Penn Pilot Frequently Asked Questions
General
- What is Penn Pilot? Show/Hide Answer
Penn Pilot is an online library of digital historical aerial photography
for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Using the interactive map
provided on this website, you can browse, view, and download more than
40,000 photos covering the Commonwealth from 1937 to 1942.
- What coverage is currently available? Show/Hide Answer
See the state status map for
specific counties available.
Counties that are not shaded (and that are not labeled with their name)
are not currently available. No photos will be available for
Philadelphia County.
- What is the source of the photos? Show/Hide Answer
The photos were produced by the United States Department of
Agriculture, Agricultural Adjustment Administration (now known as the
Farm Service Agency).
- What are the characteristics of the original photographs? Show/Hide Answer
The original photos are black-and-white 9” x 9” and 9” x 7” prints with
a scale of 1:20,000. The vegetation condition when flown was “leaf-on.”
How to Use This Site
- How do I get full functionality from the site? Show/Hide Answer
You need to have JavaScript enabled.
In the Mozilla browser, go to Tools | Options | Web Features and make certain the Enable JavaScript checkbox
is checked.
In the Internet Explorer browser, go to Tools | Internet Options | Security tab | Custom Level button | scroll to the Scripting section | under Active Scripting, click the Enable radio button.
- How do I find, view, or download a photo? Show/Hide Answer
- Click within a county boundary on the map, or select a county from the
drop-down list on the left side of the page. Note that the
counties without names on them are currently unavailable.
- Click within a city, borough, or township boundary on the map, or select one
from the drop-down list on the left.
- Click anywhere on the locator map. A
new map will appear with modern (circa 1990) aerial images as the
background.
Points representing the
approximate centers of the historical photos will be displayed
- Use the pan, zoom-in, and zoom-out tools
to browse the map.
- Click the Display Historical Photo button, then click a photo center point on
the map to display a preview of the historical photo.
- To save the photo to your download list, click the Add to My Photos
button.
- When you are ready to download the photos in your list, click the
View My Photos button.
- To download a photo, right-mouse click the desired Image Quality (Low, Medium or High)
link and select Save Target As (in Internet Explorer) or Save Link
As (in Mozilla), then follow your browser’s prompts.
- How do I get back to the state or county maps? Show/Hide Answer
To go back to the state status map, click on the State View button above
the Selected county drop-down list on the left side of the page.
Similarly, to go back to the map of the county you have selected, click the Selected County View button.
- Can I select multiple photo center points on the map
at once? Show/Hide Answer
No, not at this time. You must select the points and add the
photos to your list individually. We are looking into supporting
multiple selections in the future.
- Can I download all the photos in my list at once? Show/Hide Answer
No, not at this time. We are currently looking into more
efficient ways to download the files.
- What is the difference between a low, medium
and high resolution photo? Show/Hide Answer
Version
|
Pixels Per Inch (ppi)
|
Approx. Size (MB)
|
Comments
|
low
|
200
|
0.7
|
fastest download
|
medium
|
400
|
2
|
suitable for most uses
|
high
|
800
|
7.5
|
original scan resolution
|
- How do I submit a comment or question regarding
this site? Show/Hide Answer
Click the Contact button in the page banner or click the following link
- Can I remove the yellow roads layer?
Show/Hide Answer
Currently we do not allow the user to turn the roads layer on/off. We wanted to keep the interface controls as simple as possible (designed for non-GIS users).
We may consider changing this in future versions of the site.
Troubleshooting
- Why can’t I zoom in or out more? Show/Hide Answer
There are limits on the zoom tools to enhance the usability and performance of the maps.
- Why aren’t all of the roads labeled? Show/Hide Answer
First, road labeling is not activated until you have zoomed in to a
smaller area of the map. Secondly, in regions with dense road
networks, not all labels are displayed in order to make the map easier
to read. Thirdly, some roads in our data do not have names.
- Why do I get the message msQueryByPoint( ): Search returned no results. No matching records found.? Show/Hide Answer
You did not click on a photo center (represented by the gold dots). You must click the Display Historical Photo button,
and then click on one of the gold dots representing the photo centers. This will open up a separate browser window, displaying a preview of the photo you selected.
Information for GIS Users
- Are the photo images georeferenced? Show/Hide Answer
No, the images are neither orthorectified, nor georeferenced. To
enable browsing of the collection via a map, the approximate locations
of photos were established by georeferencing associated county index
sheets and digitizing point locations for each photo from the sheets.
- Can I order a DVD of all the data for my county? Show/Hide Answer
We are unable to handle special orders. At this time, all data
are provided through the Penn Pilot website.
- Will you be making the GIS data available? Show/Hide Answer
At this time, the georeferenced county index sheets and photo center
point datasets are not available for distribution.
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