Cartography of New York City

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 of 1631. ^[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

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

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

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

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	Alonso de Velasco y Salinas  [ es ] (?)	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 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

• New York City Subway map
• The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1915-1928 book by Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes

References

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. 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. Cohen & Augustyn (1997), p.10
3. 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. 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. 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.

External links

• Brooklyn Historical Society’s map collection - over 1,500 maps
• Navigating New York with the “City of Women” Map