Ewen Hamilton (2 results)

55.6x168 cm. Folding map, backed with linen, of upper Manhattan and the southern portion of the Bronx. Original cloth binding with title gilt on front, well worn and chipping at edges and corners. Split, partially mended, along part of the horizontal center fold with small loss at one fold junction in the Bronx. Overall, a good to very good example of an extremely scarce map of which this is one of three known examples. One copy was offered by a map dealer around 2020. The other is the New York Public Library copy which is in fair to poor condition. Published by Hamilton Towle and printed by the American Photo-Lithography Company of New York, this is among the earliest maps which demonstrated projected parks in northern Manhattan including Riverside Park, Morningside Park and St. Nicholas Park. These parks were conceived by Andrew Haswell Green who was city comptroller and a leader of the Central Park Commission. Haskell 1208. Not in Stokes (Iconography).

Hand colored lithographed folding map, sectioned and linen-backed as issued. 24 x 67 inches. The famed Commissioner's plan of 1811, which laid out New York's street's in the grid pattern which would dictate the city's development, anticipate its massive population growth in the 19th century and cartographically define the city to this day, ended ubruptly and arbitrarily at 155th street. In 1865, Comptroller of the Central Park Commission Andrew Haswell Green began planning for development north of the grid. With the war at an end and with the construction of Central Park completed, Green saw the need for the development of Manhattan north of the park and the advantages of it being accomplished in a consistent, though improved, manner which would better take into account the area's terrain. He published his report, titled Communication to the Commissioners of the Central Park relative to the Laying Out of the Island above 155th Street, in the Tenth Annual Central Park Report in December 1865 and the essay would prove an important contribution in the historiography of city planning and preservation, anticipating more modern principles. Work began immediately in surveying, planning and building the infrastructure. Early maps of the the project appeared in the Central Park Commission reports, but the present map by Edward Ewen was the first separately-published large-scale mapping of the plan. The map is scarce, with only a handful of recorded copies in institutions (New York Public Library, New York State Library, Stony Brook Univ. and Yale). Phillips, p. 538 Folds in publisher's cloth case, upper cover detached, publisher's title on the front pastedown. Signature on verso dated 1873 Hand colored lithographed folding map, sectioned and linen-backed as issued. 24 x 67 inches.