A rare and early aerial atlas documenting the areas of Dallas County outside the Dallas city limits in 1972—published in the inaugural year of Real Estate Data, Inc.’s mapping operations. This volume provides full photographic coverage of the unincorporated and suburban areas that would soon undergo major development as the city’s suburban expansion accelerated throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
The atlas contains 45 aerial photo plates, including maps 76–112 as specified in the index for Dallas County ex-city limits. In addition, it includes several grid sections that overlap the fringe of the city proper (grids 9, 14, 21, 22, 34, 63, 67, 68). The aerial photography is paired with land ownership information for larger plots, offering valuable insight into property boundaries, rural land use, and early suburban development at a time when much of the county was still open farmland.
Issued in the same large format as other Real Estate Data, Inc. volumes (approx. 24 × 22 inches), the atlas reflects the company’s intent to produce a comprehensive and annually updated aerial record of Dallas County. This 1972 edition represents the earliest known output in that series and may be the first such commercial atlas to cover the exurban county in photographic detail.
Rarity and Context
We locate no other known copy of this 1972 first edition. The Dallas Public Library—likely the most complete institutional repository of Dallas aerial atlases—appears to hold only the corresponding street map volume for this year, with subsequent aerial editions more fully represented. The firm’s publication program began in 1972 and continued with regular updates for over a decade, but early editions like this one remain especially scarce, with few, if any, surviving outside local institutional archives.