Your story belongs on rural America’s quilt
Photographs are, to me, one of the best things to discover in family history research, and I have received a few emails lately alerting me to a new source; Vintage Aerial. This company has been collecting and preserving aerial photographs taken all over (no pun intended) the United States and currently they have over 25 million photographs in their collection.
The aim of the company is to make these photographs available online so that people can identify them and add their own personal histories and stories to these pieces of rural America’s past (and of course to sell copies). In their own words: “By connecting yesterday’s memories with photographs from our collection, Vintage Aerial allows you to introduce your great-grandchildren to your grandparents through a photo of the home or farm they worked so hard for. Each photograph in our collection has the power to evoke memories — from you, your parents or your grandparents. The memories stirred up by the photo both deepen its meaning to you and help define the community where they occurred. Your story is unique and personal to you. But the larger story of rural America is a quilt of individual memories and family stories.
“Our collection of vintage photographs documents the historical patchwork of small farms and rural communities. By sharing your story with Vintage Aerial, you stitch your family’s history into the colorful quilt of our shared American heritage. Collecting those stories is an important part of what brings us together at Vintage Aerial.”
A quick check of the website revealed they already had nine photos of the little town of Sangerville indexed and identified, and family stories attached to several of them. In addition to the thousands of rural homes already identified, they have also posted hundreds of thousands of digitized images which can be browsed by county and year. They continue to add to the accessible collection, and even better, if you can’t find a photo of the area you are researching, you can post an inquiry and their librarians will search the archives and come up with some possible candidates. They will set up an appointment for you to review them with them online.
Of course, the end goal is for you to purchase a high quality mounted photograph which is specially created to be impervious to fading and can be mounted safely without glass or a frame. However, they are genuinely devoted to the cause of historical preservation of these treasures, and you do not have to purchase any of the photos they search for you and they hope that you will still add your personal story to the ever enlarging “quilt” of rural America which they are creating.
What a wonderful way to contribute to the story of America, and how wonderful to be able to use them to bring the past alive for your children and grandchildren. The web address is www.vintageaerial.com.
Columnist Nina Brawn of Dover-Foxcroft is a longtime genealogy researcher, speaker and teacher. Reader emails are welcome at ninabrawn@gmail.com. Her semimonthly column is sponsored by the Aroostook County Genealogical Society which meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at Cary Medical Center’s Chan Education Center at 6:30 p.m. Guests are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501.
