  |
Hours | Ask a Librarian | Online Requests | Remote Logon | |
 |
Library Catalog | Databases | Site Map | Help | Search |
Aerial Indexes
It takes many aerial photographs to cover an entire county. Therefore, an index showing which specific spot in a county corresponds to which specific aerial, in a stack of 300 aerials, is needed to facilitate research. Aerial photo indexes were composed of a mosaic of aerial photos until around 1980. The example below is one sheet of five that cover the 1968 Alachua County aerial photos. Be advised that clicking on the image will bring up a much larger index sheet (approx 5.5 MB) that will take longer to view.
In the lower right-hand corner of the index sheet is an outline of the county, with the area that this specific sheet covers shaded in.
In the lower left-hand corner of the index sheet is information about the publisher, year, scale, index sheet number, etc....
A cutout of the University of Florida campus, and parts of Gainesville, are depicted below. I-75 is the major road running diagonally in the left side of the index. The numbers that are seen overlaying the image (2KK-91, 2KK-92, etc.) are the photo numbers. This is the number by which the aerials are filed in the Map Library. This number does not stay the same from year to year, even if the site is the same. The number is only valid for finding aerials on this specific index (1968), and Alachua County.
After 1980 there was a second format in which aerial indexes were produced. Paper indexes, similar to roadmaps, are used with flight lines drawn on them. The dark dots on the index have the photo numbers written in beneath them. Between the dots are tick-marks, as can clearly be seen crossing Newnan's Lake. These tic marks, and the dots, represent the center-points of individual aerial photographs. There are 4 tic-marks between each dot. Once you find two dots and determine which way the numbers are running, the numbers of the tic-marks can be extrapolated.
BACK
