Historic Maps of NYC

[lofter1]

I keep coming across terrific maps of NYC past.

Here are a few ... feel free to post what other maps you might find.

The Great Fire (http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Map/1776 greatfire.html) of 1776:

http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Image/Map/1776greatfire.jpg


Manhattan Places of Worship (http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Worship/Church.1797.html) 1797:

http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Image/Worship/Church.1797.jpg


Lower Manhattan (http://images.nationmaster.com/images/motw/historical/new_york_1842.jpg) 1842:

http://images.nationmaster.com/images/motw/historical/new_york_1842.jpg


Manhattan Ward 2 (http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/maps/nyc1857.jpg) 1857:

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/maps/nyc1857.jpg


Lower Manhattan (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/new_york_city_lower_manhattan_rider_1916.jpg) 1916:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/new_york_city_lower_manhattan_rider_1916.jpg

[lofter1]

A few more:

Street Art in and around SoHo by wk (http://www.wkinteract.com/streetart.html) (interactive site with enlargeable images at the link):

http://www.wkinteract.com/images/map.jpg


New York (http://images.nationmaster.com/images/motw/historical/new_york_1695.jpg) 1695:

http://images.nationmaster.com/images/motw/historical/new_york_1695.jpghttp://www.wkinteract.com/transparent.gifhttp://www.wkinteract.com/transparent.gifhttp://www.wkinteract.com/transparent.gifhttp://www.wkinteract.com/transparent.gifhttp://www.wkinteract.com/transparent.gif


The Plan (http://www.donaldheald.com/search/detail_01.php?booknr=4161535&ordernr=18018) of the City of New York 1776:

http://www.donaldheald.com/pictures/18018-1.jpg


Map (http://www.donaldheald.com/search/detail_01.php?booknr=4159218&ordernr=6385) of the City of New York ... for New York As It Is in 1835:

http://www.donaldheald.com/pictures/06385-2.jpg


IRT Map and Guide (http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/caption.pl?/img/maps/irt_1906_railways_guide_54.gif) 1906:

http://images.nycsubway.org//maps/irt_1906_railways_guide_54.gif

[ablarc]

Check out all the Jersey ferry crossings on that last map.

And note how the Second Avenue line shifts to First Avenue at 23rd Street. The currently-planned line should swing east into East Village, Alphabet City, the Lower East Side and South Street --with plenty of stops along the way.

[Ed007Toronto]

I like how the Lexington line used to turn west at 42nd Street before heading north under Broadway. The 42nd Street part today is the shuttle.

[ablarc]

They should run an 86th Street crosstown line under Central Park.

[Ed007Toronto]

Or extend the 2nd Ave line under 125th to the west side.

[tdp]

I found this link - these old maps are incredible;

http://contueor.com/baedeker/unitedstates/index2.htm

[GVNY]

I am mostly interested in mid 19th to mid 20th century New York (with a focus on Lower Manhattan), and thus have stockpiled what I believe is a pretty impressive collection of maps.

I will hopefully post some soon.

And yes, Baedeker's maps are extraordinary. Be sure to review London.

[AmeriKenArtist]

They should run an 86th Street crosstown line under Central Park.

I thought that in another thread, but didn't post. Connecting the 1, B&C, Museum of Natural History, Metropolitan Museum, 4,5&6 and Q-T lines would be a worthy project. My friend from Jersey says it'll never happen. One can hope.

[Hamilton]

It probably will never happen. Even setting aside the funding issues that many ANY crosstown lines in the near future highly unlikely, the crosstown 86th Street bus is actually efficient and relatively quick at moving people along 86th (unlike, say the 14th or 23rd Street buses). This is because the bus can drive along the transverse through Central Park without a single bus stop or traffic light. Sure, a subway would be somewhat of an improvement, but given the ridiculous costs of building a subway, the fact that the current solution is manageable dooms any subway plans. It would probably save people 5 minutes, 10 minutes max at the height of rush hour. I'd love to see an 86th Street crosstown, but Central Park pretty much dooms any crosstowns between 60th and 110th.

Sander did mention a 125th Street crosstown in his speech, though. That would make a little more sense, especially is 125th Street becomes much denser as envisioned under the current rezoning, which would probably lead to the buses becoming even pokier along this stretch.

[brianac]

If you want to buy detailed maps.

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?trg=1&parent_id=666056&word=&s=&notword=&d=&c=&f=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&lword=&lfield=&num=0&imgs=12&snum=&pNum=

[Merry]

Mapping the Big Apple

A coming exhibit tracks New York history through maps

By CANDACE JACKSON

New York City was once home to piers stacked with horse manure, urban canals, and reefs with oysters the size of dinner plates.

http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WK-AR254_MAPS_G_20090916183254.jpg
A 19th century reproduction of Dutch-controlled Lower Manhattan’s land plots in 1642. 1. This Dutch fort was built to protect the city from invaders. The English tore it down when they took over the city shortly thereafter. 2. “The Common Ditch” was a waterway that allowed ships to come into the heart of the city. The Stock Exchange stands along its path today. 3. Dutch City Hall, which was originally a tavern.

http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-EM143_map_fo_G_20090917193036.jpg
This detail of an 1817 map is significant because it’s one of the first to show house numbers in New York City. 4. Battery Park has since grown to encompass a much larger area, as development has expanded Manhattan’s shoreline. 5. Wall Street, where it still remains today. 6. One of several steamboat ferries to Brooklyn, before bridges were constructed from Manhattan.

A coming exhibition at the New York Public Library illustrates historical nuggets like these from the city's 400-year history through images of its evolving shoreline. "Mapping New York's Shoreline, 1609-2009," which opens Sept. 25, features about 200 maps, prints and atlases mostly from the library's collection. The show is one of many cultural events this year marking the 400th anniversary of Dutch explorer Henry Hudson's arrival in what is now Manhattan.

"So often, people look at the land side, not the water," says Alice C. Hudson (no relation to Henry), the exhibit's curator. Some of the library's maps date back to the 1600s; some current landscapes will be displayed for contrast using Google Earth animation.

The area that is today home to the densely packed East Village neighborhood, in the 18th century was home to Rutgers Farm. The 100-acre plot also included a brewery—a valuable business in a city that didn't yet have a public water supply.

Oysters, now long gone because of industrial pollution, were once a large part of the city's history. In the 19th century, oyster stands were as common as the hot dog stands of today, Ms. Hudson says. Pearl Street, which runs through the neighborhood that is today Chinatown, was named for the oyster shells that were once used to pave it.

Many of the more recent maps in the exhibit were created to document neighborhoods for insurance purposes after fire wiped out parts of Manhattan in 1835. Ms. Hudson says each map takes hours of prep work before it is ready to display, including hand-cleaning the surface with a dry powder. "A map show is very visual, it's not just literature in a book," Ms. Hudson says.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204518504574417042305587638.html

[stache]

Sander did mention a 125th Street crosstown in his speech, though.

I read somewhere that this is the long term plan.

[Merry]

Map Nerds Rejoice: NYPL Launches Interactive Site

http://gothamist.com/attachments/arts_jen/mapnypl0110.jpg

This morning we looked at the Croton Reservoir (http://gothamist.com/2010/02/04/flashback_croton_reservoir.php), where the New York Public Library's main branch (http://gothamist.com/2009/05/05/nypl.php) now sits. In the time that it's been there—since the early 1900s—the surface of New York City has continued to change. Luckily, the library is home to a massive collection of maps (http://gothamist.com/2009/07/31/mapping_new_yorks_shoreline_1609-20.php), which chart the changes of this city as well as other areas—and this week (http://www.nypl.org/blog/2010/02/03/drawing-past-enlivening-study-historical-geography-mapsnyplorg) they've officially launched maps.nypl.org (http://maps.nypl.org/). The site also hosts "a powerful set of tools designed to significantly enhance the way we access and use maps and the cartographic information they contain." Click! Zoom! Pan!

So learn more about the georectification (http://maps.nypl.org/warper/), or “warping" process (tutorial after the jump) and make some cool maps! Anyone can participate by creating an account on the site.

NYPL Map Warper How-to (http://gothamist.com/2010/02/04/nypl_maps_launches.php)

http://gothamist.com/2010/02/04/nypl_maps_launches.php

[Merry]

New Website Combines Old Photos With Google Maps

http://gothamist.com/attachments/arts_jen/phpOtBtirPM.jpg

Earlier this month the New York Public Library launched their interactive map site (http://gothamist.com/2010/02/04/nypl_maps_launches.php), which allows users to bring the old city landscape together with the current one. Now the folks at SepiaTown (http://www.sepiatown.com/) are zooming in a little bit closer. The site, which just launched, "lets people experience the past through a large and growing collection of user-submitted, mapped historical images."

Currently there are around 400 images on the site, and a cumbersome looking map with thumbnails of those images. If all goes as planned, the site will be adding new features and growing in the next few months—when they promise "a mobile version, filtering by date and media type, film and audio upload, plus individualized pages for registered users."

Hopefully they'll also include more information with each image uploaded. For example, the picture above is just captioned: "222 Columbia Heights. 1936." Through the Google machine, one can find a little bit more information at the Museum of the City of New York (http://www.mcny.org/museum-collections/berenice-abbott/a127.htm), where they note that the home pictured was built in 1865 for the Cornell Family, and "although Brooklyn Heights was designated a historic district in 1965, the Cornell mansion was torn down and replaced in 1982 with a small apartment house. To meet landmark regulations, the apartment house (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&source=hp&q=222+columbia+heights+brooklyn&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=222+Columbia+Heights,+Brooklyn,+Kings,+New+Y ork+11201&gl=us&ei=nAaCS7zGN8zT8QaH0ZScBQ&ved=0CAgQ8gEwAA&ll=40.696502,-73.997211&spn=0.008183,0.017681&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=40.696414,-73.997274&panoid=UzgK0rZ4hpPx0eiD7-y8SA&cbp=12,326.14,,0,-19.62) conformed to the shape of the original mansion."

http://gothamist.com/2010/02/22/new_website_combines_old_photos_wit.php

[Hof]

I have a 24"x13" 19th Century map of Manhattan, something I acquired, mounted and framed myself back when I was in college as part of an art project. I don't remember how it came into my possesion.
It is VERY detailed, a lovely antique and still in quite good condition despite having faded into dull yellow sepia tones. While there is no identifiable date on the map, it shows the Brooklyn Bridge as the only East River crossing, and it is labelled "Suspension Bridge" rather than "Brooklyn Bridge", which seems to indicate that the bridge was proposed or maybe under construction.
It also shows numerous ferry crossings and seems to put emphasis on the "Glen Island Pier" docks, which were located at waterside 32nd St Manhattan and 2nd St Brooklyn. There is another Glen Island Pier (Pier 18) on the Hudson at Cortland St, and the Castle Garden at The Battery is shown to be directly on the water. According to the AIA Guide, the Castle Garden (originally Castle Clinton) had that name up until 1855, when it was changed to the Emigrant Landing Depot. It was later the NY Aquarium...

The map was most likely a commercial publication, since it pinpoints in red several hotels, most notably the Plaza, Oriental and Murray Hill hotels, among other references.
It also points out the John Wannamaker building and something named "Acker, Merrill and Condit", at Broadway and, I think, Park Place, just to the west of the Courthouse/City Hall.
I have had it hanging on my various walls ever since I can remember but have never had a clue about just how old it actually is. I'm sure it must be post-Civil War, but I don't know for certain.
Anyone have any idea how old the map might be???

[lofter1]

... It also points out the John Wannamaker building and something named "Acker, Merrill and Condit", at Broadway and, I think, Park Place, just to the west of the Courthouse/City Hall.


Seems the proper spelling for that firm (http://www.ackerwines.com/) is "Merrall" ...




Founded in 1820, Acker Merrall & Condit is America's Oldest and Finest Wine Shop.


They started as grocers of a sort, later offering "the most varied and choicest stock of Groceries, Liquors, Cigars and Perfumery in the World; everything you require in food products."

By 1906 A M & C (http://www.archive.org/stream/newlucilecookboo00acke#page/n5/mode/2up) had operations all over NYC -- including a store at 130-132 Chambers Street (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=safari&ie=UTF8&q=%22130+Chambers+Street+New+York+NY%22&fb=1&gl=us&hnear=&cid=0,0,16024652293005339106&ei=iXWNS56QJ9W7lAeOz6R7&ved=0CAcQnwIwAA&hq=%22130+Chambers+Street+New+York+NY%22&z=16&layer=c&cbll=40.715378,-74.008931&panoid=4U4w4d4GOjxKJLyyv9RvaA&cbp=12,282.11,,0,-22.14) on the SE corner of Chambers / West Broadway, now the site of the new Smyth Hotel (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12409) and opposite the old and trusted Cosmopolitan Hotel (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=248616&postcount=20).

[devb]

Hof, would you be able to post a picture of the map?

David Rumsey has a great collection of historic NYC maps online, available for viewing and download as MrSID files (which you can convert to other image formats if you have Windows.. if not, you can only view them).

http://www.davidrumsey.com/NYC.htm

[devb]

Additional map resources:

Library of Congress has hundreds of historic maps of the area.

Start here: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdPlaces21.html
and scroll through the next two pages for all New York State/City locations.

University of Texas has a lot of maps here: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historic_us_cities.html#N (scroll down to New York).

USGS historic maps, Brooklyn and Richmond
http://docs.unh.edu/nhtopos/Brooklyn.htm
http://docs.unh.edu/nhtopos/StatenIsland.htm

Stonybrook's collection
http://www.stonybrook.edu/libmap/nypath1.htm

[Hof]

devb--

Unfortunately, I can't post the map. It is framed, behind glass and sealed at the rear. Even if I take the map from the frame, it's way too large to scan.

Good work on the AM&C info, Lofter. I was unable to find any references to it, even in the comprehensive "Encyclopedia of NYC".

Any idea what the Glen Island items are??
I seem to remember something called the Glen Island Casino, but I can't put it into context.

Do you have any idea yet about the age of my map??

[devb]

Oh, I wasn't asking for a hi-res scan. Just a photo, maybe.

[lofter1]

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Bridge) what we call the Brooklyn Bridge wasn't officially named that until 1915. Construction on what was originally called the New York and Brooklyn Bridge began in 1870 and it opened in 1883.

This NY TImes article (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A01E4DD1E39E333A25756C0A9619C946196D6CF) [pdf] from July 5, 1910 makes note of the many people who took excursions on the 4th of July that year, and a great number later that day waited for boats to return to the City and gathered "at the Glen Island Pier, opposite New Rochelle."

There is now a 105 acre Glen Island Park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Island_Park_(New_Rochelle,_New_York)) in Long Island Sound operated by Westchester County (http://westchestergov.com/parks/ParksLocations02/GlenIsland.htm). The original resort / park on that site was a private enterprise and opened in 1881:



In 1879 former U.S. Congressman John H. Starin bought Glen Island and four nearby islands. He gave Glen Island its name and converted the islands into a summer resort for city dwellers that has been called "the first theme park." The islands were connected by causeways and piers and each island featured a different international theme. Steamships transported visitors from New York City to the park. The park, which opened in 1881, attracted thousands of people daily ...

http://www.newrochellenews.info/images/GlenIslandCard.JPG

A map of "Starin's Glen Island" park back in the day:

http://www.newrochellenews.info/images/GlenIslandPlan.PNG

The Glen Island (http://www.newrochellenews.info/HTML/GlenIsland.html) resort lasted just a little over 20 years, and remembrance of it has been overshadowed by the tragedy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS_General_Slocum) that sealed its fate:


The end of the island's heyday came in 1904 when the Starin steamship, General Slocum, burned in 'Hellgate' with a loss of 1,030 lives. Afterwards the management passed into other hands and, becoming unprofitable, the resort was finally closed. The extensive bathing houses were burned and later the mansion house of Lewis A. DePau, which had been Starin's summer home, met the same fate. The park remained virtually untouched or visited for the next twenty years until 1924 when the Westchester County Park Commission purchased it to add to its County Park System.

The SS General Slocum at dock (very possibly at Glen Island):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/SS_General_Slocum.jpg

The demise of the General Slocum (1904):

http://www.unitedstatesparkpolice.com/sitebuilder/images/GeneralSlocum.comkolsch-474x432.jpg

In very tiny writing at the bottom of this image is written:


Boats start from Starin Pier, New No. 13, North River

http://www.newrochellenews.info/images/Glen%20Island%20photo%20comp.PNG

In 1936 Berenice Abbott took a fantastic photo (http://www.mcny.org/museum-collections/berenice-abbott/a108.htm) of the Starin Pier 13 at the foot of Cortland Street:

http://www.mcny.org/museum-collections/berenice-abbott/108.jpg

More photos of Pier 13 from the 1930s HERE (http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/pierstations.html#13):

http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/dlwpier13hr2.jpg

http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/dlwpier13hrfront2.jpg

And, since I've already gotten carried away, there's this bit of Americana ...

*

[NYatKNIGHT]

What about other landmarks - is the City Hall Post Office there? (1878)

[lofter1]

Given the info above I'd say the map in question is circa 1885.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Is the Statue of Liberty on the map?

[Hof]

Yes, the City Hall is there ( also the Courthouse...the Tweed Courthouse???) and the PO is also shown...The map doesn't show much of the Harbor south of Ellis Island and there is no mention of the Statue of Liberty...

I'm also thinking it dates from the late 1880s. I have been going over it with a magnifying glass to try and find some info on its publication with no success.

[devb]

What bridges are over the Harlem River on it? Washington was finished in 1888, Cole's was replaced with the first Third Ave in 1868, the second in 1898. Macomb's Dam was finished in 1895. The first Madison Ave bridge was built in 1884.

[Hof]

devb

The map is cut off at 94th St, right at the north end of the Croton Reservoir so I can't tell if the Harlem River Bridge--or any others--are in existence yet. ( also, as I said, the Brooklyn is the only bridge shown connecting Manhattan to the world.).
There are no bridges to "Blackwell's Island", later Welfare Island, now Roosevelt Island.
There is no Bryant Park/ NY Public Library at 5th and 42nd--the old City Reservoir is shown on the map. It was drained in 1899 to make land for the Library, built in 1911. In 1884, according to the "Encyclopedia of NYC", it was named for William Cullen Bryant, and that name does NOT appear on the map. It is shown only as " Reservoir Park".

I think we are getting closer to pinpointing a date.

I'm going to try and photograph and post the map--if I can get a photo where the flash doesn't reflect off the glass...

While I'm at it, a friend gave me a 32" x13" architect's drawing of the Brooklyn Bridge for Christmas last year. It is very finely detailed, showing elevations of the piers from their cofferdam bases, numerous elevations from low/ high tide to the roadbed, NY and Brooklyn approaches, detailed drawings of the piers, etc, and dozens more measurements of the bridge. It's matted in a genuine, beat-up 41" x 18" antique frame with ancient, bubbly glass and is printed on very heavy rough-edged rag or vellum stock. It too is not dated, and says only "The Brooklyn Bridge Opened May 24th 1883, Designed by John Roebling Civil Engineer" at the bottom. He found it at an estate sale in Florida, and knowing that I'm a fan of all things New York, bought it as a gift for me for $20.00.

[NathanF]

I wish I had seen this thread before I had a homework from my Art History class. The professor asked us to draw detailed map of NYC. How sad is that :(

[Merry]

Dates on Maps

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/10/03/realestate/03scapes1-1/03scapes1-1-popup.jpg
A page from the "Atlas of the City of New York, Manhattan Island," 1897

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/10/03/realestate/03scapes1-2/03scapes1-2-popup.jpg
A portion of plate 100 in "Atlas of the Borough of Manhattan, G.W. Bromley & Co.," 1916.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/spacer.gif
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/10/03/realestate/03scapes1-3/03scapes1-3-popup.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/spacer.gif http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/spacer.gif
240 W. 104th Street in 1938.

Q. My son is a student at Columbia and lives at Broadway and 104th Street. Perhaps you can help me understand the old maps of the area that I have happened upon. Is the “1875” on the map the date for the first building on the block? That seems earlier than his building would suggest.

A. You are correct. Your son’s apartment house, at the southwest corner of 104th and Broadway, was built much later than 1875, in 1898 and ’99. Few land maps give dates of construction; the 1875 refers to the system of numbering each block on Manhattan Island. The lowest blocks are downtown, and the highest (up to 2255) are at the north end of the island.

Land maps are a rich source for anyone studying the development of New York. Two are reproduced here, both covering the area between 102nd and 104th Streets, from Broadway — once known as Boulevard — to Riverside Drive. One is from 1897, the other from 1916.

On both maps, each parcel is assigned a lot number; lot No. 1 is at the northeast corner of 103rd and West End. On the 1916 map, your son’s building, at the opposite corner of the block, is lot 53, seven stories high (the numeral 7, underlined), with a frontage of 101 feet on Broadway and 35 feet on the side street.

The small square with an X in the center marks an elevator shaft, and the uncolored area shows the rear yard. On the 1916 map someone who was evidently keeping track crossed out the block of row houses including lot No. 1; the present 884 West End Avenue apartment house was begun in 1919.

These maps were sold by various publishers from the 1850s onward. They generally share drawing conventions, like red for masonry buildings, and “3B” for a three-story, high-stoop row house. The 1897 map distinguishes regular brick buildings — pure red — from those with stone fronts, like the brownstone row houses on the rest of the block. At 102nd Street and Riverside, the cast-iron front of the William F. Foster residence is rendered in blue.

Today, old land maps for Manhattan are scattered across a wide array of institutions, with larger holdings at Avery Architectural Library at Columbia, the New-York Historical Society and the New York Public Library. Land maps are posted online within the New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery project (http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?topic=cities&col_id=442).

Two private companies sell reproductions of maps, davidrumsey.com (http://davidrumsey.com/) and historicmapworks.com, and the display there is good enough for reference use.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/realestate/03scapes1.html?ref=realestate&pagewanted=print

[lofter1]

Map geeks will love this new-ish feature from NYPL (http://www.nypl.org/blog/2010/02/03/drawing-past-enlivening-study-historical-geography-mapsnyplorg) ...

Drawing on the Past: Enlivening the Study of Historical Geography at maps.nypl.org

by Matt Knutzen, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Map Division
February 3, 2010

On behalf of The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division (http://www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/map-division), the NYPL’s Director of Digital Strategy and Scholarship and our partners EntropyFree LLC, I am proud to announce the launch of maps.nypl.org (http://maps.nypl.org/warper/)

This new website is a parallel snapshot of all maps currently available on the Digital Gallery (http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm) as well as a powerful set of tools designed to significantly enhance the way we access and use maps and the cartographic information they contain.

The first such enhancement is in how historic maps are viewed. The user interface of maps.nypl.org allows zooming and panning in a way that has come to be expected by users of web maps (Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/), Bing Maps (http://www.bing.com/maps/) etc...)

The next is georectification, which we are calling here “warping”, a familiar term to GIS professionals and few others. Map “warping” is the process where digital images of maps are stretched, placing the maps themselves into their geographic context, rendered either on the website or with tools such as Google Earth ...

Much more at the LINK (http://www.nypl.org/blog/2010/02/03/drawing-past-enlivening-study-historical-geography-mapsnyplorg)

[brianac]

Cunning, Care and Sheer Luck Save Rare Map

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/01/17/nyregion/map1/map1-articleLarge.jpg
Jonathan P. Derow, a specialist in restoring documents and artworks on paper, at the Brooklyn Historical Society with the 1770 map of New York City he helped bring back to life.

By MICHAEL WILSON (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/michael_wilson/index.html?inline=nyt-per)

Published: January 16, 2011

It was rolled up among other yellowed maps and prints that came off a delivery truck at the Brooklyn Historical Society (http://www.brooklynhistory.org/default/index.html)’s stately office near the East River. Carolyn Hansen, the society’s map cataloguer, began to gently unfurl the canvas.

Multimedia
http://graphics8.nytimes.com//images/2011/01/17/nyregion/map_190.jpgInteractive Feature (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/01/17/nyregion/20110117-map-restoration.html?ref=nyregion)

A 240-Year-Old Map Is Reborn (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/01/17/nyregion/20110117-map-restoration.html?ref=nyregion)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/01/17/nyregion/map2/map2-popup.jpgBrooklyn Historical Society
The 1770 map before, left, and after its restoration.

“You could hear it rip,” said Ms. Hansen, 29, still cringing at the memory. She stopped pulling. But enough of the map, browned with age and dry and crisp as a stale chip, was open to reveal a name: Ratzer.

“We have a Ratzer map,” said James Rossman, chairman of the society, who happened to be in the building that Monday last May. That statement, despite the reverence in its delivery, meant little to the others in the room, but it would soon reverberate in cartography circles and among map scholars.

The name Ratzer is invoked as something of a Da Vinci of New York cartography, and the map was an early edition of his best-known work: a Bernard Ratzer “Plan of the City of New York” in its 1770 state.

There were widely believed to be only three copies of this exact map in existence. One of them belonged to King George III and remains in the British Library in London, where it is displayed occasionally. The other two — one legible, the other tanned and dark with shellac — are at the New-York Historical Society on the Upper West Side and remain in storage but for two or three times a year, when they are pulled out for students.

Restoring this surprise fourth map, aged beyond its 240 years by its destructive shellac coating, became an immediate priority in Brooklyn. Its transformation from literally untouchable to clearly legible and mounted behind glass, to be unveiled at a private party at the society on Wednesday night, involved science, patience and more than a little bit of kitchen-sink cunning, calling to service, at one delicate point, boiling pots of old books used to distill the color of aged paper.

Not that anyone at the Brooklyn Historical Society knew what it had. The map had been delivered from the society’s warehouse in Connecticut. The society said it had no catalog listing the map or when it had been acquired. It had been shellacked and mounted on linen, with a wooden pole attached at the bottom, presumably to bestow a more artistic air. It had probably hung on a wall somewhere for who knows how long, but in May it was in disastrous shape.

The map had been cut in long strips to allow it to be rolled up for storage. The strips were so brittle they broke when touched. It took a lot of squinting and bending, breath held in, to discover that it was a Ratzer 1770 — its name perhaps an error, as it was most likely completed in 1769.

A British Army officer in America, Lieutenant Ratzer was a surveyor and draftsman, and his map was immediately praised as a step forward from those of his predecessors. For his trouble, his name was misspelled on initial versions of his maps, called the “Ratzen plan.”

The map included a detailed rendering of the island’s slips and shores and streets in Lower Manhattan, the familiar mixing with the long gone. Pearl, Broad, Grand and Prince lay beside Fair and Crown and the “Fresh Water” pond.

“Manhattan, at least the part shown here, was mapped as precisely as any spot on the Earth at the time,” said Robert T. Augustyn, co-author of ”Manhattan in Maps: 1527-1995” (Rizzoli International Publications, 1997). “There was no more beautiful or revealing a map of New York City ever done.”

There are notable buildings: “The Powder House,” “The City Hall,” “The Prison,” “The Theatre.” Mr. Ratzer included detailed topography, with hills and woodlands near Kips Bay and Turtle Bay that have disappeared.

“It’s one of the ways we know about how this place looked before the grid really took hold,” said Matthew A. Knutzen, geospatial librarian in the New York Public Library (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/new_york_public_library/index.html?inline=nyt-org)’s map division.

The bottom of the map contains a striking illustration of the view of Manhattan as seen from Governors Island, with ships, soldiers, waves and smoke. Brooklyn, or “Brookland,” is a patchwork of farms of different shades, bisected by Flatbush Road.

A later version known as the second state, published in 1776 and nearly identical to the first except for a tiny line of text from the publisher, is more common. England’s 1770 state was presented to George III and remained in his expansive collection. “Publishers gave him one as soon as it came off the press,” said Peter Michael Barber, head of the cartographic and topographic materials department at the British Library.

The two 1770 maps at the New-York Historical Society were gifts of its founder, John Pintard, on Jan. 4, 1810, according to its catalog. That would make, barring the existence of other copies unknown to map archivists, this fourth map in Brooklyn the first one discovered in 200 years.

“It’s incredibly significant,” Mr. Knutzen said. “It’s a needle in a haystack.”

The provenance of the Brooklyn map is a little murky. On the back of the linen that Ms. Hansen began unrolling last May, the name Pierrepont was clearly legible, from the prominent Brooklyn family. But there was no indication how or when it came to land in the Connecticut warehouse, the society said.

Fearful of causing more damage, the society called Jonathan P. Derow (http://www.jdconservation.com/about-jon-derow-art-conservator.php), a paper conservationist in Park Slope, who came right over. “It was in terrible condition,” Mr. Derow, 44, said. “I suggested it not be rerolled. Every time it was handled, more pieces were broken apart, and the damage was increased.”

It was too brittle to move to his office, so he made a makeshift plastic tent in the society’s office and inserted a humidifier. The hard paper softened, and Mr. Derow, a conservationist since 1991, carried it away in a mode unthinkable at the time of the map’s creation: a Zipcar (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/business/23share.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=Zipcar&st=cse).

He washed the map for four days in an alkaline bath that removed acid and grime, and he cut away the linen backing. He aligned the pieces, using a strong magnifying glass and tweezers, and let the map dry, only to see tiny gaps appear between strips, the result of the paper’s shrinking. He rewet it and started over, but let the pieces overlap slightly. That worked: the map shrank perfectly in place.

White lines were visible where the map had ripped, the brighter inner fabrics of the paper standing out from the stained surface. Mr. Derow visited Argosy Book Store on the Upper East Side and bought a handful of obscure old books — among them, for example, “The Select Dialogues of Lucian, to Which Is Added, a New Literal Translation in Latin, With Notes in English,” from 1804 — that were printed on cloth paper, like the map, and not wood pulp.

He performed on them a technique that should chill the blood of any author, wondering where his books will be in 200 years: he baked them in his kitchen stove and boiled them in water. He painted the resulting brackish stew onto the white lines, matching them to the rest of the map.

Did he ever, perhaps in a rush, consult the map for a meeting in an unfamiliar part of town? “There’s barely anything about Brooklyn on there,” he said.

He framed the finished product behind plexiglass. The society, which paid a reduced rate of $5,000 for the restoration, plans a public viewing in the future.

There is no hurry. “It will last for hundreds and hundreds of years,” Mr. Derow said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/nyregion/17map.html?pagewanted=1&ref=nyregion

[Merry]

Maps, They Don’t Love You Like I Love You

http://www.architizer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/090111viele_collect-600x439.jpg (http://www.architizer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/090111viele_collect.jpg)
Viele's 1865 map of Manhattan superimposed on today's grid, part of the OASIS exhibition

Mapping the Cityscape
July 6 – August 27, 2011 at the Center for Architecture

Manhattan mapped is a city of perfect rectangles with a few drunken diagonals running through it. As a planner, my passion for maps does not fall anywhere on the spectrum of normal; nerdiness aside, Manhattan’s various revisualizations are evocative enough to make even the not-so-map-inclined rethink their conceptualizations of the city.

Why these maps are crushworthy, after the jump: (http://www.architizer.com/blog/dyn/25544/maps-to-love/)

Mapping the Cityscape celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Manhattan street grid (aka the 1811 Commissioner’s Plan) by highlighting how maps influence our understanding of the urban environment. This exhibition is just two walls, but the maps displayed show information spanning five hundred years from1609– before Manhattan began to be urbanized by the Dutch– to today.

Maps have historically been navigational, but digital mapping programs have made infographics that convey information in layers ubiquitous. Computer and smart phone technology made them more publicly accessible and fostered the addition of user-generated input; thus changing how mapping is conceived and used.

The maps here cover a lot of ground and although the density of the exhibition makes for a bit of a whirlwind tour, almost every map is a memorable highlight.

http://www.architizer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/mannahatta-map_midtown-600x273.jpg (http://www.architizer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/mannahatta-map_midtown.jpg)
The Mannahatta Project maps unbuillt midtown Manhattan.

The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Mannahatta maps visualize the unbuilt island as it was in 1609, with Manhattan’s hilly topography, the land use by the Lenape tribe, and a hilarious map showing where one might have a higher probability of running into beavers. How practical!

http://www.architizer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/virtualnewams-600x360.jpg (http://www.architizer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/virtualnewams.jpg)
Environmental Simulation Center imagines New Amsterdam via 3D mapping

The Environmental Simulation Center has created maps of quite a different tone, using historical maps and vivid imagination to create Virtual New Amsterdam. Here, 3-D maps bring the quaint settlement to life with aptly popomo (post-post-modernist) renderings.

Moving on or perhaps backward to the pre-popomo, OASIS (Open Accessible Space Information System) at Center for Urban Research, City University of New York, takes a completely different look at the past, showing changes over time in iterations of the city by juxtaposing maps from the 18th and 19th centuries on today’s Manhattan street grid.

Next is a bright, clean, and familiar transit map. These are Tauranac maps, as in John Tauranac, the native Manhattanite who designed the iconic 1979 subway map we still use over thirty years later. Also shown is his much more recent Manhattan Block by Block project (first created in 2000 and updated many times since), a street by street atlas of Manhattan. Utterly droolworthy. Seriously. Few things are more satisfying to look at and absorb than a well-designed map.

http://www.architizer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/tauranac1-600x408.jpg (http://www.architizer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/tauranac1.jpg)
Tauranac's iconic 1979 NYC subway map.

Which bring us to the spectacular maps of the Spatial Information Design Lab (SIDL) at Columbia University. This work is enough to bring any data visualization fetishist’s infatuation to a new level. While SIDL includes newer work mapping 311 complaints as a portion of the exhibition, the thought-provoking standout of the show is the Million Dollar Blocks (2005) project. These eye-catching red and black maps highlight blocks in Manhattan (and all of New York City) where the state spends more than a million dollars per year is spent its incarcerate residents. The purpose of the project is to draw attention to how much money is spent on incarceration, and the geographies (overwhelming low-income, majority people of color communities) most affected.

http://www.architizer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/sidl3-600x600.jpg (http://www.architizer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/sidl3.jpg)
A block detail from a Million Dollar Blocks Map.

Because of the brutal reality it portrays, Million Dollar Blocks is the most obviously provocative image in this tiny, powerful exhibition. But all tell an urban story only illustratable by maps.

http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/25544/maps-to-love/

[lofter1]

From The Minerals Of New York City (http://www.johnbetts-fineminerals.com/jhbnyc/articles/nycminerals1.htm)

Map and geologic sections of Manhattan Island from Cozzens (1843) illustrating the topography of Manhattan.

http://www.johnbetts-fineminerals.com/jhbnyc/articles/nycminerals2.jpg


Map of northern Manhattan Island by Colton (1836) showing the old marble quarry near Spuyten Duyvil Creek and
another quarry across the creek in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.

http://www.johnbetts-fineminerals.com/jhbnyc/articles/nycminerals35.jpg

[lofter1]

Here's a fantastic place to lose a few hours of work :cool: ...

Bridges’ survey of Manhattan, NYC (1807) (http://www.bigmapblog.com/2012/bridges-survey-of-manhattan-nyc-1807/)

Zoomable map with great detail of Manhattan as it was way back when.