The Jack Ammann
organization was formed in the early 1930's and consistently
maintained a highly skilled staff of photogrammetrists during
its long existence. In 1954 the firm was incorporated in
the State of Texas as a public stock corporation.
By 1960 the organization
employed approximately 100 engineers, surveyors, pilots,
photographers, instrument operators, draftsmen, technicians,
and administrative personnel devoted to all phases of aerial
photography, photogrammetry and related fields of engineering
and exploration services. The firm also engaged in a
significant amount of research and development both under
contract and for the direct purpose of developing superior
methods and techniques for the benefit of its clients.
The home office and major
facility of the organization was maintained in a three-storey
building containing approximately 40,000 square feet of floor
space. The complete facility of Jack Ammann, Inc., was
acquired at an investment in excess of $1,000,000 in the
1950s. A fleet of photographic aircraft was kept in
operation, capable of accomplishing all types of aerial
photography from altitudes of a few hundred feet to over
30,000 feet. A varied selection of camera types,
including the most modern versions of foreign and domestic
manufactured at the time, were maintained for immediate
operation. Camera types ranged from extremely long focal
lengths with motion compensating systems to five inch focal
lengths for specialized uses. Of significant interest
was the exclusive aerial color photographic system developed
by the Ammann research and development group. This
system provided the capability for aerial color photography at
varying altitudes and conditions.
In addition to the home office
facility, complete with laboratory equipment capable of
accomplishing any type of production or reproduction required
by the photographic or mapping operations of the day, there
was a complete mobile laboratory for black and white or color
aerial photographic processing and supplementary mobile
equipment primarily used for foreign projects. The
stereoscopic instrument department contained two first order
universal instruments, sixteen second order plotters and
complimentary instruments providing the widest range of
operating characteristics possible. Electronic
digitizing devices of the time were utilized to the fullest
extent in producing digital information directly from the
stereo instruments without intermediate transcriptions.
The output devices were able to be programmed to produce IBM
card printed listings or punched paper tape.
National Aerial Resources acquired this collection in 1992
from Intrasearch, Inc., the company that purchased the assets
of Jack Ammann PE.
The TVGA Collection
Company
History
Tallamy VanKuran Gertis & Associates, now known as TVGA
Consultants, have been in business since the 1920's. Based in
New York, the company has evolved into a consulting firm with 4
branches providing surv
eying,
environmental solutions, photogrammetry / aerial mapping,
engineering, planning,
and
architectural services to the public and private
sectors throughout New York State and across the United States.
To facilitate servicing their clients' historical perspective
needs, over the years TVGA added aerial film collections from
Rist-Frost Associates, and All-States Aerial Surveys to their
own.
By the late 1990's, changes in their business focus made a
large, historical photography collection unnecessary and they
transferred the oldest portions of their collection to National
Aerial Resources.
The Sanborn Mapping
Collection
Company
History
The
Sanborn Mapping Company has been in existence since 1866.
They started out producing detailed city maps for fire
insurance purposes. These maps came to represent over 12,000
communities across the United States and their digital
descendants are still being updated today. The Sanborn
Mapping Company has always adapted to the changing face of
the map making industry and added aerial photography and
photogrammetry to it's procedures early in the history those
fields. In 1990's they became a subsidiary of EDR, Inc. and
has since become the a large company with offices across the
USA.
It was during National Aerial Resources' former
association with EDR, Inc. that portions to Sanborn's film
collection was turned over to our possession.
The Rist-Frost
Collection
Company
History
Rist-Frost Associates was a company with a long and interesting
history. In the early 1950's, the company was based in
Watertown, NY as an architect-engineering firm. Back then it was
known as Sargent-Webster-Crenshaw-Folley. Around this time it
got into the photogrammetry business and started taking aerial
photography to use in it's aerial mapping. Through the years the
company grew, opened other offices in New York State, and took
on new partners, changing it's name from time to time to reflect
this. In addition to Sargent-Webster-Crenshaw-Folley, it
has been known as Lewis-Dickerson Associates; Dickerson,
Czerwinski & Warneck; and Rist-Frost, Warneck and Partners,
before shortening the name to Rist-Frost Associates.
The company closed it's aerial mapping division in the early
1980's and transferred all it's film to TVGA. NAR acquired the
Rist-Frost film as part of the TVGA Collection.
The All-States Aerial
Surveys' Collection
Company
History
Very little about this collection's history is currently
known to us. National Aerial Resources acquired this collection
as part of the TVGA collection. Most of this photography covers
Pennsylvania where the company was apparently based.
Unfortunately, not much of the collection came with indexes. But
all the locations were carefully cataloged. In our on-going
indexing / researching of this collection we've also come across
indications that either the company had previously been known as
Lanse Aerial Surveys, or that All-States Aerial Surveys had
acquired their collection prior to giving it to TVGA.
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