More than 5,000 images of Scotland by the oldest commercial aerial photography company in the world are now available online to the public for the first time.
The new Britain from Above website launched today and features Scottish photos alongside some 12,000 others from across the UK.
Together they are some of oldest and most valuable images of the Aerofilms Collection, a unique and important archive of over one million aerial photographs taken between 1919 and 2006.
The Aerofilms Collection embodies all that is exciting about aerial photography. Many shots were taken in the early days of aviation by ex-World War I pilots, from extremely low altitudes, a technique which was very dangerous.
The collection was acquired for the nation in 2007, at the start of a programme to conserve, catalogue and digitise the collection and make it freely available online.
The photographs featured on the website date from 1919 to 1953. Due to their age and fragility, many of the earliest plate glass negatives and old photographic prints were close to being lost forever.
They have now gone through a painstaking process of conservation and cataloguing.
As more images are digitised, the website will showcase these so the collection will continue to grow. By the end of the project in 2014, some 95,000 images taken between 1919 and 1953 will be available, showing the changing face of modern Britain.
Rebecca Bailey, of project partner the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, said: ”The history of Aerofilms is inextricably linked to the history of modern Britain. The original pilots and photographers were veterans of the First World War, and they brought specialist skills learned in the conflict to the task of capturing the nation from the air.
”Between 1919 and 1953, there was vast and rapid change to the social, architectural and industrial fabric of Britain, and Aerofilms provides a unique and at times unparalleled perspective on this upheaval. We hope that people today will be able to immerse themselves in the past through the new website, adding their own thoughts and memories to this remarkable collection.”
Users can download images free of charge, customise their own themed photo galleries, share personal memories and add their own local stories as well as help identity the locations of a number of ”mystery” images that have left the experts stumped.
See more at britainfromabove.org.uk
Photos by RCAHMS (Aerophotos Collection)