[1][2] The photographs were taken with the 48 inches (1.2 m) Samuel Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory,[3] and the astronomical survey was funded by a grant from the National Geographic Society to the California Institute of Technology.

Among the primary minds behind the project were Edwin Hubble, Milton L. Humason, Walter Baade, Ira Sprague Bowen and Rudolph Minkowski.

[citation needed] The NGS-POSS was published shortly after the Survey was completed as a collection of 1,872 photographic negative prints each measuring 14" x 14".

In 1962, the Whiteoak Extension, comprising 100 red-sensitive plates extending coverage to -42° declination, was completed and published as identically sized photographic negative prints.

The Whiteoak Extension is often found in libraries stored as an appendix or companion to the photographic print edition of the NGS-POSS.

In 1981, a set of NGS-POSS Transparency Overlay Maps was published by Robert S. Dixon of the Ohio State University.