Raising the Eagle

In 1958, a drawing of an eagle suddenly appeared on The Times editorial page. Beloved by the publisher, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, it quickly became a symbol of The Times. An aluminum version of the eagle was even installed on a perch at The New York Times printing plant on West End Avenue in 1961. That moment was caught by a Times photographer, Robert Walker. This archival image, printed on giclée archival photo paper, is available to you framed or unframed. It includes a Times certificate of authenticity.

The Times eagle print is part of The New York Times Early Edition collection, inspired by items from The Times’s vast archive and history. The original eagle was a statue spotted by the publisher, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, in London, who had it shipped to New York. It became part of The Times’s logo, remaining on the editorial page until 1972. But the eagle has not been forgotten: The original statue rests in a new aerie in The New York Times Building.

Giclée uses an ink-jet printer to deposit dots of ink onto archival photo paper. The ink is absorbed into the paper, replicating the look of an original print. The photographer of the eagle raising, Robert Walker, had started at The Times as an office boy and was a photo lab assistant in 1950 when he heard a news flash that two Long Island Rail Road trains had collided on Thanksgiving Eve. He dashed to the scene, and the next day, when The Times printed six pictures of the wreck, five were his.