The founder of Fairchild Aerial Surveys, Sherman Mills Fairchild (1896-1971), was a pioneer in the field of aerial photography. He was the son of a wealthy congressman from New York, George Winthrop Fairchild, whose time-clock and adding-machine business eventually became the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). In 1916, the younger Fairchild established himself as a technological leader when he developed the first synchronized camera shutter and flash. During World War I, he became interested in aerial photography and, in March 1919, completed a specialized camera for this purpose with a large, between-the-lens shutter. Shortly afterward he established the Fairchild Aerial Camera Corporation with financing from his father. By 1924, he had formed Fairchild Aerial Surveys, Inc., and secured a $7,000 contract to photo-map Newark, New Jersey. This was the first aerial mapping of a major city, but was completed at a cost to the Fairchild company of nearly $30,000.

During the next few years, Fairchild's aerial survey company saw greater success mapping areas in Canada, New York City and other eastern cities. Originally purchasing airplanes for the business, Sherman Fairchild eventually began manufacturing his own planes. Unfortunately, little information is available in print with regard to the photo-mapping activities of Fairchild Aerial Surveys during the succeeding decades. A detailed history of the Fairchild aircraft, however, can be found in Fairchild Aircraft, 1926-1987 by Kent A. Mitchell (Santa Ana, CA: Narkiewicz/ Thompson, 1997).

This series includes nearly 1,400 low-altitude, oblique views of New Jersey sites produced by the New York Office of Fairchild Aerial Surveys during the years 1946-1949, 1951 and 1957. While this is essentially a negative collection, a considerable number of black and white prints are also included. The series was originally part of a larger collection of Fairchild negatives from the years noted above; negatives and prints showing sites not in New Jersey, however, were transferred to the state archives of the other states represented. A state-by-state record of the deaccessioned items is included in Box #14. The surviving vertical views done by Fairchild's New York Office are held by the Map and Imagery Laboratory of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Following the Box Contents list below, the views are listed by county and thereunder by negative number (i.e., chronologically). The span of numbers shown for each site is followed by "/g" in cases where there is a gap in the number sequence. While most of the state is represented, the northeastern counties by far have the greatest number of images. The negatives (and prints) generally measure 8"x10", with a small number of negatives measuring 9"x9". Oversized items are contained in Boxes #12 and #13. Also included are references to prints that can be found in the series: Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company, Aerial Survey of the Morristown Main Line, Montclair Branch, Gladstone Branch and Greenwood Lake-Boonton Line, 1949 (DLW).

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