View of Boston, the oldest surviving aerial photograph ever taken. October 13th, 1860. [534 × 629]

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image showing View of Boston, the oldest surviving aerial photograph ever taken. October 13th, 1860. [534 × 629]

Sumit316 on November 15th, 2017 at 14:43 UTC »

The first flight of an untethered hot air balloon—humanity’s first really successful attempt at flight took place in 1783 when “Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes” flew over Paris. The first real photograph was taken in 1826 when Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took a picture out of his window. It took more than 30 years for someone to put these two inventions together to bring us the world’s first photo from the air. That photo, an 1858 aerial image of Paris, France, captured by Gaspard-Félix Tournachon is no longer with us.

Here is a comparsion of old and new with the church as a reference point- http://i.imgur.com/zyqrFtb.jpg

Here is the same place in google maps - https://www.google.com/maps/place/Orpheum+Theatre/@42.3561627,-71.0735955,997a,20y,88.59h,54.28t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x89e37083801eb6f9:0x97d9e42e08b0718e!2sOld+South+Meeting+House!3b1!8m2!3d42.3569911!4d-71.0583713!3m4!1s0x0:0x6575ac76b6bcc90f!8m2!3d42.3561932!4d-71.0608712

series_of_derps on November 15th, 2017 at 15:15 UTC »

This still looks more modern than half of the world right now.

schacks on November 15th, 2017 at 16:57 UTC »

Looks very european. Not at all like later day american cities.