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Delving into the past, one story at a time — exploring historical people, places, and events that shaped our world.

1928 aerial photograph of Manhattan showing the island, surrounding waterways, and dense urban development.

Edith Keating: Aerial Photography’s First Woman Pioneer

In 1925, Edith Keating was hired to type memos at Fairchild Aerial Surveys in New York City. It was a standard administrative role, but Keating proved to be a distracted

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

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,

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