IWM Collection: First World War Aerial Photographs

First World War Aerial Photographs 

This dataset provides reliable structured data on 5,000 aerial photographs in IWM's collections. Taken by official photographers on the Western Front in the First World War and curated by museum professionals, it is commercially safe for licensing as well as suitable for scholarly and AI applications.

IWM's aerial photograph collection includes more than 150,000 original glass plate negatives

Since the collection is the work of the air reconnaissance units of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force, the collection  predominantly covers British areas of operation on the Western Front in France and Belgium. A large quantity of photographs are available of the Ypres Salient and the Somme battlefields.

Approximately 9,000 aerial photographs have been digitised and can be viewed on IWM Collections Online.

Aerial photography was a vital form of reconnaissance in the First World War

It provided crucial intelligence for mapping enemy positions, directing artillery, and analysing trench systems. It is a remarkable primary record of the progress of the war, as well as being a unique record of the landscape at the beginning of the 20th century.

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A trusted resource

Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum founded in 1917 to record the story of the First World War and later expanded to include all military operations in which British or Commonwealth forces have been involved.

IWM’s collections are a multi-media resource representing the human experience of conflict. As the official repository for materials produced by British government entities including the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU), IWM holds delegated authority from The National Archives to license the re-use of Crown Copyright archival film and photographs

Contact IWM's Image and Film Licensing team to translate historic collections into successful products.

Image: IWM (Q 27514)