Materials are arranged in the order created during the interview process with the first file containing administrative materials created before, during, and after the interview.
Accession Number PA.2000.0037: Stephen Riley, 2000 May
[identification of item], Stephen Riley Oral History, SPEC.PA.56.0057, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
Contains audiocassettes.
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Processed by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2020 March; Finding aid written by: Audrey Wimbiscus, Sam Devereaux, 2020 August
Stephen George Riley was born in 1929, and joined the United States Navy after his high school graduation in 1947. He was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia until he was sent to Korea in 1950. Riley specialized in aerial photography and mapping and was a navigator on the Navy’s photographic reconnaissance jets. These jets were used to identify enemy artillery or strategy through aerial photography. During the Vietnam War, Riley completed aerial mapping of Laos and South Vietnam with Photographic Squadron 61. He was then sent to McMurdo Sound, Antarctica in 1965 to serve as an aerial photographer for the National Science Foundation. Between 1965-1968, Riley and his team completed aerial mapping of over one million square miles of Antarctica with a C-130 Hercules plane; this includes the area of Mount Riley, which was later named after Riley. Riley also spent two months of that trip based in Punta Arenas, Chile while his team did aerial mapping of the Antarctic Peninsula.
The Stephen Riley Oral History, dated 2000 to 2001, contains audio recordings, administrative information, and transcripts of the interview between Riley and former Ohio State University Polar Archivist Raimund Goerler conducted on May 15, 2000. This interview was a part of a series of polar oral histories sponsored by the American Polar Society and Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Major topics discussed include Riley's time in the United States Navy, his work as an aerial photographer and photograph navigator in Antarctica, and his memories of life in Antarctica.