Maps

“Cartographic materials” and “cartographic resources” are phrases that we use in the map library world to describe a whole gamut of map-like information sources. Elevation profiles and geologic sections are particular types of cartographic materials that represent vertical planes, perpendicular to the earth’s surface, in contrast to the typical horizontal-surface representations commonly referred to as maps.

Here are a couple of examples from the NYPL Digital Gallery that show the added dimension that profiles can provide for an understanding of the New York City environment. Click on the images to connect to them in the Digital Gallery, where you can enlarge and zoom into them.

Profile of the twelve avenues in the city of New York

[Profile of] Tibbits Brook route [of Croton Aqueduct from the Harlem River to the Battery in Manhattan]

(Note the distributing reservoir on the crest of Murray['s] Hill, the site of NYPL!)

A popular collection in the NYPL's Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, and one of my personal favorites, is the county atlas series, most of which was published following the passage of a federal law commemorating the centennial of the United States. We have recently digitized 43 atlases covering New York and New Jersey from our collection of more than 420 titles printed before 1900. See this page for a list of digital holdings from this series.

Their pages are filled not only with wonderfully detailed maps on the national, state, county, township and city level, but also with interesting, flat perspective engravings depicting local business districts, prominent estates and farms. Business directories sometimes accompany the map pages that, along with the drawings, provide a glimpse into local social and economic geography of the 19th century. They also give us an idea of who provided funding for the production of these subscription based publications.

If you like the "Satellite View" feature in Google Maps then you should enjoy these aerial photographs of New York City. In 1924 Arthur Tuttle flew over the city snapping pictures of every building and landmark there was. His images of NYC rooftops clearly show the outline of all the buildings. The atlas containing his photos is called:

Sectional aerial maps of the City of New York / [photographed and assembled under the direction of the chief engineer, July 1st, 1924].

Here are a couple of samples cropped from larger images:

The Staten Island Ferry Terminal (from image 21A)

There's a great selection of Staten Island maps and Atlases in the NYPL Digital Gallery. Using the "Pan and Zoom" feature the maps can be enlarged to the point where you can read street names and even the names of residents of individual houses. "Pan and Zoom" is not available on all maps, however.

Here are some of the maps and atlases available:

Atlas of Staten Island, Richmond County, New York, from official records and surveys; compiled and drawn by F. W. Beers.
Published in 1874, this Atlas contains 35 maps of neighborhoods on Staten Island including property lines, names of property owners, and outlines of individual buildings.

Borough of Richmond, Topographical Survey. (1906-1913)

Researchers who visit the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division are interested, more often than not, in our resources on New York City history. If they don’t know about them before they arrive, our readers quickly become familiar with names like Perris, Bromley, Robinson, Sanborn, and Hyde for the fire insurance and real estate maps, showing buildings block by block, that they published over the years. Without doubt, we will write more about these maps and use them to illustrate our postings about neighborhoods (e.g., Five Points) and related topics of local interest.

Five Points was a neighborhood area in Lower Manhattan, northeast of City Hall, at the intersection where Baxter [formerly Orange], Worth [formerly Anthony], Park Street [formerly Cross] came together to form a five point intersection. The area was made famous in the book, The Gangs of New York, by Herbert Asbury, 1928, and the screenplay to the 2002 movie. Matthew Dripps’ 1852 map, pl. 2, has the original street names, and notes the presence of the Pirnics Distillery, but not the Mission or House of Industry.