The company is a small 8-person crew with widely varying backgrounds who share a passion for preserving the heritage of rural America – its images, stores and legacies. Vintage Aerial focuses on historical aerials of rural communities and small farms. United States Geological Service (USGS): This average homeowner struggled with finding historical aerial photos on their EarthExplorer program.Aerial Photography Field Office (APFO): This division within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is home to one of the country’s largest aerial film libraries, but I couldn’t find a way to actually pull up aerials.WayBackLiving: The detail on the aerials are amazing, but the database only goes back to 2014.

Second, while there are many other great aerial photo websites online, I didn’t include all of them for various reasons. So if you happen to be from a different country, this is not the post for you (sorry!). Before we dive in, I want to point out the following.įirst, these resources are focused on aerial photographs of the United States. If interested in exploring ways to find traditional old photos of your house, check out 12 Free Places to Find Old Photos of Your Home.ġ2 Free Ways to Find Old Photos of Your Home 4 Places to Find Historical Aerial Photos of Your Homeīelow are 4 online resources that I personally found to be the best places to find historical aerial photos of your home. Or potentially other structures that have since been demolished, like sheds, barns (and even outhouses). Aerial photos can show your original footprint of your home before additions and renovations. They capture building footprints, rooflines, and vegetation. But these “birds-eye” photos can still be incredibly useful to uncovering your home’s history. Since they are shot from a distance, they usually don’t give as much detail as those taken from the ground. This provides a clear visual story of how your street, neighborhood, and town was developed over the years. Historic aerial photos usually include several acres of land in each photo.

Historic aerials are slightly different than old photographs in that they are taken from overhead. Aerial of Boston, MA, 1860, Courtesy of Boston Public Library & CBS newsįor more info, check out these interesting articles on the history of aerial photography by the Professional Aerial Photographers Association ( PAPA) and Time Magazine.

Satellite view of my house