About the Collection
The 93 images in the Dallas Historic Aerial Photographs, 1930 Fairchild Survey digital collection represent a complete set of aerial images commissioned by the City of Dallas. The images were taken by Sherman Mills Fairchild in October 1930 flying out of Love Field.
These photographs are part of the Foscue Map Collection. SMU Libraries worked with regional historian George Cearley to identify essential features in the photos such as major roads, railways, and landmarks. In the digital collection, there are two versions of each image, labeled and unlabeled. Labeled images include George Cearley's annotations, which appear below the image. Each image contains a link to the corresponding labeled or unlabeled photograph.
SMU's Foscue Map Collection retains all but eight of the 93 images as well as a photo image of the master grid. The City of Dallas Municipal Archives retains copy negatives for most of these prints. At the time the digital collection was created, Dallas Archivist John Slate believed these copy negatives were produced in the late 1960s or early 1970s. They are not the original negatives from the 1930 aerial survey. While several libraries house some or all of the 1930 prints, no known set of the original negatives exists.
