Beautiful Vintage Kodachrome Photos of Mid-Century Manhattan, New York City

These Kodachrome photographs were taken by Harold Mayer, a pioneer of urban geography and specialist in urban and transport geography of North America, especially New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, and British Columbia. A professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, during his academic career, Professor Mayor gathered a large photographic collection to teach his students.

Take a look back at Manhattan, New York City in the 1940s and 1950s through these 13 fascinating vintage color photographs below:

Times Square, 1948.

United Nations buildings under construction, 1951.

Ambassador Hotel on Park Avenue, 1950s.

Washington Square Park Arch, 1956.

Lower East Side, 1956.

Park Avenue north from 58th Street, 1956.

Playing in the street, 1956.

Sutton Place neighborhood, 1956.

Public housing development, 1956.

Stuyvesant Town residential development, 1956.

Macdougal Alley, 1956.

Near Herald Square, 1956.

Broadway near Herald Square, 1956.

(via University of Wisconsin, American Geographical Society)