Cities from the Sky: an Aerial Portrait of America

Piloting a single-engine biplane high above Washington D.C. in 1920, the intrepid inventor and aviation pioneer Sherman Fairchild first tested his custom-built sky camera, effectively founding the aerial photography company that would bear his name. Roaming America's skies for the next 40 years, the photographers of the Fairchild Aerial Survey Company documented nearly every major city in the United States. Their images, both maplike shots from high above, and low-angle raking views, form a definitive portrait of the American landscape. Rescued from destruction in the 1970s, the Fairchild archive was scattered across the country. Painstakingly reassembled for this book, the images (many of which have never been seen before) are brought together here for the first time. This beautifully produced, large format book collects over 125 extraordinary images taken between the 1920s and the 1960s. The photographs, valued both as works of art and as tools for urban historians, often capture historic moments: the Capitol Building during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first inauguration and Yankee Stadium during Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Others depict architectural landmarks: the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the Washington Monument, Hoover Dam, and Alcatraz, to name a few. Some of the cities revealed in astonishing detail include: Albuquerque, Atlanta, Baltimore, Berkeley, Boston, Cedar Rapids, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miam, i Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Oakland, Palo Alto, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Reno, Salt Lake City, St. Louis, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington