Harold Mayer was a professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a leading scholar in urban geography. A specialist in urban and transport geography of North America with a focus on New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, and British Columbia, Mayer travelled widely, taking photographs along the way. He used his large photographic collection in his teaching. To illustrate changes in urban landscape, he often returned to the same city to take a picture of the same sight over the course of several years. His collection can be viewed at the American Geographical Society. These are his Kodachrome photographs of Manhattan, New York City, taken in the 1940s and 1950s.
New York, Manhattan, view of advertisements in Times Square – 1948
New York, Manhattan, view of United Nations buildings under construction, 1951
New York, Manhattan, Ambassador Hotel on Park Avenue
New York, Manhattan, designated children’s play street with residential buildings – 1956
Lower East Side street scene, 1956
New York, Manhattan, Macdougal Alley, 1956
People gathered beneath Washington Square Park Arch, 1956
Public housing development, 1956
New York, Manhattan, street scene near Herald Square, 1956
Street scene on Broadway near Herald Square, 1956
New York, Manhattan, Stuyvesant Town residential development, 1956
Residential street in Sutton Place neighborhood, 1956
View of Park Avenue north from 58th Street 1956
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