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Aerial photograph of airfield looking down through wings of a biplane.

Between the collections of the Deseronto Archives and the Community Archives, we have amassed a considerable number of photographs taken during a particular 18 month period in Hastings County. This was that part of the First World War when Britain's Royal Flying Corps ran two pilot-training camps near Deseronto. Camp Rathbun was just north of the town and Camp Mohawk was on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. Photography skills formed part of the pilots' training and the two camps were well recorded in their brief existence.

This collection was considerably increased recently, when the Plante family kindly allowed us to scan the photographs compiled in an album by Stuart Hilton Plante (1898-1979), who was a member of the ground crew for 90 Canadian Training Squadron. The squadron was mainly stationed at Camp Rathbun from May 1917 to November 1918, with the exception of the winter months of December to April, when they trained in Camp Taliaferro, near Fort Worth, Texas. Some of Plante's 274 photographs are copies of ones that we have seen before, but a considerable proportion are not, including the one shown here.

The photo featured in this page was taken from the cockpit of a biplane flying on its side. The photographer is looking through the struts of the wing, down at the Camp Taliaferro airfield. To the right, another aircraft is taking off or landing, far below. It's a unique and interesting image. You can explore the whole collection on Flickr.