In 1958, the promotion department of The New York Times hired a young Swiss expat to take pictures that were collected in a slim hardcover book for prospective advertisers. The book, “New York Is,” extolled the virtues of the city and of the newspaper as the best way to tap its prosperous postwar consumers.

i’m all for the photos of the graffitied subways and rough alleys of the city in the 70s and 80s, but these are fantastic, too.