Aerial Photography Collection

Holiday Closure

Holiday Closure

The service will be closed December 23 - 27, and on January 1. We will not accept rush orders until after 
January 1.

Photograph of downtown Portland, Oregon from the air

Make an Appointment or Digitization Request

The University of Oregon Libraries' Aerial Photography Collection has 1,000,000 unique images, primarily paper prints but also original film and digital photographs, and is one of the most extensive covering Oregon. Our earliest images are from 1929, but the majority of the photographs were taken in the 1930s up to the 2000s. 

All are welcome to use our collection. However, arrangements to view photographs must be made ahead of time. Please use the Aerial Photography Research Service Request form to request an appointment to view photographs in Knight Library. You can also use the form to request digital files of the images. We charge non-University of Oregon researchers a Research Fee to recover costs of identifying, retrieving, and scanning photographs from our collection.

For more information about the collection and visiting the Knight Library, please see our FAQ.

Unique Collections

Map of Oregon with darkened areas where photograph exist in the Aerial Photography collection
1930s Coverage
In the 1930s, the US Army flew the Willamette Valley and Coastal areas. This is some of the earliest available aerial photography of these areas.
Map of Oregon with darkened areas where photograph exist in the Aerial Photography collection
1940s Coverage
In 1944 and 1945 the US Army flew the Willamette Valley and major rivers. This was the beginning of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers aerial river surveys.

 

Brubaker Aerial 
Surveys/Delano Aerial Surveys/Northern Light Studio
These three successive companies flew aerial photography of Oregon and Washington for around 80 years. Prints in our collection date back to the 1940s. During the 1980s to the early 2000s, the company flew detailed aerial photography of the Portland area every couple of years. We also have extensive oblique (photographed from an angle, that is "bird's-eye" view) photography of the Portland area.
Map of Oregon with darkened areas where photograph exist in the Aerial Photography collection
WAC Corp./Western Aerial Contractors
WAC Corp. and it's predecessor Western Aerial Contractors flew aerial photography out of Eugene, Oregon from the 1950s-2016. The Libraries own the prints and film for their Oregon and Washington flights. 

 

 
 

 

1996 Willamette 
River Flood
WAC Corp. flew first-day and successive coverage of the 1996 Willamette River flood. We also own photos flown by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Between these two collections we have good documentation of the extent and duration of flooding during this major event.

Access

The collection is not available on a walk-in basis. In person viewing of actual prints may be done by appointment. Patrons must submit an Aerial Photography Research Request to view prints or obtain scans. We will make an appointment with you when the photographs have been retrieved for viewing. Applicable Research Fees will be charged. 

Important:

  • Handling of the photographs will be done under the supervision of Library staff.
  • Due to concerns about the fragility/irreplaceablity of the images, patrons are not allowed to scan, copy, or take flash photography of the images.
  • In accordance with our published Research Fees, patrons not affiliated with the University of Oregon or patrons involved in research for commercial purposes will be required to pay a fee to compensate for staff time spent locating and retrieving items from the collection.
  • Patrons may request digital scans of some or all of an aerial photograph. They will be charged for scans in accordance with the published Research Fees.

Limitations on Use

If you plan to publish, display, or distribute images of our materials, you must receive permission and you will be assessed a use fee. If you are charged a use fee, you will also receive an explicit statement of the permissible uses. Please use the Aerial Photography Research Service's Permissions Request Form or contact the Cartographic and Government Information Librarian to negotiate a publication license for our imagery. 

Any additional or altered use requires a new negotiation of the rights and the use fee. Use fees are our source of income for preserving and providing access to our collections. For more information about permission requests and allowable uses, see Special Collections' guidelines for Image and Permission Requests. Items used must be attributed in a caption, citation, or other appropriate method. Guidelines for attribution will be provided in the statement of permissible uses.

You may store your digitized images indefinitely, derive new data from them, and give the photographs to your clients. Copies of the photos may be included in environmental site assessment reports and other research products paid for by your client. We do not consider this to be "publishing" the photos.

Copyright

Images in the Aerial Photography Collection are subject to copyright laws. If an individual or entity intends to use copyrighted material in excess of fair use as determined by U.S. copyright law (title 17, United States Code), it is incumbent upon the researcher(s) to seek permission from the copyright holder(s) prior to use. Failure to do so may constitute copyright infringement.

University of Oregon Libraries Aerial Photography Collection includes materials in the following broad copyright categories:

  1. Items in the public domain.
  2. Items for which the copyright is owned by the University of Oregon. Contact Aerial Photography Research Service staff for permission to use.
  3. Items for which the copyright holder is an entity other than the University of Oregon. It is the responsibility of the user to determine copyright status and seek permission from the rights owner(s) where appropriate.

While the digital images provided are yours to keep, the University maintains copyright over the electronic versions and some of the source imagery.

Two photographs of Beaverton, Oregon in 1936 and 2000

Beaverton, Oregon in 1936 and 2000.

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