The best first search for USGS-held historic aerial photography is USGS EarthExplorer. It can search exact single frames, show browse images and footprints, and offer available downloads. Coverage, dates, scan quality, and download options vary by location.

EarthExplorer will not contain every very old West Virginia photograph. For 1930s and 1940s gaps, state collections, university archives, and the National Archives remain important.

Create the Free USGS Account

1. Open the EROS Registration System. 2. Create the free account and complete the requested verification. 3. Sign in at EarthExplorer. 4. Use the map or coordinates to identify the project area. 5. Under Data Sets, choose Aerial Imagery and then Aerial Photo Single Frames when that collection is available for the search.

The free account provides access to EarthExplorer's full search and download functions. Many digital products are free, but a particular frame may be unavailable digitally or may require a paid on-demand scan.

Create the Free M2M Application Token

GILES POINT SOFTWARE's developing historic-aerial workflow uses the same USGS Machine-to-Machine service that supports EarthExplorer searches. It needs the customer's EROS username and a free M2M application token.

1. Sign in at the EROS Registration System. 2. Open your profile and choose Application Tokens. 3. Choose Create Application Token. 4. Give it a recognizable name, such as GILES POINT SOFTWARE GIS. 5. Choose an expiration date or leave it without an expiration date. 6. Limit the token to the M2M API scope when that is the only service it will use. 7. Generate the token and copy it immediately. USGS states that the value disappears after 60 seconds and cannot be recovered. If it is missed, revoke it and create another. 8. Enter the EROS username and application token only in the protected credential setup supplied with the software.

The application token is not a permanent API session key. The software sends the username and token to the USGS login-token service, receives a temporary API key for the active request session, and logs out when the work is finished. See the official USGS M2M application-token documentation and M2M service page.

Protect the application token like a password. Do not email it to GILES POINT SOFTWARE or include it in a drawing, project packet, screenshot, or support message. Revoke it through the EROS profile if it may have been exposed.

How the GILES POINT SOFTWARE Workflow Helps

The current development build works from the surveyor's assigned drawing coordinate reference system and active drawing view:

1. The surveyor zooms to the project area. 2. The software converts the active view to a WGS84 search envelope and queries the USGS Aerial Photo Single Frames collection. 3. The selector lists the exact overlapping records with their frame identity, date, scale, center, footprint, availability, project, roll, and exposure number when USGS supplies them. 4. The user can inspect a footprint, attach a lower-resolution browse image, request an available high-resolution product, or move among the returned frames. 5. When an exact consecutive exposure from the same USGS project, film roll, and acquisition date is available, increasing exposure numbers establish the local approximate aircraft flight direction. Missing, nonconsecutive, duplicated, or conflicting metadata produces no direction instead of a guess. 6. Every drawn footprint is labeled with the exact image identity, project, roll, exposure, and date. A direction arrow is added when the consecutive-frame evidence supports it. 7. The USGS-supplied footprint is transformed into the user's drawing CRS for the image's initial approximate location. Flight direction also resolves the initial 180-degree image-orientation ambiguity when the needed metadata exists. 8. A separately obtained, properly licensed supported image can also be imported through the historic-aerial workflow.

This provides easier access to old aerial evidence from inside the drawing. It does not mean GILES POINT SOFTWARE hosts, resells, scrapes, or guarantees third-party imagery.

Why Surveyor Adjustment Is Still Needed

Old single-frame film scans are generally not orthorectified. Transforming the USGS footprint into the drawing CRS places the image in the location and orientation described by the source metadata, but it does not remove camera tilt, terrain relief displacement, lens effects, scan distortion, or imperfect source footprints.

The surveyor can apply a one-point shift, numeric offset, or two-point shift-and-rotation correction to the exact selected frame. That correction remains approximate and local. It is most defensible among stable features at similar ground elevations; as elevation changes across a project, relief displacement changes too, so the image must be checked and adjusted for the part of the site being reviewed.

The imagery is supporting evidence for old roads, structures, field edges, drainage patterns, and land-use change. It is not survey control and cannot alter or validate a deed or surveyed boundary.

GILES POINT SOFTWARE is working toward more accurate multi-frame and elevation-aware correction tools. Until those upgrades are proven, the current workflow keeps the USGS initial placement and the surveyor's local correction visibly approximate.

Fastest Paid Options

Historic Aerials / NETR

Historic Aerials is often the first paid source to check because it can sell GeoTIFF downloads where coverage is available. A GeoTIFF is generally the most useful format for CAD/GIS work because it includes location information.

See the vendor's pricing page.

ERIS Historical Aerials

ERIS provides historical aerial sets for a selected area. Delivery options can include PDF, JPEG, or GeoTIFF.

LightBox EDR is another paid historical aerial source, especially for due-diligence and environmental research. Confirm GeoTIFF availability and usage terms before planning to use it in a CAD/GIS viewer.

Best Archive Starting Points

WVGISTC Historical Photos

WVGISTC historical-photo discovery files include catalog documents, coverage shapefiles, and some county index images.

Index images help identify possible photos. They are not the same as analysis-ready aerial imagery.

West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey

WVGES aerial-photo services describe state holdings that include West Virginia photography from the late 1930s. Paper prints and digital scans may be requested. See the WVGES product and service descriptions.

WVU West Virginia and Regional History Center

The WVU collection West Virginia Aerial Photography Maps, A&M 2093 lists aerial photography dated 1937-1959. Ask WVU about access, reproduction, and permission terms.

National Archives

National Archives domestic aerial-photography guidance is the main federal archive path for many older photographs, especially pre-1955 USDA/Farm Service Agency material.

Useful collections include:

NARA Cartographic Branch email: carto@nara.gov

What to Ask an Archive or Vendor For

Include:

  • State and county
  • Nearest town, road, stream, parcel, or landmark
  • Latitude/longitude or a small area-of-interest map
  • Requested years, such as pre-1950 or 1930s/1940s preferred
  • Known USGS project, roll, frame, or exposure identity
  • GeoTIFF if available, or a high-resolution TIFF scan
  • License, reproduction, and viewer-use terms

Suggested request:

```text Hello,

I am looking for historic aerial photography for the following West Virginia area:

County: Nearest town/landmark: Coordinates or parcel/AOI description: Target years: pre-1950 preferred, especially 1930s/1940s if available Known project/roll/frame information: Requested format: GeoTIFF if available, or a high-resolution TIFF scan

Please let me know whether coverage exists, the cost, reproduction/use terms, and the expected delivery process. ```

Bottom Line

Start with a free EarthExplorer account and M2M application token. The developing GILES POINT SOFTWARE workflow makes it easier to search the active drawing area, identify exact overlapping frames, determine supported local flight direction, label footprints, and place source footprints in the drawing CRS.

For missing or especially old coverage, use WVGISTC, WVGES, WVU, NARA, or a paid vendor. Treat every old film scan as approximate supporting evidence, preserve its exact source identity, and expect surveyor-reviewed local adjustment—especially where ground elevation changes.