Aerial Photography Florida

Historic aerial photographs (1930s to 1970s) for the entire state of Florida can be viewed on the Aerial Photography Florida website. Want to see what your neighborhood looked like from an airplane 50 years ago?

From the site's home page, click "search." You will see a map of the state. Use the "zoom+" button to zoom on the part of Florida that interests you. After you zoom in several times, you will see dots with years, which are the links to photos from that year of that place. If you zoom in more, you will see street names. You can use the "select" feature to draw a rectangle around the dots you want. Links to the photos will appear below the map. Click on the camera icon by the year you want, and a new window will open with that aerial photograph. You can zoom in closer by using the drop down menu, or by clicking on the photograph (which also recenters the image).

(If you know the Township and Range of where you are looking for, see the FAQ sections for how to target those images quickly.)

Old aerial photographs are used by ecologists, hydrologists, planners, geologists, and others. I use them primarily to look at changes in land use over time, or to see if a particular building really was there when other records say it was. If the picture is good enough, I may be able to tell the shape of a building, what kind of roof it had, or see where the driveway was.

These are old photographs, and technology has changed considerably, so don't expect the same quality image resolution you'll find on Google Maps. Nevertheless, these photographs are a tremendous record of Florida's development that might be useful to you in your work.