Hello Ken.

Long time no see.  I have put together several spreadsheets which tell the codes and locations for flights done by the Farm Service Agency and predecessors (AAA, PMA, CSS, ASCS), Forest Service, and the Soil Conservation Service.  In the FSA table, flights starting in 1972 typically use the FIPs code.  Older flights and special projects use the alpha code.  Forest Service flights are organized by FS region and Name.  The Project field lists the code. SCS codes were extracted from Special List 25 from NARA and includes a County/Area field, though sometimes the Filed Under field provides a better description.

I could pull a list of codes used by the USGS and several other U. S. government agencies, but linking that to locations would take considerably more time than I am willing to put in.  Instead, I would use EarthExplorer's Aerial Photo Single Frames layer and enter the project code into Additional Criteria rather than selecting a location for a search.

Good luck locating everything!

David

David Hodnefield
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From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Ken Rockwell
Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2024 1:10 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Guide to mission codes on aerial photo sets?

Hi:
The University of Utah's Marriott Library.  Our Special Collections has a large number of aerial photographs, with no information about the terrain covered.  The photos have the date and an identification number in top margin.

  *   Some were produced for federal agencies, and the "codes" consisted of letters, such as ALJ, COC-2A, CXN-2B, GS-VBLW,etc.
  *   Some have the stamp of "Jack Ammonn Photogrammetic Engineers" in San Antonio, TX, on the back,, and the "code" consists of a four digit number as wel as a photo number, for example 1229 52, from a project dated Sept.5, 1956.
  *   Others have the word "Restricted" and "B & HF" in the margin along with "BR1:20,000" or another scale statement.  BR may be Bureau of Reclamation, but what "B & HF" means is unknown.
There will surely be other kinds of ID codes.  I am hoping there is some sort of guide to various agencies and the codes they used for their flight missions or projects, so that from the date and project number I can know the geographic area represented in these photos.  Is such available?  It's the kind of thing that ought to be made easily findable, say, through WAML's map librarian toolbox.
Any ideas?
--Ken Rockwell
J. Willard Marriott Library
University of Utah