Blog Historic Aerials

Collapsed beach house on an eroding bluff along the shore of Lake Michigan near Montague, Michigan.

The Truth About Owning Waterfront Property

So you’ve found the perfect waterfront property and you’re already imagining the dock you’ll build, the backyard barbecues, the early‑morning kayak trips, and the long, quiet evenings by the water.

Drone view of flood-damaged roadways and bridges along the Guadalupe River near Comfort, Texas, after flash flooding.

Aerial History of Flash Floods: Texas 2025 to SoCal 1938

Flash floods have shaped American history for generations. Each one reminds us that we cannot stop extreme rain, but we can reduce its impact. After every major event, local agencies,

Labeled historic aerial image showing three generations of the National Road near West Alexander, Pennsylvania, including the original pike, U.S. Route 40, and Interstate 70.

The National Road: America’s First Highway

Tomorrow morning, many of us will slide behind the wheel without a second thought. Coffee secure in the cup holder. Climate-controlled air humming quietly. A familiar podcast filling the car

World War I Caquot kite balloon in flight, showing stabilizing lobes and tether lines used for aerial reconnaissance and artillery observation.

Balloons Of War Part V Twilight Over The Trenches

High above the mud, wire, and shattered earth of the Western Front, tethered observation balloons swayed in the wind. To soldiers below, these elongated hydrogen-filled shapes—often likened to sausages—were a

Tethered British military observation balloon supported by a wagon team during the Second Boer War.

Balloons of War, Part IV: Africa’s Skies and the Colonial Eye

When the balloon first rose over Africa, it was not over a battlefield, but as a spectacle. In 1798, during Napoleon Bonaparte’s Egyptian campaign, a hydrogen balloon was brought to

James Glaisher and Henry Tracey Coxwell in the basket of a tethered balloon with scientific instruments, 1864.

Balloons Of War, Part III: How Britain Turned Ballooning into Military Doctrine

By the mid-nineteenth century, military ballooning had already proven its value in war. France had used balloons during the Revolutionary Wars. The United States tested aerial observation amid the chaos

Illustration of a tethered observation balloon above the Paraguayan fortress of Humaitá during the Paraguayan War.

Balloons Of War, Part II: Eyes In The South American Sky

When the Union Army Balloon Corps quietly folded in 1863, military ballooning didn’t disappear. It migrated. Within a few years, two veteran American aeronauts—James and Ezra Allen—had carried their experience

Civil War soldiers using portable gas generators to inflate Professor Thaddeus Lowe’s military observation balloon near Gaines Mill, Virginia.

Balloons Of War, Part I: The Birth (and Near-Miss) of Aerial Reconnaissance

In early 2023, a high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon drifted into U.S. airspace. The balloon spent days crossing the continent before an F-22 shot it down off South Carolina. U.S. officials

Glass photographic dry plate negative held up to light

How Dry Plates Solved Aerial Photography’s Biggest Problem

In 1860, if you wanted an aerial photo, you didn’t just need a camera—you needed a flying chemistry lab. The wet plate process required photographers to be part-aeronaut, part-chemist, and

Nadar and the Birth of Aerial Photography

History records that a man named Nadar took the first aerial photograph from a balloon over Paris. There is only one problem: no one has ever seen it. In 1858,

How Wet Plate Collodion Opened the Sky for Photography

On a summer afternoon in the mid‑19th century, a photographer in the field might be racing the clock—glass plate in hand, chemicals ready, light fading—knowing that once the collodion dried,

Panning panoramic aerial photograph showing widespread destruction in San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake and fire.

George R. Lawrence, Aerial Photography, and the “Hitherto Impossible” View of San Francisco

How did anyone photograph San Francisco from the air in 1906—years before airplanes existed?
George R. Lawrence’s panoramic image of the ruined city looks deceptively modern, but its creation