Newly risen above the rooftops of lower Manhattan, the Municipal Building commands the skyline in this striking hand-colored pre-linen postcard — its Beaux-Arts tower soaring 34 stories, the golden figure of Miss Civic Pride crowning the lantern above, while a dirigible drifts lazily past in the painted blue sky, a detail that speaks to the wonder of a city suddenly vertical. Published by The American Art Publishing Co. and copyrighted by Irving Underhill (one of New York's foremost architectural photographers of the early twentieth century), this card dates to around 1914–1916 when the building had just opened — the $13,000,000 structure then the largest municipal office building in the world. The postal indicia reads "United States and Canada One Cent / Foreign Two Cents," placing it firmly in the pre-1917 era.