JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
I found this fine bird's-eye view in the 8 August 1901 issue of Scientific American (the lower image is what I'm referring to). It is a low-level oblique that shows about the entirety of Manhattan, from South Ferry to what is probably Harlem, and it seems to be an image that is not often reproduced. While looking around online for something similar I found a great selection (19 maps, documented and linked) at the terrific (and now on hiatus) Bibliodyssey website. There's no sense to reproducing all of the hard work that PK (Mr. Bibliodyssey) did in assembling his view selection, so just follow the link to his site and enjoy.
Well, now that I think of it, I do want to share just one of them here and make a few comments on the thing here because it is just a terrific image:
The Bibliodyssey image:
[Bird's Eye View Map Of East And North Rivers And Long Island Sound Price 10 Cents - New York C.S. Hammond & Co. Publishers. Scale 1:80,033.]
[Source: http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/09/birds-eye-new-york.html]
This view reaches from Grand Army Plaza all the way to Yonkers, and it shows that even in 1909 there were some green areas left in Brooklyn in the south towards Jamaica Bay and out east (my mother's mother was from Brooklyn who as a girl didn't have to go far from Boro Park to go sledding on an open hill). Also it looks as though the Sci Am image also reaches almost to the Grand Army Plaza, but not much else in Brooklyn. Anyway, its a beauty.
Okay! One other that I'd like to draw attention to:
[Source: http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/09/birds-eye-new-york.html]
This is a "Bird's-eye view of New York with Central Park in the foreground", by George Schegel, published by George Degen in 1873. This is sort of the opposite of the Sci Am image, though the perspective is not quite right and the point of view is much closer to the ground--still, we see all of Manhattan from Central Park south to the Battery and beyond. This view has an odd feel to it, as though you're looking through the wrong end of a binoculars--still a fantastic piece of work.
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