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About the Originals
The 93 images in the Dallas Historic Aerial Photographs digital collection represent a complete set of air images commissioned by the City of Dallas and photographed by Sherman Mills Fairchild in October of 1930 flying out of Love Field. SMU's Edwin J. Foscue Map Library retains in its collections all but eight of the 93 images as well as a photo image of the master grid map located here. All images are 19” x 23.5” prints.
The City of Dallas Municipal Archives retains copy negatives for most of these prints. Dallas Archivist John Slate believes these copy negatives were produced in the late 1960s or early 1970s. They are not the original negatives from the 1930 aerial survey. While several libraries house some or all of the 1930 prints, no known set of the original negatives exists.
The Edwin J. Foscue Map Library worked with regional historian George Cearley to create identifications for more than 3,500 specific landmarks within these aerial photographs. These identifications are available online as an overlay so the images and identifications may be explored not only by zooming in and out but also by offering unique tags that name and describe what the viewer is seeing. This replicates the physical overlays created in the Edwin J. Foscue Map Library.
About Fairchild Aerial Surveys
Aerial photography began in the nineteenth century from balloons. It expanded in the First World War (1914-18) when the value of military reconnaissance from airplanes became obvious. After the war, photography from the air came quickly to be used for a variety of purposes. For example geological surveying, mapping, and, in the case of photographing cities from the air, tax assessment. As cities expanded, it proved far quicker and cheaper to make the maps needed for tax purposes from pictures taken from airplanes than by traditional surveying techniques on the ground.
Sherman Mills Fairchil
d (the son, incidentally, of a man whose company eventually developed into IBM) was by 1919 a leader in the design of cameras for aerial photography. In 1924 he founded Fairchild Aerial Surveys, Inc. The company’s first contract was to produce a photo-map of Newark, New Jersey. Fairchild soon also began producing airplanes. His FC-2, first made in 1927, was a five-seat, high-wing monoplane. The type could be, and often was, used for aerial photography. The Fairchild airplane company went out of business in 2002, although one of its products, the A10-A Thunderbird II (also known as the “Warthog”), a powerful ground-support plane, is still in service with the United States Air Force. (Contributed by Peter Bakewell, Aviation Historian, SMU).
Scholarly Reviewer Commentaries
Dallas History
This collection of 1930 aerial photographs from the Edwin J. Foscue Map Library will be of immeasurable value to me in my historical studies of Dallas and Dallas County. They will be especially useful to my students in the course I teach on Dallas history for SMU's MLS program. The detail shown is fascinating. I'll be spending a lot of time going over them both as teaching tools and as part of my own research. Identifying the sections of town to be studied is made very simple through the "yellow dots" that are superimposed over the entire map of Dallas County, and once you get to the specific area you find even more dots that identify particular areas. I intend to alert others who are interested in Dallas history about the photographs. Indeed, I've already told KERA about them as they prepare an upcoming documentary on the Trinity River. I know all students of Dallas history will be grateful for this invaluable contribution made possible through the vision and initiative of Dawn Youngblood, Curator of the Edwin J. Foscue Map Library. I know that in years to come the photographs and the information gleaned from them will find their way into many articles and books. Thanks so very much.
- Darwin Payne, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Southern Methodist University
Mexican American Studies
Ethnic Studies
Southwestern Studies
Texas History
The Dallas Air Photo Digital Project is a superb tool for the study of Mexican American and other ethnic communities in the city because it allows detailed examination of specific locations in 1930. The labeled features, historic notes, and especially the ability to zoom in on particular structures allows researchers to study Little Mexico and other early barrios in a way not possible with standard maps. This project will permit a more visual comprehension of many Dallas neighborhoods still understudied by scholars. SMU’s Edwin J. Foscue Map Library should be highly commended for this acquisition.
- John R. Chávez, Professor of History, Southern Methodist University
This collection of aerial maps, made user-friendly by thoughtful labeling and zoom functions, will be tremendously useful for my teaching and research in environmental and Texas history. History takes place -- literally -- and this is a terrific tool for students to see what the past looks like from above and to ponder how much the city that many of them know well has changed. I've already forwarded it to colleagues and students, here at SMU and at other universities, who are interested in such diverse topics as urban renewal, Dallas' Mexican-American community, and the politics of the Trinity River floodplain. The prospect of adding later photos would make this an even more useful research and teaching tool.
- Benjamin Johnson, Associate Professor of History and Associate Director, Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University
Earth Sciences
Environmental Science
Environmental Studies
Urban Studies
What a timely resource! A very interdisciplinary group of faculty and some government employees is putting together a proposal to the NSF to look at human-natural ecosystems in urban areas, and we are focusing on the Trinity River Basin and the Dallas-Fort Worth region. This resource is going to be great for us – I’m so glad that we have it! We still have a lot to learn about the ways that urban areas develop, their impact on natural systems, the response of natural systems to urban and suburban development, and how best to plan for the future in light of changing climate and ever increasing population. A great way to plan for the future is to learn from the past – and these aerial photos will be a tremendous help in our research! They’re a great resource.
- Bonnie F. Jacobs, Director of Environmental Science and Studies Programs and Associate Professor, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Southern Methodist University
Project Contributors
George Cearley (historic identifications), Sarah Roberts (metadata entry), John Slate (City of Dallas Archivist), Dawn Youngblood (curator), nCDS (digitization, metadata, web design).
Scholarly Reviewers: Peter Bakewell, John Chavez, Bonnie Jacobs, Ben Johnson, Darwin Payne.
Contact
Dr. Dawn Youngblood, Curator, Edwin J. Foscue Map Library, dyoungbl@smu.edu
Have you found this digital collection useful? I welcome your comments.
Usage
Some of the files in this collection are protected by copyright law. No commercial reproduction or distribution of these files is permitted without the written permission of Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries. These files may be freely used for educational purposes, provided they are not altered in any way, and Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries is cited. A high-quality version of these files may be obtained for a fee by contacting Dr. Dawn Youngblood, curator.