BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) -- The oldest surviving aerial photograph ever taken shows Boston before the Prudential Center and other skyscrapers towered over the city.
In 2013, a simple Google Image search will result in aerial images taken via satellite of pretty much anything, but in the mid-1800s aerials were taken by hot-air balloon.
According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is in possession of the photo, the image was taken in 1860 by photographer James Wallace Black from a hot-air balloon called "Queen of the Air." While the 1860 photo is the oldest surviving photo, an aerial image taken of Paris in 1858 was taken before it.
Black's aerial images, which began as glass-plate negatives, inspired the Union Army to begin a civilian Balloon Corps to spy on Confederate troops.
To read more: metmuseum.org