For those of you who are interested in obtaining aerial survey photos of Iowa
towns/cities showing the railroad facilities, the University of Iowa Library
maintains a collection of over 100k photos. You can check their holdings at the
following website: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/maps/aerial.html. These aerial
surveys are from 1938, 1950, 1955, 1960, and 1966. Resolution of the photos
will vary from location to location. I recently requested copies of Red Oak,
Essex, Shenandoah, and Hamburg from the 1950 survey, and I'm quite pleased with
the result. You'll need a sharp eye and magnifying glass, but you can pick out
rail cars and buildings quite easily.
The U of I Library, unfortunately, doesn't have the staff to track down
individual photos from the archive, or do enlargements and photocopying, but
they did provide me with the name of a researcher who will do the necessary
research and related leg work. She charges $20/hour for her research time, plus
photocopying fees, which are reasonable. If you can identify the photo series
and locations you want from the website, you can narrow down the search, saving
her time and you money. For those of you who are interested in using this
service, please let me know and I'll pass her contact information to you.
Iowa State University also maintains a website where you can track down digital
topo maps and photos (also from the surveys, but there doesn't appear to be
anyway of identifying what year's aerial survey they were drawn). On-line
resolution is fair; if you want higher resolution, you have to order their CDs.
The website is http://ortho.gis.iastate.edu/doqqs.html.
Happy hunting.
Ken Currie
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