Historic Aerials has always been built around a simple idea: historical aerial imagery should be easy to explore, searchable, and available to everyone. From the beginning, we’ve worked hard to offer a free version of the site so students, historians, planners, and the public can explore decades of aerial history without a paywall.
But keeping this archive alive and growing comes with real and increasing costs.
Starting the week of December 22, 2025, some users may have noticed a message appearing in our aerial viewer indicating that imagery is unavailable unless ads are enabled or a subscription is in place.
If you’re seeing this, nothing is broken. This change only affects users whose browsers, extensions, or networks are blocking ads.
We didn’t make this decision lightly.
Why we were forced to make this change
Behind the scenes, operating HistoricAerials.com involves far more than hosting image files. We acquire imagery from both private aerial survey companies and public agencies, digitize and preserve fragile historical materials, and transform raw aerial photographs through orthorectification and georeferencing into a unified, searchable historical map experience.
We then host and serve billions of imagery tiles through a high-availability infrastructure so the site remains fast and reliable.
Advertising has long been what allows us to offer this experience for free. When ads are blocked (whether intentionally or by default browser or network settings) that support disappears. At a certain scale, continuing to serve free imagery without that support simply isn’t sustainable.
That’s the point we reached.
How this affects you
Again, this only applies to free users with an adblocker extension installed on their browser. If ads are allowed, nothing changes, you can continue to explore imagery freely as you always have.
We know this adds a small amount of friction, especially when you want to preview imagery before purchasing. That tradeoff wasn’t lost on us. But it’s what allows us to keep HistoricAerials.com available to everyone, rather than moving entirely behind a paywall.
If you prefer not to see ads or prominent watermarks, an ad-free subscription directly supports the preservation, processing, and long-term availability of this historical archive. (Not to mention a larger image Viewer that can even be expanded to full-screen view!)
Thank you for supporting this archive
Whether you support the site by allowing ads or by subscribing, you’re helping preserve an irreplaceable visual record of our shared landscape and history.
We’re grateful you’re here.