Penn Pilot offers showcase aerial photography of Pennsylvania’s landscape from the 1930’s to the 80’s. This tool was started by the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, according to Maurie Kelly, Director of Informatics with the Institutes of Energy and the Environment at Penn State University.

“They are part of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and they had thousands and thousands of paper photographs that were in file cabinets, essentially. And they approached Penn State about scanning those and then putting them online for people to access. So now people have limited access to the paper photographs, but now anyone can access the digital photographs, said Kelly.

The photos come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service. A lot of the photography was originally done for agricultural reasons, now the data is utilized for planning and development, solving cold cases, and more. According to Maurie, the site is used 15 million times a year.

“These people who originally took those photographs in the 30s and 40s had no idea how meaningful and how useful this data was going to be almost 100 years later, “said Kelly.

Scott Hoffman, Retired USGS Scientist and Geographer who also worked on imagery to investigate real world problems for USGS- funded problems in Pennsylvania, shares about the equipment used to capture NHP images.

“A lot of the cameras used were the best at the time. I'm thinking it's a memory for me, but I think it's a Zeiss camera was one of the best cameras in the world at that time. And they were able to collect really detailed imagery far better than anyone could have imagined. The aircraft varied from high altitude jets to turboprop aircraft, but just using the best of what was available at the time within the budgetary constraints, “said Hoffman.

Some of the photos on Penn Pilot came from a project called the National Altitude Photography Project.

“That project was really designed to, I think, for lack of a better way, really try to coordinate something nationally and be used in conjunction with what Maury just described with the agricultural program. And just take it maybe a little further, perhaps give a little bit more detail, create a system where the photograph overlaps in a certain percentage, 30%, let's say for each photograph, there's duplication along the flight path. But it was really a nice step to combine with what the agricultural program was doing, “said Hoffman.

Towards the end of the interview, Scott shared the impact of Penn Pilot, and the importance of preserving those photographs.

“Working with one of the if not the leading mapping agency in the world. But that resource is so, so valuable that it's just so important that we keep it. And as Mari said, you know, funding is everything. And this is a valuable resource that, you know, if there's a legislator that's listening to maybe take a really good look at this and say, hey, look, this is something that we really need to keep going and preserve. “I just think it's so important, “said Hoffman.

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