Royal Danish Library Aerial Photography Collection ("An Aerial View of Denmark")

Overview

The Royal Danish Library's Aerial Photography Collection is one of the largest and most historically significant collections of aerial photographs in the world, comprising approximately 5.2 million aerial photo units documenting Denmark's landscapes, buildings, farms, and urban infrastructure. The digitised portion of the collection is made publicly available through the online platform An Aerial View of Denmark (Danish: Danmark set fra luften).

History and Background

The oldest preserved Danish aerial photographs were taken from a balloon over Copenhagen on 24 August 1890. Aerial photography became more systematic from the 1930s, when both oblique photographs of farms and houses and vertical mapping photographs became widespread. During World War II, private aerial photography was prohibited (1940–1945), leaving a gap filled only by British and German military imagery. The collection grew substantially in 1989 when the library acquired Sylvest Jensen's large collection of oblique photographs, covering the period 1936–1992. Digitisation of the collection began in 2012, and by 2019 more than 1.5 million images had been digitised. The project has made use of crowdsourcing, inviting volunteers to help geolocate images on an online map.

Collections and Holdings

The collection consists of both vertical photographs (taken perpendicular to the surface for mapping purposes) and oblique photographs (taken at an angle, typically of specific farms or urban sections). It incorporates the archives of several private aerial photography companies and public authorities active from the 1930s to 2010. Content spans the period from 1890 to approximately 2010, providing unparalleled documentation of changes in the Danish cultural landscape, architecture, urban development, and rural infrastructure across the 20th century.

Access and Usage

All digitised aerial photographs are freely available at kb.dk and through the An Aerial View of Denmark platform. Images may be freely used when crediting Royal Danish Library and the photographer. An API provides programmatic access to the geolocated dataset.