The Historical Atlas of New York City: A Visual Celebration of Nearly 400 Years of New York City's History

by Eric Homberger, Alice Hudson (Illustrator)

A New York Public Library Outstanding Reference Book

The rich and eminently browsable visual guide to the history of New York, in an all-new
second edition

The Historical Atlas of New York City, second edition, takes us, neighborhood by neighborhood, through four hundred years of Gotham's rich past, describing such crucial events as the city's initial settlement of 270 people in thirty log houses; John Jacob Astor's meteoric rise from humble fur trader to the richest, most powerful man in the city; and the fascinating ethnic mixture that is modern Queens. The full-color maps, charts, photographs, drawings, and mini-essays of this encyclopedic volume also trace the historical development and cultural relevance of such iconic New York thoroughfares as Fifth Avenue, Wall Street, Park Avenue, and Broadway. This thoroughly updated edition brings the Atlas up to the present, including three all-new two-page spreads on Rudolph Giuliani's New York, the revival of Forty-second Street, and the rebuilding of Ground Zero.

A fascinating chronicle of the life of a metropolis, the handsome second edition of The Historical Atlas of New York City provides a vivid and unique perspective on the nation's cultural capital.

Genres: History, New York, Nonfiction, Travel, Reference, Maps, The United States Of America

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1994

About the author

Eric Homberger is professor of American studies at the University of East Anglia.

Reviews

[Delilah Marvelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had a lot of interesting history but sometimes didn't go into more detail like I would have liked.

[Andrea Samorini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un riepilogo di tanti eventi, con mappe, temi e zone. Mi ha dato una visione di insieme che mi aiuterà.

"Commerce is devouring inch by inch the coast of the island, and if we would rescue any part of it for health and recreation it must be done now." William Bryant, 1844.
Pensavo fosse un argomento recente.
Central Park è stato costruito nel 1857-60

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful and informative.

[Ben Sweezy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know that I'm not a good book reviewer. I wish I knew how to express what it is that this book does not do in visualizing various historical information about NYC that I want it to do. Sigh.

Its text is very uninspired, to say the least.

The maps look good, they just aren't telling compelling stories. Maybe the problem is that they don't tell stories at all, rather leaning on the text to tell the story while the maps just represent some attribute topically related without being explanatory. Sigh.

[Christy George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since my NYC trip, I have been devouring everything I can find about the historical places we walked. This was fascinating and informative, and it even helped me make some connections to my genealogy. I cross-referenced my Dutch ancestors while reading about the origins of New Amsterdam and the families that settled there and found so many connections (Stuyvescant, Schuyler, Livingstone, Beekman are all in my family tree). I wonder if that is what drives my sense of connection to this place?

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have had the good fortune to study humanities, architecture, cartography, or early United States history, you will enjoy owning, reading and referencing this fascinating book. As I live in close proximity to New York City, that geographical circumstance affords me the opportunity to make frequent trips to Manhattan. This historical atlas will now have a permanent place in my backpack, and accompany me during all my future excursions to The Big Apple, as it is a unique compilation of Noo Yawk City's nooks and crannies, which includes all five boroughs.

[JustinaJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like sometimes it focused too much on details rather than presenting an overview of the topic. The many maps aren't that interesting. And there are frequent types. But overall it proved a good introduction to the story of this fascinating city with some compelling pictures.

[Mme Forte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot about the early days of New York City, one of my favorite places to visit. And I've added to my to-read list, what with the pages of writing about the city at the end of this book. Nice graphics, tons of info, sadly a bunch of typos, too.

[MaryAnne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this historical atlas. It was a great combination of two of my favorites: history and NYC! Contains a narrative of NYC history accompanied by photographs, as well as maps, charts, timelines, and brief biographies.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding and it offers enough insight so that you can continue to read about more specific aspects that interest any reader.

[Debi Emerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richly illustrated & wonderfully narrated!

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable evening of flipping through the pages.

[Bjorn Bakker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes a bit repetitive and information is fragmented. Still a decent visual history of one of the world's most celebrated cities.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting—the kind of book I’d like to own if I lived in NYC

[Praneesh K · Rating 3 out of 5]

“A place fit for banking and prostitution and not much else” - Frank Lloyd Wright

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's probably an overstatement to say I was bitterly disappointed in this book, but I can't really think of any other way to describe my feelings while reading it. Urban history and development is one of my favorite topics (and I'm much more invested in it than my sister is, just FYI), and nothing is better than the history of New York City. I came back from a trip to New York earlier this year craving more information, and was thrilled to find this at the library. But...it just wasn't good. It took me forever to finish it in relation to its length, and it felt dry instead of exciting. I loved the idea of maps and images to bring New York to life, but a lot of the maps were difficult to understand, or felt superfluous, and many of the images were modern drawings rather than contemporary images. It seems that with the wealth of information available about the city, there could have been a lot more here. Additionally, the author assumed many topics were understood by the reader: I remember in particular being surprised that Tammany Hall wasn't given more than a mention in relation to something else, with no explanation of its role in the city. Isn't that pretty key?

With uninspired writing, mediocre maps and images, and missing information, this WAS a bitter disappointment. I'd be curious to check out the newer edition to see if it's any better, but I'll probably just stick to watching the 10-part PBS documentary for my NYC history fix.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rather dry and brief treatment of NYC's centuries-long history. Each topic receives about two pages, and oftentimes there will be sections that felt as if they were shoehorned in, like, "Oh yeah, put that in too." Honestly as it got closer to modern times I just skimmed through because it just wasn't that interesting and that is saying something because I always find anything about New York City history interesting.

There are a lot of typos in this edition; the one I most clearly remember is a map that was oriented the wrong way.

Oh, the maps... I really loved seeing in this book the maps of New York that were drawn back then, even if they were upside down or backwards; their inclusion earns it the "atlas" moniker. It truly is a "visual celebration" because of the number of maps, portraits, drawings, etc., in this book.

With 400 years of history though (it's even in the title for bleep's sake), you'd think this book would be more hefty, but it comes in around two hundred pages. Yet, it could be considered "over-sized," so there's that going for it.

If you really know nothing about the history of New York, this is a good appetizer to get things going. For me, however, I'd rather go for the full twenty-one course dinner, except I want another twenty-one courses.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have visited New York city often over the years and yet after reading this atlas cover to cover and studying the maps and photographs, I have a better internal map and appreciate the city as never before. New York may be ever changing and modernizing and yet its history is all around if one knows how to find it in its streets, buildings and neighborhoods. [For example, Delancy was a British-sympathizing family who owned a large farm in lower Manhattan, whose memory is now preserved in the street name and location.] This atlas is a great accompaniment to more in-depth exploration of NYC in books or on the ground. As it happened, just before I read this Atlas I read a terrific, in-depth look at the early development of hotels in the city in When the Astors Ruled New York. For any topic mentioned in the atlas I'm certain there is a full array of books available to flesh out the story in great detail. This historical atlas is a very credible and engaging overview.

[Douglas Summers-Stay · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you look at the street patterns of cities, you can often see how the city grew over time. There's a distinctive pattern to unplanned city growth, almost identical to the cracking of the glass shell on ceramics as it contracts. That corresponds to the traditional era. There was a period of rectangular grids, clearly a metaphor for modernism. Today we see the plant-like branching of cul-de-sacs, the post-modern antithesis of modernism, where the ideal would be to have no through streets at all.
Anyway, this book shows precisely how that all happened for Manhattan, from the actual wall that Wall street was named after, to why Broadway is the only street that escapes the grid. I also found it interesting to learn what happened during the civil war (answer: riots about the draft, mainly targeted at the black population of the city.)

[Erin]

I'm having trouble with this book. It seems disjointed and out-of-sequence, jumping around in time and not really giving any subject a full treatment. The pictures & drawings often do not match the text of that page. Very hard to follow, and sometimes the text is downright Wrong. (G.Washington is not on horseback in front of Federal Hall, I assure you, unless it's a very *tiny* horse.) Some of the maps can be hard to decipher. And Homberger seems to be obsessed with Rudy Giulianni. It's a little off-putting.

That said, it is quite beautiful to look at and some information is very specific. Good if read in conjunction with other histories of NY to get more general background information.

[Lisa Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

New York is a CRAZY town, and apparently always has been! A wonderful, brief, well illustrated summary of how New York grew from a hilly island inhabited by Huron and Iroquois, to a modern city. Full of riots, fires, invasions, immigrants, political battles, and class struggles. Not nearly as complete as Gotham; A History of New York City to 1898 (Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace), but chuck full of maps, etchings, and photos. I read it with the goal of setting a novel in New York in the 1800’s, and it is a gem for this purpose. It outlines beautifully the edges, streets, and establishments year to year, giving a clear picture of what was where in a city that is constantly being torn down and rebuilt. Also amusing enough to read just because you love New York.

[Bill Ardis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third book I've just read on NYC, all historical. This book would actually have made a nice companion to Gotham (a really good history of NYC I read a few years ago). For the most part this is a good, brief history, but it has some gaps. An entry on music in NYC would have been nice, with a map of clubs in Harlem as well as on of 52nd Street. Also, practically no mention of Penn Station or the tunnels that connected Manhattan. Finally, the section on NY sports left a lot to be desired, barely mentioning the football, basketball, or hockey teams. That said, I did like the sections covering the early history. But, if you want more (lots more) deta, read Gotham.

[Kevin Lawrence · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book provides some convenient visuals and breaks down the history of New York City into very digestible nuggets, but I think most readers will be left wanting a lot more information than is actually provided. I finished reading this very quickly and hope its intended audience is middle-school students brushing up on local/national history -- it's not really the most sophisticated writing and it has a very canned way of presenting visuals that I associate with textbooks.

[Sharla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read -- I learned a great deal about the history of this marvelous city. I didn't realize the history of many of the places I like to visit when I'm in New York ... Edgar Allan Poe lived not far from Hudson Square, for example. My great grandfather may have been a construction worker on the Singer Building. A great read.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slimmer volume than I expected, but it is a great introductory history of NYC. Especially the development of the city grid. Borrowed this from the library and I've encouraged my young teen sons to read it.

[Maria Perez de Arrilucea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lleno de fotografías, dibujos e infografías, este libro explica con brevedad, pero de forma comprensible y muy visual, los capítulos más importantes de la historia de Nueva York. En mi opinión, están mejor contados los orígenes que la época actual.

[Salim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Numerous typographical inaccuracies, in text and in graphics, make this book less useful than it could be.

[Harmony Ingraham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good history of New York City, a bit dry at times and would have liked more photographs, but overall I liked it.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best written book but I like how it's broken down into multiple topics - each two pages - so it's easy to read the book in short sittings.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative in tracing the roots of neighborhoods/cultures in NYC and how they arrived in those areas.