Aerial Photography
Air Photo Collection
The Map Collection currently holds about 60,000 paper air photos, focusing primarily on London and Southern Ontario. Holdings include print photos dating from 1922 to 2001 and are filed primarily by county.
The Western Libraries Air Photo Collection App allows users to explore, preview, and download these photos. The app includes over 10,000 air photo listings, with 8,000+ scans and 900+ georeferenced photos. The app will be updated as new items are scanned, georeferenced, and added to the collection.
Explore the Air Photo Collection
Urban areas are very often found within the county coverage (ex. the town of Strathroy is included in Middlesex County). Specific urban places are also filed separately for quick reference, and are listed below. Air photos can be scanned at our scanning workstation at a resolution of your choice. Patrons should be aware of what can and cannot be copied by reviewing the Canadian Copyright Act. Copies of the Act and the agreement with the University are posted in the Map Collection. Please be aware that a 50 year copyright restriction applies.
We ask that once you are finished examining or scanning an air photo please DO NOT refile it. It should be left either on top of the air photo filing cabinets or in the return basket near the workstation.
Filed with each set is a detailed flight line index to help locate specific aerial photographs. If you experience difficulty in finding your area of interest, it may be helpful to examine an National Topographic Series (NTS) 1:50,000 map or an Ontario Base Map (OBM) 1:10,000 map to pinpoint the exact location. This can be compared to the flight line index to determine whether or not your area of interest is included in our coverage. The following lists indicate the extent of our coverage.
Access to current online imagery for Ontario is available to the Western community through the OCUL GeoPortal.
County Coverage by Time Period
Click on the year-range to see our coverage for that period. The extent of paper air photo coverage held by the Map Collection is indicated by means of shading.
- 1989 to 1990
- 1976 to 1978
- 1972 to 1973
- 1967 to 1971
- 1962 to 1966
- 1951 to 1956
- 1946 to 1950
- 1931 to 1945
Local County Coverage
| County | Year | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bruce | 2010 | 2006 | ||||
| Chatham-Kent | 2010 | 2006 | 2001 | |||
| Elgin | 2010 | |||||
| Essex | 2013 | 2010 | 2008 | 2006 | 2004 | 2000 |
| Grey | 2010 | 2006 | ||||
| Huron | 2010 | 2006 | ||||
| Lambton | 2010 | |||||
| Middlesex | 2010 | 2006 | 1999-2003 | |||
| Oxford | 2010 | 2006 | 2000 | |||
| Perth | 2010 | |||||
| Wellington | 2010 | 2006 | 2000 | |||
Ontario Urban Coverage
In addition to county coverage, the following urban places are filed separate from their respective county for quick reference.
City of London
The Western Libraries Air Photo Collection is an extensive collection of aerial imagery for the city of London and surrounding area, showing partial or full coverage dated sporadically from 1922 to 2001.
If you are looking for more current aerial photos, they can be viewed on the City of London's website via the City Map.
Other Digital Aerial Photograph Coverage
The following sets are available in digital format and are either available online or stored at the info desk on CD-ROMs.
In-Library Use Only
- Medway Creek - 1978
- University of Western Ontario Campus Oblique Aerials - 1927 to 1969
- Chatham-Kent Colour Infrared - 1994
- Pelee Island Colour Infrared - 1994
- Pelee Island - 1980, 1976, 1973, 1953, 1947
- Point Pelee National Park Colour Infrared - 1994
Online
- 1954 Southern Ontario Air Photos (U of T) - georeferenced
Aerial photography suppliers:
Satellite and Orthoimagery
Please visit the Geospatial Page for more details on these resources.
