1954 Moss Pictorial Map of Manhattan, New York City

This is a first edition 1954 Ira Moss pictorial map of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Eye-catching and entertaining, 197 different locations throughout Manhattan are illustrated as vignettes and identified numerically. These numbers then correspond to an index situated along the bottom and right side listing the sites by category, including hotels, restaurants, night clubs, churches, bridges, stores, 'points of educational interest' (museums, libraries, universities, etc), and other points of interest.

Sites such as the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the Washington Square Arch, and the Brooklyn Bridge, along with numerous hotels, including the Waldorf-Astoria, are illustrated in profile. Other sites are marked by representative illustrations. The American Museum of Natural History, for example, is highlighted by a tourist being chased by a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, and the Central Park Zoo is noted by an elephant being fed by a small child. Some of the illustrations are not numbered and go unidentified, most of which are ships and boats of varying size in the Hudson and East Rivers. At the same time, the Lincoln Tunnel, Queens Midtown Tunnel, and Holland Tunnel are all illustrated and labeled, as is the Washington Market.

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by Ira Moss and published by Moss Art Publishers in 1954. The OCLC records two examples held in institutional collections by the Brooklyn Historical Society and the New York Public Library.