Description
Hyde & Company (later E. Belcher Hyde Map Company) was the main publisher of maps and atlases on Long Island from 1880 to 1920, which they issued in various formats, from folding maps to larger atlases. They produced detailed maps for the fire insurance industry that were updated on an annual basis based on surveys by Hyde employees. The degree of detail and specificity of these maps allowed the insurance companies to estimate the liability of certain properties because they showed every structure in an area, its building materials and size, its function, and other pertinent information about the street and surroundings. The company also published maps and atlases, including road maps, from the late 19th century and well into the 20th century, of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the New York Metropolitan area. Their major competitors in the publication of Long Island maps were F.W. Beers, G.W. Bromley & Co. and Chester Wolverton.
Full title: Map of Long Island Based Upon Recent U.S. Coast Surveys, Together with Local Maps on File. Supplemented by Careful Territorial Observations.
Full publication information: “Published by Hyde & Company, 97 Liberty Street, Junct. of Fulton [Street], Brooklyn, N.Y. 2nd Edition. July 1897.” “Balliet & Volk, Map Engravers, 27 So. 6th St. Phila, Pa.”
Condition: Generally very good with the usual overall light toning, wear, soiling, soft creases, cockling. Four maps, originally folded and backed on linen now restored as flattened and re-backed on linen by a professional paper conservator. Some light toning, wear, abrasions along original folds and intersections, restored as above. Offered as four rolled maps to be framed as a set.
References:
Allen, David Yelling. Long Island Maps and Their Makers. Mattituck, N.Y.: Amerion House, 1997. pp. 97-98.
Wright, Artis Q. “Navigating the Library’s New York City Maps.” New York Public Library. https://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/12/14/nypl-new-york-city-maps (3 September 2020).