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Cartography of New York City

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The cartography of New York City is the creation, editing, processing and printing of maps that depict the islands and mainland that now comprise New York City and its immediate environs.[1] The earliest surviving map of the area is the Manatus Map.[1]

According to Robert T. Augstyn and Paul E. Cohen in their study Manhattan in Maps: 1527 - 1995, New York City is unique in that it is young enough that, unlike major European and Asian cities, and unlike other American cities of about the same age, its early maps have survived. Further, its founding as a city for European immigrants came during the early- and mid-seventeenth century, a golden age of mapmaking with its center in Holland. When New Amsterdam was a young colony, Amsterdam was turning out more accurate maps than ever before in history. As a commercial city, the merchants and seafarers of the new colony needed more and better maps so they could monitor and extend their commercial activities.[2]

When the British took over New Amsterdam and renamed it New York, surveying and mapmaking continued, but at a slower pace, which was connected to the reduced rate of growth of the city under British rule, and the lack of close administration of the colony by the mother country than had been the case under the Dutch.[2]

During the American Revolution, New York City and its environs was an early battleground, and then the headquarters of the British. This provoked maps to be used in military campaigns, or in the defense of the city. New York became "the most thoroughly mapped urban area in America."[2]

Indigenous mapping

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There are no written records that directly reference mapping by the Wappinger or the Lenape, the Native Americans who inhabited the New York City area before European colonization. However, scholars assume the Native Americans who lived on the land that now comprises New York City, as in other places, passed down a record of the spatial distribution of their resources and territory via an oral tradition.[3]

A large Native American footpath extending into Canada, the Northeastern Great Trail, ran through the land now known as New York City.[4] The footpath served as a trade route for the Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking indigenous peoples who lived along the Great Trail.[5] No maps of the Great Trail are known to have existed; however, scholars hypothesize information on the trading route was passed down via oral tradition and possibly also impermanent bark scrolls similar to the Ojibwe wiigwaasabak.[5] Written reports describe the Lenape using bark scrolls to draw pictographs to map areas, including the particularly elaborate though questionable Walam Olum; however, none of these maps survive today.[3] Thomas Dermer in a 1619 letter described a Lenape harbor pilot, at his request, drawing an accurate map of Manhattan and surrounding waters, drafting it in chalk on a seaman's chest.[6]

Colonial mapping

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The earliest surviving map of the area now known as New York City is the Manatus Map, depicting what is now Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, and New Jersey in the early days of New Amsterdam.[7] The Dutch colony was mapped by cartographers working for the Dutch Republic. New Netherland had a position of surveyor general. Surveyors and cartographers active during this period of early modern Netherlandish cartography include Cryn Fredericks, Jacques Cortelyou, Andries Hudde and Johannes Vingboons. From the Manatus Map onward, much early cartography of the area had the West as its map orientation. Mapping continued and intensified after the British took control of the colony and renamed it New York in 1664.[8]

American mapping

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Mapping of New York City continued during the American Revolutionary War.[9] One of the last maps under British occupation was made in 1781 by two military cartographers.[10] The first official map of New York City under independence was likely the Commissioners' Plan of 1811.[9]

Columbus Circle serves as a geographic center for New York City, taking the role of a zero-mile point. It has been used as such by the city government for its employees, by the United Nations for the C-2 visa, and by Hagstrom Map.

The first map to extensively depict New York City's transit lines is a United States Geological Survey map of southern Brooklyn drafted in 1888. The first subway focused map was published in 1904-1905 when several maps were published alongside the opening of the IRT subway.[11] The New York City Subway map in use today came about in 1958 when George Salomon redesigned the previous map model where individual subway operating companies made their own maps. The change to a singular map was facilitated by the Board of Transportation and later the New York City Transit Authority taking over and managing the subway system as a singular entity.[12] In 2016, Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly Schapiro created a "City of Women" map based on the Vignelli subway map, renaming each subway station for a woman who contributed to New York City.[13]

In 2021, the Brooklyn Historical Society published a digitized database of ~1,500 maps of New York City and the surrounding areas dating back to the 17th century.[1]

Notable maps of New York City

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Map Map name Date depicting Published Author Commissioned by Geography depicted
Maggiolo Map[14][notes 1] 1527 (?) Vesconte de Maggiolo (or Maiollo) East coasts of North, Central and South America, and Caribbean Sea
Gastaldi Map[15] 1556 Giacomo di Gastaldi New York to Labrador
Velasco Map[16] 1610 unknown Chesapeake Bay to Labrador
Block Figurative Map[17] 1614 Adriaen Block and Cornelis Doetsz New York to Maine
Minuit Chart[18] c.1630 c.1660 (drawn) Peter Minuit (?) Hudson (North) River in New Netherland, including Manhattan ("Manatus")
De Laet-Gerritsz Map[19] c.1625-1630 1630
by Johannes de Laet 		Hessel Gerritsz Virginia to Nova Scotia
Manatus Map 1639 Author disputed New Netherland Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, New Jersey
Jansson-Visscher Map[20] c.1651-1653 c.1655-1677
by Claes Janzoon Visscher 		Augustine Hermann (?) Delaware Bay to Maine
Goos Chart[21] c.1656 1666 or 1672
by Pieter Goos 		unknown Delaware Bay to New York Bay
Castello Plan 1660 1667

Reprinted and named Castello Plan in 1916

Jacques Cortelyou New Netherland Manhattan
Duke's Plan 1664 1859 George Hayward Lithograph for D. T. Valentine's manual Manhattan, Long Island (Brooklyn), New Jersey
Jollain View
(fictitious) 		1672 1672 (?)
by Gérard or François Jollain 		unknown supposedly New Amsterdam (Manhattan), actually based on a view of Lisbon from c.1580[22]
Tiddeman Chart[23] 1749 Mark Tiddeman George Hayward name Manhattan, Long Island (Brooklyn & Queens), Staten Island, New Jersey
Montresor Map 1766 John Montresor Thomas Gage for the British Army Manhattan, Long Island (Brooklyn), Staten Island, New Jersey
British Headquarters Map 1782
Ratzer Map 1767 Bernard Ratzer Sir Henry Moore, 1st Baronet Manhattan, Long Island (Brooklyn & Queens), New Jersey
Taylor Map 1797 Benjamin Taylor, artist

John Roberts, engraver

Southern end of Manhattan, Brooklyn
Commissioners' Plan of 1811 1811 Gouverneur Morris, John Rutherfurd, Simeon De Witt, and John Randel Jr. New York State Legislature Manhattan
Manhattan Blue Book 1815 1815

Expanded edition published in 1868

Otto Sackersdorf Manhattan
Commissioners' Plan of 1821 1811 1821 John Randel Jr. Manhattan, Long Island (Brooklyn & Queens), the Bronx, Connecticut, Massachusetts
The Eddy Map 1823 1828 John H. Eddy Manhattan, Long Island, Bronx, New Jersey, Staten Island
Mahon Map[24] 1831
by S. Mahon 		William Chapin Lower Manhattan
Hooker Map 1831 William Hooker Peabody and Company Manhattan
David H. Burr Map 1834 David H. Burr Manhattan, Brooklyn
Bradford Map 1839 Thomas Gamaliel Bradford Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey
Mitchell Map 1846 Samuel Augustus Mitchell Manhattan, Brooklyn
Colton Map 1853 J. H. Colton Manhattan, Long Island, Bronx, New Jersey, Staten Island
New York Bay and Harbor, 1861 1861 United States Coast Guard Manhattan, Long Island (Brooklyn & Queens), Bronx, New Jersey, Staten Island
Dripps Map 1863 Matthew Dripps Manhattan, Brooklyn
Viele Map 1865 Egbert Ludovicus Viele
Rogers Map 1868 W. C. Rogers Manhattan
Beers Map 1872 Fredrick W. Beers Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island City

See also

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maps of Long Island published in 1873 by Beers, Comstock & Cline.

References

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Informational notes

  1. ^ The map was housed in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan and was destroyed during World War II. A version from 1531 is in the Louvre Abu Dhabi. "Maggiolo World Map"

Citations

  1. ^ a b c Bahr, Sarah (July 16, 2020). "Online Map Collection Provides a Peek at New York Over the Centuries". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Cohen & Augustyn (1997), p.10
  3. ^ a b Lewis, G Malcolm (1998). Cartographic encounters : perspectives on Native American mapmaking and map use. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226476940.
  4. ^ Levine, Lucie (November 20, 2018). "Mapping Manahatta: 10 Lenape sites in New York City". 6sqft. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
  5. ^ a b Cohen, Michelle (July 30, 2018). "This 1946 map shows how Native American trails became the streets of Brooklyn". 6sqft. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
  6. ^ Stokes, Isaac Newton Phelps (1922). The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909: The period of discovery (565-1626); the Dutch period (1626-1664). The English period (1664-1763). The Revolutionary period, part I (1763-1776). Robert H. Dodd. p. 44.
  7. ^ Kooi, Christine and Jacobs, Jaap (December 1, 2006). "New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America". Sixteenth Century Journal. 37 (4): 1100. doi:10.2307/20478146. ISSN 0361-0160. JSTOR 20478146.
  8. ^ "Old Maps of Manhattan - New York City". www.old-maps.com. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
  9. ^ a b Cohen, Paul E. and Augustyn, Robert T. (2014). Manhattan in Maps: 1527-2014. Mineola, New York: Dover. ISBN 978-0-486-77991-1. OCLC 893486350. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
  10. ^ A Map of New York, & Staten Islds; And part of Long Island: Surveyed by Order of His Excellency General Sir Henry Clinton K.B. Commander in Chief of His Majesty's Forces &ca. &ca. &ca. 1781
  11. ^ "Historical Maps". www.nycsubway.org. Retrieved May 28, 2021.
  12. ^ "History of the Independent Subway". www.nycsubway.org. Retrieved May 28, 2021.
  13. ^ Solnit, Rebecca (October 11, 2016). "City of Women". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 28, 2021.
  14. ^ Cohen & Augustyn (1997), pp.16-17
  15. ^ Cohen & Augustyn (1997), pp.18-19
  16. ^ Cohen & Augustyn (1997), pp.20-21
  17. ^ Cohen & Augustyn (1997), pp.22-23
  18. ^ Cohen & Augustyn (1997), pp.24-25
  19. ^ Cohen & Augustyn (1997), pp.26-27
  20. ^ Cohen & Augustyn (1997), pp.32-33
  21. ^ Cohen & Augustyn (1997), pp.36-37
  22. ^ Cohen & Augustyn (1997), pp.34-35
  23. ^ "A draught of New York from the Hook to New York Town: by Mark Tiddeman - Map Collections". Map Collections. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
  24. ^ "Plan of the city of New York : for the use of strangers". NYPL Digital Collections. Retrieved May 27, 2021.

Bibliography

  • Cohen, Paul E. and Augustyn, Robert T. (1997). Manhattan in Maps: 1527-1995. New York: Rizzoli International Press. ISBN 0847820521.
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