The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives moves to Keele University
At the end of the Second World War, millions of aerial reconnaissance images of locations around the world had been accumulated at the Allied Central Interpretation Unit (ACIU), RAF Medmenham. This archive contained a visual record of the world at war. In the postwar years, interest in the wider use of the imagery grew amongst many of the academics who had been wartime Photographic Interpreters.
A long series of discussions between Professor Beaver of the University College of North Staffordshire (now Keele University) and the Air Ministry led to the transfer of 5.5 million ACIU photographs of Western Europe from RAF Medmenham to Keele University over a 14-month period in the early 1960s. The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives (TARA) was formed at Keele University and became the official place of deposit for declassified and released UK government aerial imagery.
The UK Ministry of Defence declassified and released millions of additional images in 2004. These show places throughout the world dating from the Second World War and the Cold War. This imagery was accessioned into The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives as the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre (JARIC) collection; supplied without finding aids, it remains uncatalogued.
In 2008, The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives was transferred into the care of Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) and merged with the former archive of the Scottish Office APU. Following this, the merged archive was re-named The National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP). NCAP holds UK Government declassified and released aerial photography of places around the world. It is a centre of excellence in managing aerial photography and preserves the collections in its care.
Read more about our collections on our Image Collections pages.