What do you think?
Rate this book
NEW-YORK CARTES ET VUES HISTORIQUES
Twenty-four historic maps and views of New York City and its environs—dating from the 1600s through the present—ready for framing in a custom format or in a standard 11"X14" frame. This stunning and fascinating collection includes one of the earliest known maps of Manhattan, a detailed map of Central Park, a complete topographical map of the island of Manhattan, an early subway map, overviews of Brooklyn and Queens, and much more. Each map's original printing information is provided, as well as additional information that places it in historic context and further illuminates its qualities. Each map is exquisitely reproduced to show off its color and detail.
Hardcover
First published June 1, 2008
About the author
Vincent Virga
24 books33 followersVincent Virga has been called "America's foremost picture editor." He has researched, edited, and designed picture sections for more than 150 books, including Eyes of the Nation: A Visual History of the United States and the full-length photo essay The Eighties: Images of America. He is also the author of A Comfortable Corner. He is working on a third novel, Theatricals.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 29, 2017
As my recent review of How the States Got Their Shapes said, I'm a sucker for maps, cartography, and books about maps and cartography. As such, Historic Maps and Views of New York, by cartographer extraordinaire Vincent Virga, was a truly special book for me.
More an art book than a book on cartography per se (indeed, each plate in the book is removable and suitable for framing), Historic Maps and Views of New York is as advertised; containing maps and panoramic images from the earliest days of colonial New Amsterdam to a satellite image from NASA, the book provides fascinating insight to how New York City has grown and developed over centuries. Among the more fascinating plates in this book are a topographic map of Manhattan, created for the survey that proposed the now-familiar street grid in New York, which beautifully shows the original layout of the island; an early American map of Richmond, New York, Queens, and Kings Counties, which reminds us that the separate boroughs of New York City were once separate political entities, each with several cities, villages, and hamlets within them (New York municipal politics is . . . complicated, to say the least); and the early IRT subway map, which shows how little, yet how much, New York public transportation has changed. (And this is not to mention the several panoramic views of the city that lack the many skyscrapers with which we all have become so familiar.) Containing images from throughout New York City's long history, each plate in Historic Maps and Views of New York both stands on its own and works as a part of a larger, cohesive whole.
Virga has done a fantastic job with this art book, particularly as his selection is precise and discerning. (Indeed, the primary flaw of The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011, another coffee-table book along similar lines, as much as I enjoyed it, was that its focus was significantly wider, and thus lost my interest for periods at a time.) Historic Maps and Views of New York is a worthwhile addition to the collections of any maphead and geography wonk, as Ken Jennings might put it, and has become a favorite of mine in a relatively short time.
More an art book than a book on cartography per se (indeed, each plate in the book is removable and suitable for framing), Historic Maps and Views of New York is as advertised; containing maps and panoramic images from the earliest days of colonial New Amsterdam to a satellite image from NASA, the book provides fascinating insight to how New York City has grown and developed over centuries. Among the more fascinating plates in this book are a topographic map of Manhattan, created for the survey that proposed the now-familiar street grid in New York, which beautifully shows the original layout of the island; an early American map of Richmond, New York, Queens, and Kings Counties, which reminds us that the separate boroughs of New York City were once separate political entities, each with several cities, villages, and hamlets within them (New York municipal politics is . . . complicated, to say the least); and the early IRT subway map, which shows how little, yet how much, New York public transportation has changed. (And this is not to mention the several panoramic views of the city that lack the many skyscrapers with which we all have become so familiar.) Containing images from throughout New York City's long history, each plate in Historic Maps and Views of New York both stands on its own and works as a part of a larger, cohesive whole.
Virga has done a fantastic job with this art book, particularly as his selection is precise and discerning. (Indeed, the primary flaw of The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011, another coffee-table book along similar lines, as much as I enjoyed it, was that its focus was significantly wider, and thus lost my interest for periods at a time.) Historic Maps and Views of New York is a worthwhile addition to the collections of any maphead and geography wonk, as Ken Jennings might put it, and has become a favorite of mine in a relatively short time.
December 23, 2018
A nice souvenir that I got from the bookstore at Columbia University. Maps printed with decent quality.
Want to Read
September 15, 2023910 Vir
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews