New Content Releases

We’re excited to announce we have added nearly 400 thousand new photos to our Virginia and West Virginia collection!

The Commonwealth of Virginia was first established in 1607 by The London Company creation of Jamestown. Virginia joined the United States on June 25,1788, as the tenth state. Its motto is “Sic Semper Tyrannis” or “Thus Always to Tyrants”. The state is geologically known for the Big Ridge Mountains, and Coastal Plains. Virginia is known as “The birthplace of a nation”. Today 333,141 photos have been added to our collection in Virginia This brings our total collection in Virginia over 1 million!

West Virginia was added to the United States on June 20, 1863, making it the 35th state to be added. The state’s motto is “Montani Semper Liberi” or “Mountaineers are Always Free”. There are four different geological areas of West Virginia, the Ohio River Valley, Allegheny Plateau, Allegheny Highlands and Potomac Section. West Virginia is known as “The Mountain State”, making it great for a number of outdoor activities. Today 45,198 photos have also been added to our collection in West Virginia! This brings our total collection in West Virginia over 430K!

We are glad to share these new photos with you, please join us in bringing them to life. You can search by address or map location as normal and any new film in the area will appear with NEWLY ADDED on the roll. In total we have added 378,339 photos to our collection.

We invite you to come and take a look at these homes and farms in our collection of over a million aerial photos of this great region. Home is the place where you became you. Find your way back!

We’re excited to announce that over 416,000 photos have been added to our collection in Tennessee! This brings our total collection in Tennessee to over 740K and adds coverage in 12 additional counties.

This is the third batch of photos we’ve made available from our Champion Air Views collection after opening Texas last September.

We are glad to share these new photos with you, please join us in bringing them to life. You can search by address or map location as normal and any new film in the area will appear with NEWLY ADDED on the roll. If you would like to see a breakdown of all the new film you can do that here.

We’re excited to announce that over 530,000 photos have been added to our collection in Texas! This adds to our collection of over 700K images in Texas we released in April 2020 bringing our grand total to over 1.2 Million historic aerial photos of the Lone Star state!

This is the second batch of photos we’ve made available from our newly acquired Champion Air Views collection after opening Ohio last April.

We are glad to share these new photos with you, please join us in bringing them to life. You can search by address or map location as normal and any new film in the area will appear with NEWLY ADDED on the roll. If you would like to see a breakdown of all the new film you can do that here.

Today we are very excited to be adding 116,000 aerial photographs to our online Ohio collection. The photos are from the Champion Air Views library, which we’re happy to have acquired as part of our commitment to find, preserve, and share lost collections of aerial photographs of rural America. This release reflects only 3% of the entire Champion collection and represents our first step in making the entire collection available for search in the coming months.

The History

In 1957 a young man named Lee Champion landed a sales job for an aerial photography company as a door-to-door salesman. Five years later Lee had learned a lot about this business and decided he wanted to start his own company. He and his boss worked out a deal, splitting the country between them. According to legend, during this meeting they drew a line diagonally across a US map separating the South from the upper Midwest, mostly protecting each other’s sales territory. Lee soon opened the doors for his new company Champion Air Views. During the company’s lifetime around 4.4 million photos across 32 states were taken and film preserved. Upon his retirement he sold the collection which changed hands a few times before Vintage Aerial finally acquired it to preserve and share this beautiful film.

The Collection

The style and quality of photos in this collection fits in well with our other photos: shot at low altitudes with an oblique angle in 35mm black and white film to capture extraordinary detail of land and life years ago. Unfortunately the flight mapping and record keeping was not as meticulous and as a result there is some film with no locations and a lot with fuzzy dates. We are confident our community will be able to use landmarks and features like cars to help us determine more precise dates and locations.

Here are a few examples of some shots in this release:

We are excited to be sharing these new photos with you, please join us in bringing them to life. You can search by address or map location as normal and any new film in the area will appear with NEWLY ADDED on the roll. If you would like to see a breakdown of all the new film you can do that here.

Today, we are excited to announce that over 750,000 photos are now available to search and view online. As the saying goes, everything’s bigger in Texas, and the agriculture industry is no exception. for example The King Ranch in Texas is bigger than the state of Rhode Island. The Lone Star State leads the nation in total number of farms and, with more than 245,000 farms averaging around 530 acres in size. These farms take up a staggering 130 million acres of land. Texas farmers are very family focused, with nearly 99 percent of Texas farms and ranches being family owned. Texas agriculture’s total economic impact reaches $115 billion annually, and one out of every seven Texans works in agriculture. The top commodities include cattle and calves, cotton and dairy products. Our collection of aerial photos focuses on these rural farming properties and we hope you find something meaningful within them. Here are a few of our visitors who did.

We invite you to come and take a look at these homes and farms in our collection of over 750,000 aerial photos of this great region. Home is the place where you became you. Find your way back!

Today, we are excited to announce that over 100,000 photos are now available to search and view online. The Origin of Nebraska’s Name comes from an Oto Indian word meaning flat water. This seems odd as Nebraska was once called “The Great American Desert.” in 1872 Arbor Day was found by J. Sterling Morton. Since then millions of trees have planted for windbreaks, woodlots, and orchards. For myself when I think of Nebraska, solid college football comes to mind. The University of Nebraska has been to a record 27 consecutive bowl games and 27 consecutive winning seasons. In 1899 Cy Sherman referred to the team as the Cornhuskers, which was officially adopted one year later. in 1945 The state changed its official nickname form “Tree Planter’s State” to the “Cornhusker State.”

The term “cornhusker” comes from the method of harvesting or “husking” corn by hand, which was common in Nebraska before the invention of husking machinery. Nebraska is an agricultural juggernaut with close to 50,000 farms generating 25 billion dollars. Nearly nine million acres are planted to corn and produced nearly 1.5 billion bushels. Five million acres were planted to soybeans and produced nearly 268 million bushels. Nebraska’s dairy cows produce over one billion pounds of milk a year. Nebraska’s slaughter plants process nearly 6.8 million cattle and nearly 7.7 million hogs. Of the many farms involved in the agricultural business 86% are family owned and operated. Our collection of aerial photos focuses on these rural farming properties and we hope you find something meaningful within them. Here are a few of our visitors who did.

We invite you to come and take a look at these homes and farms in our collection of over 100,000 aerial photos of this great region. Home is the place where you became you. Find your way back!

Today, we are excited to announce that nearly 115,000 photos are now available to search and view online. Louisiana was named in honor of King Louis XIV. With its humid, subtropical climate Louisiana is home to 41% of the nation’s wetlands and has 5,000 miles of navigable waterways. You have probably heard of these referred to as a bayou, the French name for slow-moving “river.” The world-famous “Mardi Gras” is celebrated in New Orleans. Mardi Gras is an ancient custom that originated in southern Europe. It celebrates food and fun just before the 40 days of Lent. I have attended this wild event and it is quite the party with live music around every corner. The streets are filled with thousands of people and you can eat some of the best cajun seafood dishes in the world. Louisiana is the only state with a large population of Cajuns, descendants of the Acadians who were driven out of Canada in the 1700s because they wouldn’t pledge allegiance to the King of England. Like most southern states Louisiana has an old history. The first American army to have African American officers was the confederate Louisiana Native Guards. Between 1862, and 1864, 20 major Civil War battles and engagements were fought on Louisiana soil.

Because many of our photos focus on rural farming I always like to give some data on the agriculture industry. Louisiana ranks #1 in the nation in the production of crawfish, shrimp, alligators, menhadden, and oysters. The commercial fishing industry produces 25% of all seafood in the U.S. Forestry is the #1 agriculture industry in Louisiana with its 13.9 million acres of forests. Other top crops are rice, corn, sugarcane, soybeans, and cattle and calves. I think my favorite tidbit is, Louisiana is the sole source of the Tabasco pepper, a popular condiment known around the world. Finally, Louisiana is the 3rd largest producer of petroleum and the 2nd largest producer of natural gas in the U.S.

We invite you to come and take a look at these homes and farms in our collection of nearly 115,000 aerial photos of this great region. Home is the place where you became you. Find your way back!

Today, we are excited to announce that over 201,000 photos are now available to search and view online. Florida is well known as the ‘Sunshine State" with its 241 days of sunlight this is not just a clever name. I lived in Florida for a good part of my life and I know that with this sunshine also comes heat. I can remember sweltering in the sun doing yard work with my dad on the weekends. The sun and heat have influenced Floridas history, in 1851 Dr. John Gorrie invented mechanical refrigeration. In 1965 per Dwayne Douglas’s request the university of Floridas college of medicine came up with a drink to help keep his player hydrated. This new drink was named after the football teams mascot, cleverly dubbed Gatorade. The first suntan cream was invented in 1944 by Benjamin Green in Miami Beach.

All this sun may be a problem at times for us humans but it is perfect for great farming. Florida is ranked first in the U.S. in production of cucumbers, grapefruit, oranges, squash, sugarcane, fresh market snap beans, and fresh market tomatoes. In 2017, Florida ranked second in the nation in the production of greenhouse, nursery and miscellaneous products with cash receipts totaling over $2.088 billion. Florida accounted for 45 percent of the total U.S. citrus production with 78.1 million boxes of citrus in the 2016-2017 season. Generations of families have called these farms home. We hope we have preserved these memories with the photos in our collection and invite you to re-discover your history.

We invite you to come and take a look at these homes and farms in our collection of over 201,000 aerial photos of this great region. Home is the place where you became you. Find your way back!

Today, we are excited to announce that over 267,000 photos are now available to search and view online.

The Name Arkansas comes from the Sioux acansa which means “downstream people.” Arkansas became the 25th state in 1836. Since the 1830s the area now known as Hot Springs National Park has bathed notables as diverse as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, and Al Capone. The now household name Wal-Mart was founded by Sam Walton in Bentonville. Arkansas has 33.3 million acres of land, forests cover more than 56 percent of Arkansas’ landscape. The Buffalo River is one of the few remaining unpolluted, free-flowing rivers in the lower 48 states. Agriculture is Arkansas’ largest industry, adding around $16 billion to the state’s economy annually. The Natural State’s diverse landscape and climate produce a wide variety of Arkansas agricultural products. Arkansas is a major exporter of rice, soybeans, cotton, poultry and feed grains. A whopping 97 percent of these farms are still family owned. Generations of families have called these farms home. We hope we have preserved these memories with the photos in our collection and invite you to re-discover your history.

We invite you to come and take a look at these homes and farms in our collection of over 267,000 aerial photos of this great region. Home is the place where you became you. Find your way back!

Today, we are excited to announce that over 60,000 aerial photos of Mississippi are now available to search and view online.

The state is named after the Mississippi River. The native word for the river was messipi, which means “Big River.” Like many other southern states, Mississippi has a long history it was the 20th state to join the union in 1817. In 1898 a man named Edward Barq invented root beer in Biloxi. His company Barq’s is now owned by Coca-Cola. “The King” Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo in 1935. There are many other famous names that came from Mississippi such as Walter Payton, the first football player to appear on Wheaties box, and the legendary puppeteer Jim Henson. The people who really make Mississippi are the people who live and work there, those who have farmed the land and for generations made it their home. We have many of these memories captured in our collection. Here are just a few and we invite you to come and create your own!

We invite you to come and take a look at these homes and farms in our collection of over 60,000 aerial photos of this great region. Home is the place where you became you. Find your way back!