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