The USS Midway Museum in San Diego, California has an outstanding naval aviation research library. These are select photos of the USS Midway's operational history from 1945 to 1992, taken from the library's archives. Dates (when given) are approximate unless a full date is available/stated. Approximately 5000+ photos were reviewed (admittedly many were duplicates), with 900+ chosen for this exhibition. In most cases the pre-2004 photographs are believed to be copyright free, as they were taken by military or government employees for use by the US Navy. Photographers will be noted in the description (where known) - if you know the photographer for an uncredited photo, please contact the museum library.

The photos are mostly of the ship and her airwing - though we realize that there is much more to an aircraft carrier than just those who deal with the aircraft. It takes many specialties and different departments to make a "city at sea" function smoothly - from engineering to cooks to communications to the many others. But for those looking to see the "behind the scenes" aspects of the Midway, we refer you to the digital copies of the ship's cruisebooks which are all viewable online at the navysite.de website. Our photo collection is mainly geared towards the most common requests that we get, which is for historic photos to be used for media publications or for the construction of replica models.

For further information about the USS Midway Museum, please visit www.midway.org.