Tucked away in Bunche A-145 are the UCLA Department of Geography Air Photo Archives, which house two of the most extensive oblique photograph collections of California.
The collection is composed of over 100,000 black-and-white aerial photographs that document the growth of cities across the world, focusing mainly on Southern California, from 1918-1964.
“The photo archive is probably the most thorough collection I have ever encountered. I know of no other collection with the breadth and detail of this collection,” said Chase Langford, cartographer for the geography department.
The archives are comprised of two collections. The main collection is provided by Spence Air Photos, which contains low-altitude photographs taken between 1918 and 1971. The Spence collection primarily covers Southern California areas, including Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange Counties, as well as limited coverage of other cities across California and neighboring states.
The secondary collection is provided by Fairchild Aerial Surveys, and contains images of Southern California as well as New York from 1927 to 1964.
“Combined, the two collections really create a unique time capsule of history,” Langford said. “Southern California, especially, has changed dramatically and the collection has captured this.”
Langford said aerial photos taken at an oblique angle instead of a vertical angle allow a viewer to see a scene with more detail. He said instead of taking a picture straight down from an airplane, oblique photographs provide views that encapsulate the entire landscape.
The collection contains historical photographs that include the Rose Bowl in 1928, Manhattan during the Great Depression, the St. Francis Dam a day after it collapsed in 1928 and UCLA in the 1920s.
Ramiro Lopez, a fourth-year geography student who helps organize the Air Photo Archives, has been scanning photographs of the Westwood area. He said he has been able to see UCLA as a whole develop over time.
“These photos contain the history of our communities,” Lopez said. “I’m just in awe when I look at these pictures and I’m able to see how everything has changed.”
Currently, the Air Photo Archives are housed within the geography department, but the department is working on incorporating it into the UCLA Library database.
Kasi McMurray, department manager for the geography department, said she believes once the photo archives are integrated into the UCLA Library database, they will become a much more accessible resource for the public as well as students.
“The archive is currently still a secret, so to speak. I’m really excited to be able to open up the archive to anyone in the world through the UCLA Library.”
Though there has been no formal proposal of the plan by the academic planning and budget departments, McMurray said she has been working with the UCLA Library to create an online database of the images, and she hopes there will be a pilot program by the end of the year and a complete index by spring of next year. McMurray said within five years, 90 percent of all 100,000 photographs will be available online.
Langford said even without the online database, the archives are readily used by people from a variety of different fields. He said environmentalists use the photographs to search for previous industrial uses of land, which could predict toxins in the ground. Historians use the photos to gather content on Los Angeles’s growth. Publishers incorporate the images into magazines and books.
McMurray said she believes the photo archive is particularly useful for geography and history students, as it provides a unique picture of the past that could be crucial for any research project.
“It is important to understand and see the past to help us predict the future,” McMurray said.
The archive is open by appointment only. Admission to students doing research for a class is free of charge. Admission for public viewing is $40 per hour. Call (310) 206-8188 for more information.