This collection of aerial photographs - taken with skill and precision by Howdy McPhail as he leaned out the window of a small aircraft - captures a moment in the life of the Canadian prairies. The images are primarily black and white and date to the 1950's and early 1960's. They include towns, cities, and individual farms identified by name of the town or the farmstead owner, and, frequently but not always, by township and range. These images were digitized from an extensive series of negatives and prints donated to the University Archives and Special Collections by Hugh McPhail, son of Howdy. We gratefully acknowledge a generous donation from the McPhail family which made this digitization project possible.
This project was created in 2019 in partnership with the Digital Research Centre.