-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Aerial photographs of Assam India region
Date:   Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:15:17 -0400
From:   Timothy Utter <[log in to unmask]>
To:     [log in to unmask]



Hello,
*
*
One of my colleagues here at the Univ. of Michigan is trying to track
down some aerial photos a part of India. Please see the message below
and contact Lori  directly if you are able - Lori Tschirhart  email -
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>


I am a librarian at the University of Michigan, making inquiries on
behalf of a faculty researcher in our Department of Earth and
Environmental Sciences.

I am attempting to help facilitate access to very difficult-to-find
aerial photographs for a faculty member.
Marin Clark in the Department of Earth & Environmental Science is
looking for aerial photos of a region near Assam, India.  (latitude
27.5 -29.5 deg N longitude 94 - 97.5 deg E mountainous region only.
Assam valley not needed – I have attached a map labeled Assam_Map.pdf
that shows the area needed).  She is looking for images taken right
before and immediately after an earthquake that happened in 1950.

She needs good cover spatially of the earthquake region, so is
interested in uncovering images from all sources.  (She is willing to
travel, but would accept duplicate copies of negatives or high
resolution scans, also).

Dr. Clark needs images from before and after August 15th, 1950 (as
close as possible to either side of this date).

We think that the images might have been taken under a few different
jurisdictions:

Great Britain: see
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/aboutus/international/collection/index.html
(above document says that aerial photos were taken during the British
Ordnance Survey over 53 years starting in 1946 – but that records were
passed to the National Archives in 2002 , the collection has been
renamed and dispersed to a number of custodians.

Here is a list of locations for various materials previously held in
the Ordnance Survey International Collection:
Material        Countries       Location
Airphoto prints British Antarctic Territory     British Antarctic
Survey, Cambridge
         All other       British Empire and Commonwealth Museum
Airphoto prints (second set)    All     Oxford University
Airphoto films  All     Mainly 'owning' governments
Air photo mosaics, laydowns,    All     British Empire and Commonwealth
Museum
Arial photography technical records, film reports, negatives etc        From
RAF & RN photography    RAF
         British Antarctic Territory     British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge
         From contracts with national mapping agencies   The national
mapping
agencies concerned

Oxford University: The Bodleian Library of commonwealth and African
Studies Library at Rhodes House holds a part copy of the Ordnance
Survey International Collection of aerial photography, but I've
confirmed that they do not have the images that we need.

India – the attached Survey_India_Maps.pdf document details the
availability of aerial photographs and “indenting procedures”
available for educational purposes.  It looks as though the years of
photography for this survey span from 1976-1989, but Marin has
expressed an interest in these images, so perhaps the survey includes
content from a greater range than is listed on this document.  To
date, I have been unable to visit http://www.surveyofindia.gov.in/ (I
keep getting an error message from my browsers)

United States –Per the following National Archives page,
http://www.archives.gov/publications/general-info-leaflets/26-cartographic.html#aerial1,

The federal government became significantly involved in the systematic
acquisition of aerial photography in the 1930's and World War II
brought a rapid acceleration in the use of aerial photography of
foreign areas for both military operations and mapping purposes. The
Section holds World War II aerial images covering parts of the
European, Mediterranean, and Pacific Theaters of Operation, taken by
units of the U.S. and Allied Air Forces. Included are both vertical
mapping photography and oblique reconnaissance photography. The
Section also holds aerial photographs taken by the Germany military.
Coverages are widespread--Europe (from the British Isles to the Ural
Mountains), the Middle East, and North Africa are included in this
collection. A smaller collection taken by the Japanese military
between about 1933 and 1945, consists of aerial photography of parts
of China, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands.

Japan – The information on the National Archives page cited above
indicates that the Japanese military collected aerial photography from
1933-1945. If you have any guesses as to whether Japan collected any
further imagery that might not be held in the National Archives,
please let me know.


If you or if you know someone willing to help her access the
photographs, I would be very grateful if you could pass along this
request.


The attached files were provided by Marin, and are maps of the region
of study, and a document by the survey of India listing available
imagery for educational purposes.

Could you please advise?

Thank you,
Lori




--
Tim Utter
Map Librarian, Clark Library
Hatcher Graduate Library
University of Michigan
913 S. University Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1190
phone (734) 647-0646 <tel:%28734%29%20647-0646>