There’s a lot to celebrate on this Monday, October 13. For some, it’s the achievements of Christopher Columbus. For others, it’s the achievements of James Wallace Black, who captured the first aerial shot of Boston – the first aerial photographs made in America at that.

According to the caption of the snapshot above, the first American aerial photo, which happens to be of Boston, was taken on October 13, 1860, which, for the not-so-numerically-minded such as myself, is 154 years ago. It now calls New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art home.

“Black launched his solo career in 1860 with the production of a series of aerial photographs taken from Samuel King’s hot-air balloon the ‘Queen of the Air,'” describes the Met. “Black’s views of Boston were the first aerial photographs made in America; two years earlier the Frenchman Nadar had made history making similar views of Paris.”

But the Smithsonian notes unfortunately, Nadar’s initial pictures did not survive.

The name of the Boston photo, “Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Good See it” was given by Harvard professor and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1863.

I love the familiarity of the photograph even over a century and a half later. Skyline staples such as the Old South Meeting House are on full display and Washington Street winds though the brick-and-beam buildings as it still does today. Noticeably absent, though, is the Custom House Tower, which wasn’t erected until 1915.

Spot any gems from yesteryear? Let us know what you see in the comments section below.