Hunting Aerial Photographs - Bodleian Library Oxford

Rhodes House Library, Oxford. Photo from Flickr user 'idlethink' http://www.flickr.com/photos/idlethink/387238200/.

While here in Oxford on Sabbatical, my attention was drawn to a huge collection of c. 1.5 million aerial photos held in Rhodes House. They were acquired about 8 years ago and ultimately came from British government agencies operating in many parts of the former British Empire. Most are vertical survey photos, prints and generally of a very high quality. They have been very generally catalogued and organised in some 8000 (sic) boxes. Most are of parts of Africa and East Asia but there is a sizeable minority of c. 50,000 covering parts of Yemen (including Aden), Oman and Saudi Arabia. A separate visit will be needed to the Map Room of the Bodleian Library to consult the maps on which the photo runs are plotted.

-DLK