Back in 1907 pioneering aerial photographer George R. Lawrence captured a view of the Northwestern University campus using nine kites to keep his 49-pound camera aloft.
Today it’s a little simpler for Evanston photographer Nicholas Martin, who owns the Local UAS photography service, to capture a similar view of the campus with a drone-mounted camera.
Both views are centered on Fisk Hall, the home of Northwestern’s journalism school, with the Victorian era University Hall on the left of the images.
The area to the right of Fisk in the new image shows the 84-acre lakefill campus that greatly expanded the university’s real estate in the 1960s.
More about the photographer who took the 1907 image in this story from Northwestern magazine.
Some readers may say that Evanston forbids drones. That is not true. A property owner may give permission for launching and landing, and the airspace above all Evanston is controlled only by the FAA, which sets rules for drone usage, including flights above groups of people.