Aerial Photos

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Aerial Photos Overview

Aerial Photographs of the Hamilton Area

The aerial photograph collection consists of approximately 18,000 photos of the local Hamilton area in various sizes and formats dating from 1919 to the present. High resolution images (600 dpi, 24-bit tonal, .TIF format) of aerial photos no longer restricted by copyright (50 years or older) may be viewed online and freely downloaded for non-commercial purposes directly from our aerial photo index. They can also be viewed and downloaded from our digital archive as can photos of the McMaster University campus (1934-1989).

Digital photos of the Hamilton area (1999 to the present) as well as other locations in Ontario may be available through our GIS & Geospatial Data Services.

All other aerial photographs are available in paper, hard-copy format only and must be viewed in the Lloyd Reeds Map Collection, first floor, Mills Library between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday.

The City of Hamilton also has digital aerial photo overlays (1999 to the present) available as a feature of its imapper viewer on the map.hamilton.ca website.

Search our Index to Aerial Photographs

Recommended Aerial Photo Citation Style

Recommended Aerial Photo Citation Style

Author. Title, flight line and photo number(s). Scale. Place of publication: Publisher, Date of image collection (NOT the date of reproduction).

Example:

Airborne Sensing Corp. [Royal Botanical Gardens, 1997], Flight Line ASC97216, Photos 11 and 12. Scale 1:8,000. Hamilton, ON.: Royal Botanical Gardens and McMaster University, 1997.

Aerial Photo Request Form

Aerial Photo Request Form

Requests to view paper hardcopies of aerial photos must be made in person. Requests cannot be placed ahead of your arrival by phone, fax or e-mail,

Instructions:

  1. Print this PDF Request Form
  2. Fill in the form using the aerial photo index to determine the flight line and photo number(s) for each year of interest
  3. Present the completed form to Lloyd Reeds Map Collection (LRMC) staff upon your arrival and they will retrieve the photo(s) for your examination