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Dallin Aerial Survey Company photographs

Creation: 1925-1941
 Collection
Accession: 1970-200
View selected items online in the Hagley Digital Archives.
View selected items online in the Hagley Digital Archives.

Abstract

The Dallin Aerial Surveys Company produced aerial photographs for newspapers, businesses, municipalities, and private individuals. The company was founded in 1924 by Colonel J. (John) Victor Dallin (1897-1991), a Royal Flying Corps-trained pilot who served in World War One. During WWI he became involved in aerial photography on a reconnaissance mission during the latter stages of the war. This collection consists of over 13,000 aerial photographs primarily of the Mid-Atlantic region taken between 1925 and 1941. The company made vertical and oblique aerial photographs of factories, private estates, schools, country clubs, towns, airports, rivers, and many other sites and some news events of the day. The subject with the largest number of views is the city of Philadelphia.

Dates

  • Creation: 1925-1941

Creator

Extent

144 Linear Feet

General Physical Description note

Approximately 13,654 glass negatives : b&w ; 8 x 10 in. or smaller. Approximately 23,000 photographic prints : b&w ; 16 x 20 in. or smaller. 1 album (34 photographic prints) ; some hand-colored ; 45 x 60 cm.

Historical note

The Dallin Aerial Surveys Company produced aerial photographs for newspapers, businesses, municipalities, and private individuals. The company was founded in 1924 by Colonel J. (John) Victor Dallin (1897-1991). Dallin was a Royal Flying Corps-trained pilot who served in World War One. During WWI he became involved in aerial photography on a reconnaissance mission during the latter stages of the war.

In 1919, he joined Bishop and Barker, a firm which did some aerial survey work. In the 1920s, he worked at the Philadelphia Aero Service Corporation which operated a flying school in South Philadelphia. He began working there as a pilot and worked his way up to executive. In 1924, he left to establish his own company and started Dallin Aerial Surveys as a single proprietorship.

During this period he produced not only oblique photographs of various sites for commercial purposes, but did a considerable amount of aerial photogrammerty (aerial mapping of a city, specifically the city of Philadelphia). In order to carry out his work, Dallin designed several specialized cameras and mounters. A camera used for film negatives in the 1930s had a thirty inch lens so that high vertical views could be made without flying excessively low over urban areas.

In 1938, Dallin was called to military service as part of the Pennsylvania National Guard. Dallin became the first manager of the Philadelphia Airport in April of 1940 and resigned in October that same year to become the chief of the city's Bureau of Aeronautics a post he held till 1953. The Dallin Aerial Surveys Company closed in 1941 reportedly because he rejoined the armed services for WWII.

Scope and Content

This collection consists of over 13,000 aerial photographs primarily of the Mid-Atlantic region taken between 1925 and 1941. The company made vertical and oblique aerial photographs of factories, private estates, schools, country clubs, towns, airports, rivers, and many other sites and some news events of the day. The subject with the largest number of views is the city of Philadelphia. A small amount of the Philadelphia-area images are of street level views, estates, and gardens.

States heavily photographed include Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Maryland. Other states listed in descending order of number of photographs in the collection are: Florida, Virginia, Georgia, Massachusetts, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Ohio, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Arizona, Illinois, Washington D.C., Connecticut, New Mexico, Indiana, and Oklahoma.

There are photographs of the company's work in Cuba in 1929. There is also an audio recording of an oral history interview with Dallin recorded in 1967, he explains many of the necessary technological adaptations required during these pioneering years of his practice of aerial photography.

There are a series of photographs from various mapping projects of the Philadelphia-area that took place between 1934 and 1938. These mapping projects were assigned a three or four digital number generally beginning with the letters "SP" or "G." The largest project centered around the Philadelphia Airport.

All of the negatives were given numbers by the Dallin Aerial Survey Company. These numbers have been retained and the collection is organized by these numbers which roughly corresponds to being in chronological order though not entirely.

Existence and Location of Copies

View selected images in Hagley Digital Archives.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

IMPORTANT: Glass plate negatives *DO NOT CIRCULATE* - only the photographic prints are available to researchers. There are not prints of every image.

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Separated Material

Aerial cameras owned and used by Dallin Aerial Surveys are in the collection of the Hagley Museum.

Related Names

Subject

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title:
Dallin Aerial Survey Company photographs
Author:
Laurie Sather
Date:
2016.
Description rules:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description:
English
Script of description:
Latin

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Audiovisual Collections Repository

Contact:
PO Box 3630
Wilmington Delaware 19807 USA
302-658-2400