The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Interactive map highlights Courier Country’s growth
Collection compares pictures taken in the ’40s and present day
A fascinating interactive map of parts of Dundee and Fife shows how the area has changed over the last 75 years.
Aerial photography of the city and towns and villages across Courier Country, from the 1940s and the present day, can be compared using the National Library of Scotland’s digital Spyglass viewer.
It shows massive development in parts of Dundee and Fife as well as other interesting changes to landform.
Using the Spyglass, people can instantly shift between modern-day pictures from the air of the place where they live, and black and white images of how it looked taken between 1944 and 1950.
The Ordnance Survey air photo mosaics resource was highlighted by the library’s maps room to mark World Photo Day.
In Dundee, the photographs show how the city has expanded to the west.
A whole town has appeared in central Fife since the first photographs were shot from above.
Huge swathes of farmland can be seen in the post-war snaps, which became Scotland’s second new town of Glenrothes, founded in 1948.
The mosaics provide information on the landscape of post-war Scotland, including details of urban topography and land-use. They complement paper mapping and represent the first widespread use of aerial survey methods by Ordnance Survey.
The 1940s photographs were taken from Spitfires and Mosquitos modified to take two cameras under each wing.
The library’s collection of photographic maps can be viewed at maps.nls.uk