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The NYPL's Map Expert Explains This "Wondrous" Map Of 1920s Manhattan
By
Jen Carlson
Published Mar 15, 2016
Modified Mar 15, 2016
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Mar 15, 2016
Modified Mar 15, 2016
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Manhattan: 10th Avenue - 25th Street (Courtesy of the NYPL)
This colorful map dates back to 1926, and is sort of like one you'd find in a brochure for Disney World. Major landmarks of the time were marked amongst the rows of tenements and other not noteworthy buildings making up Manhattan. It's beautifully illustrated, and features everything from the Williamsburg Bridge to Central Park. There are also plenty of ghosts of New York City's past: the Wanamaker Department Store on 4th and 9th, the Gas House District, and the old Madison Square Garden (the one John Steinbeck worked on!).
The map was created by Charles Vernon Farrow (1896-1936), and has been called "one of the best pictorial maps of the 1920s in the United States." It has also been referred to as: A Map of the Wondrous Isle of Manhattan. Behold:
See a much larger version HERE
We reached out to the NYPL for more on this particular map, and Kate Cordes, the manager of their Map Division, sure did deliver.
This 1926 map is a typical, and excellent, example of what we'd called 'pictorial' maps. These types of city maps had a spike in popularity in the 1920s through the 1950s, showing up as endpapers and illustrations in books, freebies handed out by banks and other commercial institutions, and as accompanying material to traditional cartographic representations of cities and towns.
They weren't intended for navigational purposes, but were created by illustrators and cartographers as inspired visualizations of a city's tourist attractions, famous buildings, cultural institutions, and various neighborhoods where a tourist might visit, e.g. The Ghetto and the Italian Quarter. I was initially surprised to not see a slouchy bohemian type over by Greenwich Village—but later spied the artist with his requisite palette hanging out in Washington Square. I'd also have to do a bit of research into why there's a witch flying over Sheridan Square—a reference that's lost on me at the moment. It's also a bit surprising that Harlem isn't represented here—9 times out of 10, there's a cringe inducing depiction of nightlife in Harlem on pictorial maps of NYC. In fact, most pictorial maps of this period are chock full of what would now be considered humorous or insensitive at best, racist at worst, caricatures of figures in American life.
The border illustration of zooming automobiles and the well-heeled swells in the cartouche, pretty much sum up the goal of this map—to capture all that is jazzy, cultured, and exciting about the big city—from the Polo Grounds down to the Aquarium and everything in between.
Since nothing is truly lost over time, someone is selling prints on eBay. And here's more on 1920s Manhattan, described at the time as "a city of homes."
Tagged
1920s
1926
flashback
history
manhattan
map
original
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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