NEWS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE               DATE: 9/28/07 CONTACT: LESLIE SCHALER, COMMUNICATION ASST., (413) 545-0162 UMASS AMHERST LIBRARIES ACQUIRES PHOTOGRAPHIC MAP COLLECTION Amherst, MA - The UMass Amherst Libraries has acquired an extensive aerial photograph collection of Massachusetts and the Connecticut River Valley from the Department of Natural Resources Conservation, formerly the department of Forestry and Wildlife Management, at UMass Amherst.  The estimated 24,000 items in this collection include infrared transparencies and prints, and black and white prints from the 1950s through 2000 covering the entire Commonwealth and some areas in adjoining states. Also included are sets of land use and vegetation cover maps of Massachusetts and the Connecticut River Valley.  The collection can be viewed in the Map Collection on Floor 2 of the Du Bois Library. In the 1950s, Forestry Professor Emeritus William P. MacConnell ’43, and his photogrammetry students began using aerial photography to map forests, agricultural fields, wetlands, and other land cover in Massachusetts.  Their work was eventually expanded to include the mapping of all land use for Massachusetts, making this state the first in the nation to be completely mapped in this fashion.  The process was repeated at several intervals in order to measure the rate and type of land use change in the Commonwealth.   Photogrammetry is the use of photography to make measurements.  MacConnell and his students used strips of overlapping aerial photographs taken in flight paths that covered the entire state.  Every point in the state shows up on not only two photographs in each flight path, but since the adjoining flight paths also overlap, many points show up on four photographs.  By viewing these photographs through a stereoscope, one eye sees one photograph and the other eye sees the other photograph.  Since each of the photographs was taken from a different point in the sky, the view through the stereoscope is a 3 dimensional image.  Trees, church steeples, hills, all rise up from the landscape. MacConnell and his students created the land use/land cover maps, and laid the foundation for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wetlands Inventory.  “MacConnell was the ‘instigator’ of this statewide classification,” says Janice Stone, Conservation Administrator for South Hadley, “He was a visionary on the idea of doing a land use/land cover map of the whole state.   After it was started, people found it really helpful not just for forestry purposes, but also habitat, wetlands, and land use change.”  Along with the maps, the Library also acquired some original field notes, equipment, and project materials.  A stereoscope and historic cartographic tools from Professor MacConnell and his students are on display in the Map Collection on Floor 2 in the Du Bois Library. If interested in adding to the collection or for more information, contact Sandy Lillydahl at 413-545-2397 or slillydahl@library.umass.edu.