N.S. Archives unveils collection of vintage aerials

Lauren Oostveen stands in front of an aerial image taken in the 1930s of Citadel Hill in Halifax at the Museum of Natural History on Thursday. (INGRID BULMER / Staff)

ON A SUMMER’s DAY in 1931, two people played tennis in Truro, unaware that a pilot was zeroing in on their location, his passenger snapping a picture from high above.

The plane flew on.

In Halifax, the photographer focused on RMS Olympic, berthed behind the Nova Scotian Hotel, and men standing on runways at the Chebucto Road airport.

And at Church Point, the camera turned to a car passing the winding stairs that lead to the front entrance of Universite Sainte-Anne.

“It’s just interesting to think of these people up in the air, literally hanging out of a plane, so dangerous, with a camera,” said Lauren Oostveen, spokeswoman for the Nova Scotia Archives, which on Thursday unveiled a group of aerial photographs taken more than 80 years ago.

“And maybe not understanding that decades from now we would be sitting here in front of our computers, being able to zoom in in detail on these places they captured.”

Nova Scotia from the Air: The Richard McCully Aerial Photograph Collection provides a glimpse back in time from the unique vantage point provided by an airplane.

The Nova Scotia Archives got the 221 black and white photographs that make up the collection in glass-plate negative format last year. Most were taken by Harold Reid, who was flown by former military pilot and ex-RCMP officer Marty Fraser.

The collection is named for McCully, a pilot with Canadian International Airways and a flight instructor who was a pioneer of commercial aviation photography, along with Reid, according to the archives.

McCully commissioned the photos, which were acquired from a private donor in the province.

“This is exceptional quality when you see these,” said Oostveen. “They are very crisp, very clear. You do see some cracks in some places, otherwise these are beautiful photographs.”

The photos show 39 communities from Amherst to Yarmouth.

“The fact that you can zoom in in great detail to some of these places is very cool,” she said. “I love the fact that you can go right into the photo and see people walking around.”

Oostveen said some of the pictures show things that don’t exist anymore, such as the old Halifax airport. A picture of Citadel Hill clearly shows how the city’s downtown looked long before Scotia Square was developed.

Buildings and dig sites are clearly visible in pictures of Oak Island in Mahone Bay. There are phtotographs of the Canadian Car and Foundry Co. in Amherst and Stanfield’s Ltd. and Eastern Hat and Cap in Truro. Other images show the experimental farms in Kentville and Nappan, the Yarmouth Cotton Mills and Dalhousie University.

“The great value of having aerial photographs is that this captures so much of these different communities from a vantage point that maybe we’re used to now from Google Maps and that sort of thing. But for the 1930s, this was a big deal.”

Oostveen said she’s hoping people will look at the pictures to try to find their own houses “and to tweet us or Facebook us if they do. That’s just fun.”