Antique Map of Manhattan, New York City, with Central Park, Rand McNally, 1899

Name: Antique Map of Manhattan, New York City, with Central Park, Rand McNally, 1899
Brand: Rand McNally
SKU: BG-12793-2-13
Price: 555 USD
Availability: InStock

$555

€495 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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Shipping to the United States: $51 standard, $73 express, insured and tracked.

Date: 1899
Maker: Rand McNally
Kind: Maps
Technique: Lithograph
Color: Printed color
Size: 69 × 52 cm (27.2 × 20.5 in)
Condition: Good. Good condition for its age. Light, even age toning, a few small spots in the margins and the original central fold as issued. Please review the images for further condition details.
Period: The Gilded Age
Places: New York
Reference: BG-12793-2-13

What the condition grades mean

Excellent: Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good: Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good: Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair: Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.

Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.

Guaranteed original. This is an original of the period stated, not a later reproduction or print-on-demand copy. If it is ever shown to be otherwise, we refund you in full.

Shipping to the United States. Sent from our gallery in Langweer, the Netherlands, flat between boards or rolled in a tube, and fully insured. Delivery and import charges.

About this piece

Dated 1899 in its own title panel, this antique map of New York City by Rand McNally of Chicago is titled in full "Map of New York City Showing Portions of Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Westchester County", a double-page sheet on pages 54 and 55 of the indexed atlas.

Manhattan runs the length of the sheet between the Hudson and East Rivers, with Central Park a clear green rectangle at its center. The Bronx and the Westchester towns, Mount Vernon, Pelham, Westchester and East Chester among them, fill the upper right, and Long Island City and western Queens occupy the lower right. Ward's Island, Blackwell's Island and Randall's Island are all named in the East River, and Woodlawn Cemetery is marked in the Bronx alongside the park system already extending north from the city proper.

A large inset in the lower right, "Business Portion of New York City on Enlarged Scale", pulls in on lower Manhattan south of about 14th Street, with the financial district and the ferry terminals at the tip of the island drawn at a scale fine enough to show individual blocks. The street grid, rivers and shoreline are printed in black, with pink built-up areas, green parks and pale township tints in Westchester. Scale bars in miles and meters accompany the title panel in the upper left.

Rand McNally's roots lie in a Chicago printing business started by William Rand in the 1850s and joined by Andrew McNally. The firm had become one of the foremost map publishers in the United States by the 1890s, and its indexed atlas of 1899 shows the house speciality at work: railroad and commercial maps revised from issue to issue.

Technically the sheet is a lithograph with printed color: the outline was printed in black and the colors were printed over it, so none of the coloring was added by hand. Once framed, this antique map of New York City would suit a home or office in the city today, and it will appeal to collectors of American city plans and local history.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light, even age toning, a few small spots in the margins and the original central fold as issued. Please review the images for further condition details.

This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.

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