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1864 Dripps Map of New York City
NewYorkCity-dripps-1864$250.00
Title
New-York City County, and Vicinity.
1864 (dated) 25.5 x 18 in (64.77 x 45.72 cm) 1 : 23040
1864 (dated) 25.5 x 18 in (64.77 x 45.72 cm) 1 : 23040
Description
This is an uncommon large format 1864 map of New York City by Matthew Dripps. The map covers the entire island of Manhattan as well as parts of Brooklyn, Queens, Hoboken and Jersey City. The whole is rendered in considerable detail with all streets and even some individual buildings clearly shown. The names and tracts of Manhattan's original land owners are superimposed over the grid. Where Columbia University now stands, this map reveals a 19th century Lunatic Asylum. In Queens, Dripps labels Hunters Point and shows the beginnings of the Long Island Railroad. Astoria is well delineated. Central Park is mapped detail exhibiting the fully glory of Olmsted's plan.
The mid-19th century was a dynamic period in urban development of New York City. Under the governance of Tammany Hall and the corrupt 'Boss' Tweed, New York City had become a melange of extremes. By 1864 the Five Points had devolved into the world's most notoriously dangers slum, while further north the high ideals and design genius of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux created Central Park, the world's first and possibly finest planned public recreation area. Meanwhile, across the east River, Brooklyn, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg consolidated into a single city, becoming in the process the third largest city in the United States, and setting the stage for the emergence of the modern New York City.
This is one of the maps that Dripps prepared for Valentine's Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York . Versions of this map appeared in several iterations throughout the 1860s. The copyright on this map is, appropriately, 1860, but a secondary date under the title reflects updates to 1864.
The mid-19th century was a dynamic period in urban development of New York City. Under the governance of Tammany Hall and the corrupt 'Boss' Tweed, New York City had become a melange of extremes. By 1864 the Five Points had devolved into the world's most notoriously dangers slum, while further north the high ideals and design genius of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux created Central Park, the world's first and possibly finest planned public recreation area. Meanwhile, across the east River, Brooklyn, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg consolidated into a single city, becoming in the process the third largest city in the United States, and setting the stage for the emergence of the modern New York City.
This is one of the maps that Dripps prepared for Valentine's Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York . Versions of this map appeared in several iterations throughout the 1860s. The copyright on this map is, appropriately, 1860, but a secondary date under the title reflects updates to 1864.
CartographerS
Matthew Dripps (1812 – April 9, 1896) was an Irish-born American mapmaker active in Philadelphia and New York during the second half of the 19th century. Dripps was born in Gracefield, Ireland. In Ireland, probably Belfast, he worked as a grocer. Dripps immigrated to American from Belfast on the Patrick Henry in 1849, arriving in Philadelphia, where he connected with the Reformed Presbyterian Church and worked briefly as a tax collector. His earliest recorded maps, depicting Philadelphia, appeared during this period. Dripps relocated to Brooklyn, New York in 1850, setting up shop as a map publisher. His two largest maps were published in the following years, 1850 and 1851, and combine to form an enormous map of Manhattan. These gained him the attention of the City Council, who used his maps for census and government work. Afterwards, he issued other large format New York City and Brooklyn maps as well as smaller maps for the New York City Clerk's office. He was married to Ameila Millar Dripps with whom he had six children, among them Amelia Dripps and the clergyman Joseph Frederick. Dripps is interred at Greewood Cemetery, Brooklyn. More by this mapmaker...
David T. (Thomas) Valentine (1801 - 1869) served as the Clerk of the Common Council of New York City. He edited and published a series of New York City almanacs and fact books entitled Manual of the Corporation of The City of New York. Valentine's Manual, as it came to be called, included facts about the City of New York, City Council information, city history, and reported on the progress of public works such as Central Park. The production of this annual manual was the responsibility of the Clerk of the City of New York, a position held at different times by D. Valentine and by Joseph Shannon (fl. c. 1850 - 1869), who also produced a similar manual. Valentine used his manual to reproduce some of the rarest and most important maps of New York City ever created. Learn More...
Source
Valentine, D., Valentine's Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York, (New York) 1864.
Condition
Very good. Minor wear and toning along original fold lines. Professionally flattened and backed with archival tissue. Left margin extended.
References
Haskell, D., Manhattan Maps: A Co-operative List, 1154.