Central Park, New York City, Courtesy of the Department of Parks
New York: c. 1870s
Black and white process engraving
16.5 x 73 inches
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.
Central Park, New York City
Department of Parks Map, c. 1870s
Department of Parks Map, c. 1870s
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A long, detailed, official map of Central Park. All lakes, reservoirs, meadows, greens, and gates are labeled. Enough detail exists to distinguish between individual trees. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (founded 1870) is shown. Along Central Park West the "Site for Museum of Natural History" is indicated. The museum was founded in 1869 and given the 18-acre site one year later. Building construction began in 1874. These facts suggest that the map was published in the 1870s. The map is oriented so Fifth Avenue runs along the bottom and Eighth Avenue along the top.
Central Park came into being beginning with an act passed on July 21, 1853 by the New York City Common Council authorizing the construction of a public park bounded by 59th and 106th Streets, Fifth and Eighth Avenues. The park was conceived to provide recreational open space for citizens of the growing city, which then had few open squares. The site that was destined to become Central Park was then “a bleak, rubbish-strewn area littered with squatters' shacks.” (Deák) Central Park opened in 1857, and in 1858, the job of improving and expanding it, transforming the area into a pastoral oasis for the “toiling masses,” was awarded to Calvert Vaux, a young British architect, and Frederick Law Olmstead, an American farmer and magazine editor. Reconstruction began that same year and was completed in 1873.
References:
"American Museum of Natural History." 1995-2002. Artscom Ltd. http://www.artcom.com/museums/nv/af/10024-52.htm (9 January 2003).
Deák, Gloria Gilda. Picturing America: 1497-1899. Vol. 1. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988. pp. 535-536.
"Founder's Fund." Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1 July 2001. http://www.metmuseum.org/support/su_fund_founders.htm (9 January 2003).