The yellowed envelopes, filled with large-format negatives, are neatly organized by subject and stored in file cabinets. Each is identified in a hand-written script. Some examples:

• “Wright Family at Orville Wright Residence”
• “Hydroplane in Flight, Miami River, 1913”
• “Lindberg at Wilbur Wright Field”
• “Flood -1913 Ruins Jefferson at Third Streets.”
• “Civil War Veterans, Oct. 1, 1921”
• “Streets – Third east at railroad crossing with traction car, buggies, trucks. 1910”

They are just a few of the thousands of historic images that soon will become available online, thanks to an ambitious new Dayton History project.

The impressive collection comes from the cameras of William Preston Mayfield, this area’s most famous photographer. The Lexington, Ky., native, who lived from 1896-1974, worked as a newspaper, newsreel, commercial and aerial photographer and spent six decades capturing the people and events that made history.

In July, the vast majority of Mayfield’s extensive collection was moved to Carillon Park through an agreement with its owner, photographer Marvin Christian, who also donated his own photo collection to the project.

Christian, who trained in Mayfield’s commercial studio, worked for him for years and printed many of his famous photos. He went on to open his own photography studio and in 1967 acquired Mayfield’s studio equipment and his entire collection of glass plates, negatives and prints —more than 100,000 in all. About 70,000 are now in temperature and humidity-controlled collection storage at Carillon.

“This collection has a great deal of historic value because it is a large body of work that documents more than 80 years of growth and change in Dayton and the region,” said Mary Oliver, Dayton History’s Director of Collections, who added that her organization is always looking to add to their significant photographic collections.

“Highlights of the collection include wonderful photographs that depict Dayton aviation events in the early 20th century, including images of the Wright brother’s flights at Huffman Prairie and on the Great Miami River, and the 1924 International Air Races at Wilbur Wright Field,” she said. “There also pictures of dignitaries visiting Dayton — Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1920, William Jennings Bryan, President William Howard Taft, Babe Ruth, Charles Lindberg and many others.

She says the Mayfield collection is important because it includes a large quantity of mid-to-late 20th century photographs, which fill a gap in the museum’s archives.

“It’s exciting to see flood photos that I had never seen before!” she said, adding that Christian’s photos are also important additions to Dayton History.

“I could show you a downtown photo of Dayton from 1920 but where I had difficulty was if someone wanted a photo of downtown in the 1950s or ’60s or ’70s,” she explained. “Marvin’s portion of the collection is significant in filling that gap from the mid-century and up.”

Christian, 77, describes his mentor as a quiet and shy man who never bragged about himself but had a passion for aviation and a sense of history.

“He was very proud of what he did,” he said.

Mayfield started working as a photographer for the Dayton Daily News in 1910 at the age of 14. In the fall of that same year, he flew over Huffman Prairie with Orville Wright and took a photograph of the Wright’s hanger from the air, creating the world’s first photograph taken from an airplane.

“From that early start, Mayfield built a six-decade long career that included barnstorming, motion picture film photography, and most importantly, commercial and aerial photography,” Oliver said. ” Mayfield’s photographs captured the early days of aviation, famous visitors to the Dayton area, aerial views of cities around the region and countless businesses, factories and people.”

There are aerial views of Troy, Springfield, Middletown and Hamilton. In 1926, Mayfield was commissioned by Rike’s Department Store to take aerial views of every town where a Rike’s truck made deliveries.

Picture-taking was dramatically different in Mayfield’s time.

“Today I can give my granddaughter a digital camera and she can take a good photo,” Christian said. “But in 1909, the equipment varied so much — he ordered and experimented with different lenses and with chemistry, there were so many variables and if you did one thing wrong, the photo didn’t work. Bill had a big heavy tripod and would look under the focusing cloth, he processed the film in a darkroom and had to know exactly what he was doing.

“His photos never needed cropping, he knew all the tricks and invented a lot of them.”

PLAN FOR THE PHOTOS

Oliver says the Mayfield/Christian Collection will be used for future exhibits — such as the upcoming exhibit on the 1913 Dayton Flood — as well as for research. The plan, she says, is to begin digitizing the collection at the beginning of 2013 and to transfer all of the negatives to acid-free envelopes. Graduate students who work as Dayton History interns will help with the project.

The public will be able to view the photos free of charge, and there will be a fee structure for reproduction and use.

Christian says many people had an interest in his collection, but he wanted the precious photos to go to an organization that would continue to share them with the public. He has published books featuring Mayfield photographs including “William Preston Mayfield Photographer” and “Dayton Album: Remembering Downtown.”

Christian says he has always loved the freedom and independence of a photographer’s life, a life that gave him the opportunity to witness history.

“By eighth grade, I had learned that I didn’t have to sit with my classmates if I had a camera and could wander around instead,” Christian said. “Photography is a free ticket to the world.”