Populated cities and technologically overgrown areas are formed from the times in which American citizens took part in urbanism. This period is widely known as the progressive era, this era included a massive amount of people moving to urban areas in thought to achieve new goals and career success, we can read this within a textbook titled America: A Narrative History, it states, “Cities grew larger with the arrival of all sorts of people eager to benefit from urban jobs and activities.” The notion that these cities were growing larger raised a certain excitement within the American people, many things contributed to this, such as the industrialization within these areas, the political significance, and the job opportunities. Within the piece titled Chrysler Bldg. & other skyscrapers, photographer Irving Underhill captures the New York City skyline during the early 1900’s (specifically 1930). Through this capture, viewers are enabled to see the rapid pace at which the cities grew and were growing during the progressive era, which in turn I believe to be the message of this historical piece, the rise of urbanization and the excitement of modern metropolitan areas.
To dive into this historical photograph it will allow you as a reader to better understand the rise of urbanization in the American historical context. The photograph was taken in the year 1930, as previously mentioned this would have been shortly after the progressive era. The contents of the photograph are what is most important and help convey the message. A few important buildings are alongside the Chrysler building (the focus of the piece), next to it include the Lincoln building, which is known now as One Grand Central Place, the Lefcourt Colonial Building, the Chanin Building, and the Daily News Building. Underhill’s capture of Midtown Manhattan from what people assume was taken at a high vantage point, such as a rooftop, is a great teaching foundation for the period of American history that it was taken in. The piece specifically gets across the urbanization of New York City and the excitement of the people during the early 1900’s. In an excerpt from the book titled Imagining New York City: Literature, Urbanism, and the Visual Arts, 1890–1940 written by Christoph Lindner, understanding of urban impact comes clear, it reads, “Significantly, the “convulsions of urbanization” that culminated in New York’s vertical architecture first took hold of the city in the second half of the nineteenth century, before reaching their highest intensity between 1890 and 1940. During this period of rapid urban growth and development, encompassing the consolidation of the five boroughs in 1898, New York’s physical appearance and character were radically transformed by the widespread construction of skyscrapers.” The buildings within the piece reflect the transformation and urban growth that was happening across the United States, people were attracted to this which is why we saw such a widespread movement of people towards cities like NYC.
The scene of urban America was changing fast, a constant build was underway in hopes to further the beauty and urban status of the cities within the U.S. Underhill’s representation of such a scene is an efficient one, we can see this within the construction of the photograph; buildings at lower height surrounding the attention seeking Chrysler building. Yet another showing of how quickly the streets and structures were filling up. Within a politically focused book titled The United States in the Long Twentieth Century: Politics and Society Since 1900, author M. J Heale writes, “The first three decades of the century saw nearly 19 million people enter the United States, and the composition of urban America changed rapidly.” Heale is talking of the pace at which the growth of urban America was changing, it was becoming the focus of so many important things, rather it was politics, work, or beauty people wanted to be in the urban areas. Overall, the American cities that rose to a point of urbanization were the ones that historically were powerhouses, thankfully photographer Irving Underhill was able to capture an important moment in history with the photo Chrysler Bldg. & other skyscrapers. It allows people to interpret and analyze urbanization with a hint of modern excitement within the historical context, not confined by a description but more to the perception that someone has of the photograph itself.
Works Cited
Underhill, Irving, -1960, photographer. Chrysler Bldg. & other skyscrapers. New York, 1930. [New York] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2015647627/.
Michael Heale. 2015. The United States in the Long Twentieth Century : Politics and Society
Since 1900. Second edition. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=2ecdbdc2-29c7-3278-9111-f39cd3950730.
Christoph Lindner. Imagining New York City: Literature, Urbanism, and the Visual Arts,
1890–1940 (2015; online edn, Oxford Academic, 22 Jan.
2015), https://academic.oup.com/book/10770
Shi, Ramey Berry, Crespino & Murrell Taylor. America: A Narrative History, 13e, 2025. https://app.perusall.com/courses/2025_fall_hist1302wbc-american-history-ii/_/dashboard/documents/document-A2vvdZTrr6z3py7jx