The North Carolina Geological Survey (NCGS) has an extensive collection of aerial photographs in the NCGS' Archdale office at 512 N. Salisbury Street, 5th Floor, Rm. 527 Raleigh, NC 27604-1148.
The collection is black and white aerial stereo pair photographs taken in the 1950's and early 1960's of many of North Carolina's counties. These are 9" x 9" prints, with a nominal scale of 1:20,000. Here is an example print from south-central Raleigh, showing the greater Lake Johnson area as it appeared on March 25, 1959. The catalog listing contains the county name and available year of aerial photography held in our collection. Counties with no data of this vintage (8 total) are denoted by "none available" in the data table.
Prospective users are requested to arrange an appointment with Mike Medina to use these materials.
Because of the collection's value, the aerial photographs are not available for loan outside the NCGS' Archdale office; however, these photographs can be digitally scanned in our office and obtained as pdf, jpeg or tif images on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM discs for a nominal charge. They can also be emailed as pdf's for no charge.
For further information on these aerial photograph catalogs, contact Mike Medina at michael.medina@ncdenr.gov, or by phone at: 919.707.9203.