Domestic Aerial Photography in Record Group 289: Records of the Naval Intelligence Command in Special List 25
Aerial Photographs, 1942–1953
Record Group 289: Records of the Naval Intelligence Command includes a large series of rolled aerial film that largely covers World War II and the Korean War, but also includes some domestic photography. Domestic coverage includes Alaska, California, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Texas, Washington state and Washington, DC. These photographs are in the series Aerial Photographs, 1942–1953
Similar to other domestic aerial photography, coverage can be searched by state and county in Special List 25 Additionally, the Special List can be filtered to only show coverage in RG 289.
Once you have identified an area of interest that is covered by these photographs, you can search the finding aid for the series.
You can search the finding aid for coverage which will then provide the film can number and barcode. The cans in this series are "ON" (original negative) cans.
Cans with an “ON” identifier are original negatives which are stored at the Lenexa Federal Records Center. These cans can be ordered in the Cartographic Research Room and arrive within three business days. If you already have a researcher card, you can order ON cans ahead of your visit to our site. Some ON cans for this record group are onsite and these are noted in the can locator. Cans with a “DN” identifier can be ordered and viewed on-site.
Once you order the cans at our facility, you can view and copy them in the Cartographic Research Room. We have light tables which allow you to view the film and take photographs on a personal camera. We also have aerial film scanners available. If you have a USB capable laptop, you can bring it to our research room and scan the photographs to your computer. You can learn more about aerial film reproductions here.
If you have any questions about these photographs, you can email us at carto@nara.gov.