It’s a historical documentation of a specific point in time, the year that photo was made.

A friend of mine, Linda, took great advantage of this.

“I ordered a photo of the family farm for a Christmas present for each of my children,” she relates. “And carefully wrapped them to put under the tree.”

Many people do this, but Linda went a step further. With a few interviews and some research she put together a history of the farm, which had been in the family since her husband’s grandfather purchased it.

Then, she neatly typed up the history, printed it on a sheet of paper, and carefully fastened it to back of each photo she was giving her children.

“Normally, at our house, they tear open one gift after another, tossing wrapping paper everywhere. It’s a real mess,” she said.

Linda says when they opened the farm picture everything stopped. Unwrapping was put on hold while each of her children read the farm history on the back of their family farm photo.

“It was quiet for almost five minutes,” she recalls, “followed by a lot of hugs and thank you’s.”

Linda’s story is special. But, when you consider the memories captured in a vintage farm photo, there are many others that are special too. As a lifetime agricultural photographer and writer, and growing up on a farm, I hear a lot of stories and have written about and photographed a lot of farms. I admire the respect farm families hold for their land, buildings and homes.

Mystery Monday (3/21 - Revealed)

Posted on 03/21/2011 by Nathan Lewis in Mystery Monday

UPDATE. We have updated this post to reveal the location of our Mystery Monday Photo

This photo was from 1978 in Grant County, WI. (Map)