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Map Collection Fact Sheet
Map Collection Fact Sheet
The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division The New York Public Library
Overview
The Map Division holds some 400,000 maps, as well as 20,000 atlases, books, periodicals and compact discs about cartography. International in scope, the collection dates from the 16th century to the present, with a focus on cities, especially New York City and its environs. The division is ranked among the top ten map collections in the world for the size and depth of its holdings, as well as for the breadth of its services. Its extensive resources are available for free public use and are frequently accessed by scholars, historians, archaeologists, civic planners, architects, novelists, journalists, genealogists, attorneys, tourists, and others.
History
The New York Public Library's map collection dates from the Library's inception, with holdings from the founding Lenox and Astor libraries. It was established in 1898 as a separate library collection and named a division in 1947. The division moved to the suite of rooms, 115 and 117, formerly known as the Patents Reading Room, in 1963. Items have been assembled through purchase, gifts, and government deposit. A notable addition was the 1997 gift of the Lawrence H. Slaughter Collection of maps, atlases, and books about English Colonial North America. Collecting, conserving, and storing the mostly oversize and often fragile maps is the Division's preeminent challenge and responsibility.
Collection Highlights
The Map Division's holdings chronicle the evolution of cartographers' depiction of the universe and all that it contains. The collection is characterized by its exceptional range in style: maps with little detail as well as those of extraordinary precision, complexity, and intricacy; in subject, from an early representation of China's Great Wall to a depiction of California as an island; and in substance, from the first use of house and building numbers in 19th century New York City to topographical identification of underground streams and wetlands. The Division is particularly acclaimed for its New York City and tri-state maps and its antiquarian cartography. Among the highlights are:
New York City and Tri-State Maps
Property maps: by Bromley, Hyde, Perris, REDI, and Robinson; Sanborn maps at the block and lot level from the 1850s to the present; property evaluation and ownership data for all five boroughs.
Topographic maps: U.S. Geological Survey quadrangles; Outer Borough Topographical Surveys; 1969 Plan for New York City contour maps; 1954 contour maps; 1891 Bien Atlas sheets.
Nautical charts: of New York Harbor; "Atlantic Neptune" charts from the 1700s; 19th-century Coast Survey and Coast & Geodetic Survey charts; N.O.S. charts; miscellaneous commercial charts and maps.
Shoreline, landfill, and wetlands maps: Viele water map of 1874 showing underground streams and wetlands for Manhattan and the West Bronx; British Headquarters Map 1782.
Geology maps: U.S.G.S. Geologic Folio of 1902; the New York State Geology, 1970; the Lower Hudson sheet; Baskerville's, U.S.G.S. NYC 1992-1996.
Antiquarian Maps Early European Maps: The Division has strong holdings from important early European mapmakers including: Jean Baptiste Bourguignon D'Anville, Jacques Nicolas Bellin, Willem Janszoon and Joan Blaeu, Rigobert Bonne, Andreas Cellarius, Alexander Dalrymple, Hendrick Doncker, William Faden, Pieter Goos, Johannes Baptist Homann, Alexis-Hubert Jaillot, Gerhardus Mercator, Abraham Ortelius, Robert de Vaugondy, John Seller, Matthäus Seutter, Samuel Thornton, Nicholas Visscher, Frederik de Wit, and many others. In addition, complementary research material exists in the form of dealers' catalogs, biographies, bibliographies, dictionaries, directories, and histories of cartography.
Notable antiquarian items include:
A 1661 map by Andreas Cellarius depicting Ptolemy's theory of geocentric universe, in which the planets and sun revolve around the Earth.
A 1705 map by Edmund Haley that was the first to use the arrow as a directional signal.
A map of London (1777) depicting the growth and redevelopment of the city after the Great Fire.
Bowen's "New one-sheet map of Africa" (early 1880s) before the region was politically divided into colonies and offering evidence that coastal navigation was common long before the interior region was explored.
The earliest (1720) known pair of English library globes; the earliest (17th century) set of English sea charts devoted to America, used as the standard navigational aid for a century; and America's first road atlas (1789).
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The New York Public Library gratefully acknowledges Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal for their generous support of the Map Division.
Congressman James T. Walsh, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City Council Speaker A. Gifford Miller, New York City Council Member Christine C. Quinn, and New York State Senator Thomas K. Duane provided critical support for this important renovation.
