These are simply the best posters available! You will be thrilled with the image quality, vivid colors, fine paper, and unique subjects.
 
OUR POSTERS ARE SIZED FOR STANDARD OFF-THE-SHELF FRAMES, WITH NO CUSTOM FRAMING REQUIRED, PROVIDING HUGE COST SAVINGS!
 
This beautiful reproduction poster has been re-mastered from a poster for the New York Central System Railroad, showing a view of the upper bay, and the lower Manhattan skyline, painted by noted commercial artist Leslie Ragan.
 
The vibrant colors and detail of this classic image have been painstakingly brought back to life to preserve a great piece of history.
 
The high-resolution image is printed on heavy archival photo paper, on a large-format, professional giclée process printer. The poster is shipped in a rigid cardboard tube, and is ready for framing.
 
The 13"x19" and 24”x36” formats are excellent image sizes that look great as a stand-alone piece of art, or as a grouped visual statement. These posters require no cutting, trimming, or custom framing, and a wide variety of these frames are readily available at your local craft or hobby retailer, and online. The 24”x36” poster has a 1” white border.
 
A great vintage print for your home, shop, or business!
 
ARTIST LESLIE RAGAN & NEW YORK CENTRAL SYSTEM
 
LESLIE RAGAN
 
Leslie Ragan was born in 1897 and grew up in Iowa. From an early age he made drawings of buildings and bridges, leading him to pursue a career in commercial art. Ragan attended the Cumming School of Art in Des Moines, but he was primarily a self-taught artist. He served in the military in World War I, and when he returned, he studied for a single semester at the Art Institute of Chicago. In the early 1920s, he went on to teach at the Academy of Fine Arts, also in Chicago. By 1930 he had relocated to New York and had begun painting for the New York Central.
 
Leslie Ragan painted more pictures—mostly posters—for travel, transportation and industry than nearly any other American artist. His career as a commercial artist began with study in the Cumming School of Art in Des Moines—Ragan was born in Iowa—and continued at the Art Institute of Chicago. After one and a half years in the Air Force in World War I, he returned to Chicago, where he taught for three years at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and began doing posters for the railroads and heavy industries. 
 
His first work in New York was for General Outdoor Advertising and the now-defunct magazine Holiday. He soon began designing posters for the New York Central System; he has done in the neighborhood of 100 to date.  These poster paintings of scenic beauty encompassed by the reach of the Central’s lines constitute a unique pictorial record of many of America’s famous landmarks. 
 
Ragan has also done a great volume of work for other railroads, among them the Norfolk and Western [and the South Shore Line] . . . For the Budd Manufacturing Company, he’s doing a continuing series of posters illustrating streamlined trains built for various railroads. In pre-war days, he made many posters for the steamship lines. At present, he is executing commissions for the Moran Towing Company.”
 
NEW YORK CENTRAL SYSTEM
 
The New York Central Railroad (reporting mark NYC) was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Detroit. New York Central was headquartered in New York City's New York Central Building, adjacent to its largest station, Grand Central Terminal.
 
The railroad was established in 1853, consolidating several existing railroad companies. In 1968 the NYC merged with its former rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad, to form Penn Central. Penn Central went bankrupt in 1970 and merged into Conrail in 1976. Conrail was broken up in 1998, and portions of its system were transferred to CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway, with CSX acquiring most of the old New York Central trackage.
 
Extensive trackage existed in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts and West Virginia plus additional trackage in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. At the end of 1925, the NYC operated 11,584 miles of road and 26,395 miles of track; at the end of 1967 the mileages were 9,696 miles and 18,454 miles.