The complete installation of New York Full Circle is a viewing room in which visitors are free to walk around the painting at its center. Because the image has neither frame, fixed composition, nor single perspective, it can be experienced from multiple vantage points simultaneuosly. It is an art form that is both three-dimensional sculpture and painted illusion.

The centerpiece of New York Full Circle is a remarkably detailed oil painting created by artist Christopher Leith Evans. In order to capture the full 360 degree panorama once seen from the Top of the World Trade Center Observatory on the 107th floor of the South Tower Evans chose as his "canvas" a twenty-four inch diameter acrylic sphere. It took him over six months to complete the painting.

New York Full Circle was first exhibited in 2002 as part of the New York Historical Society's "History Responds" show commemorating the anniversary of 9/11. Its title at that time was In The Light of Memory. During 2003 and 2004 it was exhibited in its own special installation space adjacent to the Historical Society's permanent collection.