Lunch on a Beam
The Making of an American Photograph
Will be published approx. on 30. April 2026
Book
Hardback
222 pages
978-1-68458-304-1 (ISBN)
Description
The untold story of the many people behind one of America's most iconic photographs.
Lunch on a Beam, also known as Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, shows ironworkers eating lunch on a steel beam during the construction of Rockefeller Center's RCA Building in 1932. It's a photo so famous you can likely picture it in your mind: seated in a row, eleven men chat and break bread 850 feet above the ground, the dense cityscape behind them. While the scene may look spontaneous, the photo was taken during a publicity shoot to promote Rockefeller Center's new skyscraper. And despite the image's renown, for years, little information was available about its subjects or its photographer.
In Lunch on a Beam, Rockefeller Center archivist Christine Roussel interweaves the art, architectural, and social history behind the photograph with her personal experience as a confidante to the financiers who developed Rockefeller Center. She tells the stories of the fearless photographers, brazen publicity men, the ironworkers, and their immigrant and Indigenous communities. This portrait of eleven construction workers, she points out, is also a celebration of the nation's richest man. She examines how, in the depths of the Great Depression, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., took it upon himself to build a monument to American industry and sell it to the public.
Featuring striking images from the Rockefeller Center Archives, Lunch on a Beam calls attention to the fascinating paradoxes contained in a single photo and celebrates the men who built an architectural marvel at great personal risk. This is a story of art and commerce, and the role of a photograph in the mythmaking of New York City.
Lunch on a Beam, also known as Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, shows ironworkers eating lunch on a steel beam during the construction of Rockefeller Center's RCA Building in 1932. It's a photo so famous you can likely picture it in your mind: seated in a row, eleven men chat and break bread 850 feet above the ground, the dense cityscape behind them. While the scene may look spontaneous, the photo was taken during a publicity shoot to promote Rockefeller Center's new skyscraper. And despite the image's renown, for years, little information was available about its subjects or its photographer.
In Lunch on a Beam, Rockefeller Center archivist Christine Roussel interweaves the art, architectural, and social history behind the photograph with her personal experience as a confidante to the financiers who developed Rockefeller Center. She tells the stories of the fearless photographers, brazen publicity men, the ironworkers, and their immigrant and Indigenous communities. This portrait of eleven construction workers, she points out, is also a celebration of the nation's richest man. She examines how, in the depths of the Great Depression, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., took it upon himself to build a monument to American industry and sell it to the public.
Featuring striking images from the Rockefeller Center Archives, Lunch on a Beam calls attention to the fascinating paradoxes contained in a single photo and celebrates the men who built an architectural marvel at great personal risk. This is a story of art and commerce, and the role of a photograph in the mythmaking of New York City.
Reviews / Votes
"Rich and well-researched." * Wall Street Journal * "A lavishly illustrated book brings a famous photo into sharp historical focus." * Kirkus * "A gripping ode to history and architecture, Lunch on a Beam is about the various historical figures whom a photograph made representative of American intellectual and physical aptitude." * Foreword Reviews * "Roussel recreates a lost world of work and traces the image's long afterlife as a symbol of Depression-era America." * Apollo * "Beautifully procured and impeccably researched . . . sets a high bar for future histories, showing how even a single image can tell-literally-thousands of stories." * Vertical Urbanism * "What [Roussel] found is fascinating not just as social history, but as a detective story for anyone who cares about photography." * Digital Camera World * "Roussel, who is the archivist of Rockefeller Center, spends some time trying to track down the names, identities, and life stories of the eleven men on the beam. But fortunately she finds herself stymied in the effort. Just as V-J Day's 'Kissing Sailor' is better known as an anonymous everyman, the workers who lunched on the beam are better remembered not as individuals who had done something extraordinary but as representatives of all the courageous workers who braved dangerous construction to defy the Depression and rebuild the nation." * American Heritage * "Rockefeller Center archivist Christine Roussel interweaves the art, architectural, and social history behind the photograph with her personal experience as a confidante to the financiers who developed Rockefeller Center....[f]eaturing striking images from the Rockefeller Center Archives, Lunch on a Beam calls attention to the fascinating paradoxes contained in a single photo and celebrates the men who built an architectural marvel at great personal risk." * New York Almanack * "I thought no one could love Rockefeller Center as much as I do, but Roussel is the new champion. Her feeling for the place, present on every page of this singular book, would be enough-but she amplifies it with extraordinary research that has enabled her to make this celebrated photograph human, and realistic, and even more captivating than before." -- Daniel Okrent, author of "Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center" "Roussel has written a serious insider's account of Rockefeller Center that is also a delight to read. Although she worked directly with Nelson Rockefeller, she emphasizes the construction workers, casually lunching-even napping-on a beam high above the sidewalk, risking death to build the city's trademark skyscrapers." -- Carol Krinsky, author of "Rockefeller Center" "Drawing on deep historical knowledge, with unparalleled access to archival documents and photographs, Roussel has shed new light not just on a world-famous photo but on a fascinating era and cast of characters." -- William Bartlett, author of "NBC and 30 Rock: A View from Inside"More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
84 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 181 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
615 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-68458-304-1 (9781684583041)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Christine Roussel is the archivist of the Rockefeller Center Archive. Previously, she worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as director of the reproductions studio and special assistant to the director. She also advised Vice President Nelson Rockefeller on his art collection and founded C. Roussel Inc., which specializes in art conservation. Her books include The Art of Rockefeller Center and The Guide to the Art of Rockefeller Center. She lives in New York City.
Content
Preface: Want a Tour?
1. They Were Better Off Than Most
2. The Genesis of Rockefeller Center
3. Making the Image
4. Men at the Crossroads
5. 'All We Got is Hard Luck'
6. Lunch on a Beam and Variations
7. Into the Archive
8. Ironworkers Came from Many Places
9. Not Pictured
10. Who Were the Men on the Beam?
Epilogue: The Last Rivet
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index
1. They Were Better Off Than Most
2. The Genesis of Rockefeller Center
3. Making the Image
4. Men at the Crossroads
5. 'All We Got is Hard Luck'
6. Lunch on a Beam and Variations
7. Into the Archive
8. Ironworkers Came from Many Places
9. Not Pictured
10. Who Were the Men on the Beam?
Epilogue: The Last Rivet
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index