By the late 1950s, Robert Moses, the legendary “power broker,” was at the peak of his decades-long career in public service. He served, simultaneously, as Commissioner of the Department of Parks, City Construction Coordinator, Chairman of the Mayor’s Committee on Slum Clearance, Commissioner on the City Planning Commission, Chairman of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, Chairman of the New York State Council of Parks, President of the Long Island State Park Commission, and Chairman of the Power Authority of the State of New York. 

The Municipal Archives collection of records created by Moses as Parks Department Commissioner, described in an earlier For the Record article, documents not just city parks, but also the highways, bridges, tunnels, housing projects, playgrounds, and beaches he constructed. It includes information about the Lincoln Center complex, the United Nations’ building, the New York Coliseum, Shea Stadium and both the 1939 and 1964 New York World’s Fairs.

This week, For the Record highlights aerial photographic views in the Parks Department collection. Moses contracted with commercial photographers for the aerial views. Images in the collection date to the 1930s, the samples below are from the mid-to-late 1950s when Moses’ portfolio had expanded beyond parks to all of the other construction projects. The photographers flew in planes over the city and used large-format cameras.  The original negatives were scanned at high resolution. All of the images can be viewed in the Municipal Archives Gallery.  

These spectacular images show New York from above in its thriving post-War years when the old city was giving way to the new.