Williams-Hunt Aerial Photograph Collection
ByCol. Surat Lertlum1
Dr. Elizabeth Moore2
1

Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy
Visiting Fellow, CSEAS, Kyoto University
2
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London

1. Introduction
Williams-Hunt aerial photograph collection is the collection of aerial photographsthat Peter Williams-Hunt gathered from the reconnaissance missions of Royal Air Forceduring and after the World War II and also the collection of aerial photographs took byPeter Williams-Hunt himself. Peter Williams-Hunt had interested in the application ofutilizing aerial photograph for archaeology studies. He had wrote an article on thediscovery of Roman site from aerial survey in 1946 (Williams-Hunt & Bradford, 1946)
He made the collection on these aerial photographs on Southeast Asia while he had beenworking as aerial photograph interpreter for the Royal Air Force during and after theWorld War II. He died in Malaysia in 1953. Before he died, he had passed the aerial
photographs collection John Bradford in 1951. After that, the collection was kept in Pitt
Rivers Museum. There are some archaeologists, for example, William Watson andQuartich Wales, who tried to utilize this collection for their research in the 1960’s but
without much success since the collection was not organized and there was no
explanation of the photos.
In 1982 Dr. Elizabeth Moore from the School of Oriental and African Studies(SOAS), University of London, England became interested in the Williams-Huntphotographs in connection with her doctoral research on circular moated sites inNortheast Thailand. Thanks to a suggestion by Mr. Pisit Chareonwongsa in 1981, she
contacted the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. After his untimely death in Malaysia in theearly 1950’s, Williams-Hunt’s pictures were sent to his colleague John Bradford andhoused at the Pitt Rivers. The Pitt Rivers agreed for the photos to be transferred to theUniversity of London, where thanks to grants from the South East Asia Committee of theBritish Academy, the collection was digitized to produce a set of full-size negatives. In
this process, Elizabeth Moore organized the aerial photographs according to the locations
and produced simple database for the collection as illustrated in table 1 below.

BOXNONAMESORTIESERIAL

LOCATION

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150006

BANGKOK: URBAN: MAIN RAILROAD STATION

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150006

BANGKOK: URBAN: MAIN RAILROAD STATION: DUPLICATEND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150030

BANGKOK: URBAN: RAILROAD: ROADS

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150072

BANGKOK: URBAN: MILITARY HEADQUARTERS?

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150087

BANGKOK: URBAN: PARK: STATUE

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150092

BANGKOK: URBAN: KLONG: RIVER

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150093

BANGKOK: URBAN: KLONG

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150095

BANGKOK: URBAN: STADIUM

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150100

BANGKOK: URBAN: STATUE (TAKSIN ?)ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150105

BANGKOK: URBAN: PALACE/CHEDIS

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150109

BANGKOK: URBAN: PALACE/CHEDIS

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150111

BANGKOK: URBAN: RIVER: WATS: CHEDI ON HILL

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150121

BANGKOK: URBAN: RIVER: PLAYING FIELD

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150121

BANGKOK: URBAN: RIVER: PLAYING FIELD: DUPLICATEND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150129

BANGKOK: URBAN: WAT: KLONG

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150137

BANGKOK: URBAN: RIVER: UNFINISHED BRIDGE

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150138

BANGKOK: URBAN: RIVER: UNFINISHED BRIDGE

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150141

BANGKOK: URBAN: WAT: RESIDENTIAL

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150142

BANGKOK: RESIDENTIAL: MILITARY HEADQUARTERS?

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150144

BANGKOK: RESIDENTIAL: MILITARY HEADQUARTERS?

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150145

BANGKOK: RESIDENTIAL: MILITARY HEADQUARTERS?

ND47-12THAILAND (C)SIAM150147

BANGKOK: RESIDENTIAL: MILITARY HEADQUARTERS?

Table 1 Sample from Williams-Hunt Collection Aerial Photograph Databaseproduced by Dr. Elizabeth Moore
After that the Williams-Hunt aerial photographs collection were kept at The School ofOriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, England. As one of the aimsof making the digitized negatives was provision to the wider academic community,
copies of the Williams-Hunt photographs were made available at cost to the Center forSoutheast Asia Studies (CSEAS), University of Kyoto, Japan, the Nation Achieve, Fine
Art Department, Thailand and the National Archives of Malaysia. In addition, a set of theAngkor portion of the collection was acquired by the Royal Angkor Foundation(Budapest), and copies of 200+ pictures loaned to the National Archives, Ministry ofFinance and Planning, Yangon, Union of Myanmar.

2. DetailWilliams-Hunt Aerial Photograph Collection has the coverage as follow:
AngkorMyanmar
Malaysia
ThailandSingaporeOther

128 photos
821 photos
2632 photos
1671 photos
240 photos
312 photos

This collection has both vertical and oblique looks. For the oblique look photos, somePeter Williams-Hunt took by himself, such as the photos of temples, archaeological sites.
However, many of the others were taken by the Allied Photographic Interpretation
Service (A.P.I.S.). An example of this is shown below in Figure 1, where the Sortie
number is Siam 78.A.P.I.S., taken on March 15, 1946 using a 5 inch lens at variableheight. All the sortie information such as this is embedded in the database of theWilliams-Hunt Collection.
At CSEAS, the whole collection was already scanned to convert the photos into digitalformat with the best quality scanning process from Fuji Film Company, Osaka, Japanwith the 1200 DPI resolution for vertical photos, and 600 DPI for oblique photos.
Currently, the author is conducting a research on this Williams-Hunt Collection at Center
for Southeast Asia Study (CSEAS), University of Kyoto to geo-referencing the collection
with the Ortho-rectified Landsat ETM satellite images and developing the searchingsystem through internet in the form of map search and keyword search. Also, to develop
meta data from the database that originally developed by Dr. Elizabeth Moore. In thefuture, the collection will be able to link with other digital achieve around the world.
Currently, after geo-referencing these aerial photographs, they can be used in GIS
analysis for archaeological studies through out the countries in the Southeast Asia.

3. Sample Aerial Photographs from the Collection
The following images are samples from Williams-Hunt Collection of important historicallocations, and the land had been totally changed from the way they were shown in thephotos.

Figure 1 Wat Prasrisunpeth, Ayutthaya

Figure 2 Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya
Remake: the figures shown were reduced in resolution since the original resolution
is too large to be illustrated in this document

Figure 3 Vertical Arial Photos in GIS database for Ayutthaya

Figure 4 Wat Prasrimahathat Pithsanulok

In addition, there is rare photos coverage that very few people had ever seen such as thephoto of Thonburi cruiser after Koa Chang’s battle. The ship was recovered and waiting
for the repairing, but the repairing had never happened.

DamagedArea

Figure 5-6: Thonburi cruiser after Koa Chang’s battle, the water marks stilled canbe noticed and the control room can be noticed of damaged

Royal Thai navy Submarine ForceFigure 7-8: Rare photos of the Royal Thai Navy submarines, the Royal Thai Navy’s
flag can be noticed at the back of the ship from original photos.

Figure 9 Oblique view of Angkor Vat

Figure 10 vertical view of west baray, Angkor

Figure 11 Sample oblique view from Burma’s Collection

4. Preliminary Conclusion
From the sample photos, we can notice that Williams-Hunt Aerial Photos collection has
significant value for the research study in the term of the original landscape, originalstructures, and original styles of archaeological sites in these photos. The value of thiscollection is not stopped only on the topics just mentioned. They are also very importantto understand the way of life during the period that the photos were taken. The history
that is now forgot by the people of the land they are belonged to.
In the technical point of view, the current technologies make it possible to improve thequality of these photos to bring back almost same quality as the original photo token
more than 60 years ago. For example, the figure 13 from Wat Praram, Ayutthaya, we canzoom up into very high detail of the decoration of the pagoda (prang) to learn about theart of Ayutthaya that is now gone forever.

Figure 12 Sample vertical view from Burma’s Collection

Figure 13 Wat Praram AyutthayaAs the development continue for the Williams-Hunt Collection, very soon the scholar
around the world will have the chance to use one of the most valuable information for
their studies like never before. The author would like to thank:
Dr. Elizabeth Moore, SOAS, University of London for her kind support on the detailed
information and database and generous support to distribute the data for scholarly usages.
Prof. Mamoru Shibayama, CSEAS
Dr. Yasuyuki Kono, CSEAS
Dr. Masayuki Yanagisawa, CSEAS
For support on the implementation of digital achieve in the term of inviting me as visiting
scholar at CSEAS, funding for this research to develop digital achieve.
For the usage and reference of the Williams-Hunt Collection figures in this document,
please quote as

Williams-Hunt Aerial Photos Collection
Original from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),
University of London
Digital Archive from Center for Southeast Asia Studies (CSEAS),
University of Kyoto

5. Reference
Elizabeth Moore, Inventory of Williams-Hunt Collection, Detailed ofWilliams-Hunt Collection Database