1952 New York Sunday News Panoramic Views of Manhattan

This is a set of 1952 aerial photographs of Manhattan, taken by Pulitzer-winning news photographer Gordon Rynders and published in two successive issues of the New York Sunday News (September 14 and September 21, respectively). They comprise of a two-page cover illustrating Manhattan from the south; a two-page centerfold focusing on the financial district; and a one-page spread of supplemental views capturing the East Side and West Side of Manhattan. Each view includes a list of featured buildings, numerically keyed to the views. The crowing text of the first page describes the circumstances of the set:

One crystal clear day in New York recently, pilot Al DeBello took one of THE NEWS planes aloft and fotog Gordon Rynders made this extraordinary picture of the city. The breath-taking airview, which is not a composite, but a single picture, reveals the entire length of Manhattan Island from its southern tip, and all boroughs of the city except Richmond, which is across the Upper Bay to the south.

The equally grand view of the financial district bears the legend, 'In this mass of stone and steel on Lower Manhattan is concentrated the control of much of the wealth of the world.' The supplemental views published the following week show Manhattan's East Side - 'Here's what you'd see if you flew from east to west over fabulous midtown Manhattan where the world's tallest structures seem pressed for breathing space.' The view includes the newly-completed United Nations headquarters on the East River. The West Side shot, which 'penetrates to Queens and shows some of Manhattan's better known skyscrapers,' shows the Chrysler building and the Empire State building in their glory.