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Points out the various kinds of information which different maps offer and suggests activities for further study. ... Read more

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Explains how to measure distance on maps through use of scale bars, color keys, and contour lines; includes suggested activities to illustrate the concepts. ... Read more

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Text, maps, and activities help the reader explore various aspects of cities and towns. ... Read more

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"...the city's first atlas of historical maps...destined to have a profound and positive influence on twenty-first-century New York."--from the foreword by Tony Hiss

This lavishly illustrated volume explores New York's urban and social history through rare and beautiful maps of the city produced during the past four hundred years and collected from archives and libraries throughout the world. From a crude woodblock engraving depicting Giovanni da Verrazano's first glimpse of New York Harbor in the sixteenth century to the latest satellite photograph of Manhattan, these important documents offer an unprecedented "avenue to New York's past," as the authors write in their preface-- a fascinating collective portrait of the evolution of America's oldest major city.

Many of the 65 color plates reproduced here have never been published before, and each is accompanied by an engaging essay on the changing physical and social contours of New York as revealed in the map's details and provenance. Opening with a chapter on the discovery of New York Harbor as depicted in sixteenth-century Italian maps, the book explores the bustling Dutch trading outpost of New Amsterdam (the original name for New York), the city as a British colony in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the rise of New York as a port city in the eighteenth century, the Revolutionary War period, and the development of the Manhattan grid, public squares, and parks in the nineteenth century. The city's myriad "worlds within a world" are shown in unusual maps of such diverse subjects as ethnic neighborhoods, midtown vice, and the subway system. Each entry cites the map's date of creation and publication, cartographer, medium, and the institution or private collection where the map is archived. A bibliography and complete index are also included, making this book an indispensable resource for all those interested in New York history, urban history, and antiquarian maps.
Amazon.com Review
From crude woodblock engravings depicting 16th-century explorers'first glimpse of New York Harbor to the latest satellite photographs ofManhattan, the rare maps of New York in this book offer a unique look at thecity's evolution over the past 400 years. Opening with early Italian andDutch antiquarian maps, the book charts the development of ethnicneighborhoods and the Manhattan grid in the 19th century, as well as thelabyrinthine subway system of the 20th century. Each of the 65 color plates,many never before published, accompanies an essay on the changingmetropolis as expressed in the map's details. While the maps areas beautiful and engrossing as any works of art, they also reveal the rich history of New York's urban and social fabric, offering astunning collective portrait of the world's first modern city. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Manhattan Maps
I was pleasantly suprised by the range of the maps sellected and the concise analysis of each one.

5-star-text 1-star-maps
I only wish I had the access to the maps that Augustyn and Cohen had in the preparation of this book.Unfortunately for the reader, these maps are not in the book.What's in "Manhattan in Maps" are photographs of maps which in the case all but 6 of the maps are reproduced in a manner which lets you see the outline of Manhattan and no detail in the map whatsoever.There should have been someone involved in the production of the book who was familiar with other books of this type and included for each map some section enlarged to actual size.Some of the maps featured appeared to have been reduced 10x such as a 72 inch map shrunk to 7 inches.The text is wonderful.If the book is every republished, I hope the editors take heed of the reviews here.

Great Gift for Your Favorite Manhattanite
This is a beautiful book for both those who are fascinated by maps and those with a deep interest in the history of New York City. The preface explains that, "The richness of New York's cartographic heritage is unique among the major cities of the world." It goes on to outline a number of reasons for this, including the city's founding by mapmaking mavens (the Dutch) during a cartographic boom time, its initial status as a commercial interest, its later status as a Revolutionary War battleground, and so on. The selections are spread more or less evenly throughout the four and a half centuries and each is accompanied by an excellent elucidating essay. My own favorites are some of the later, more thematic ones such as an 1834 fireman's guide, an 1842 water pipe diagram, an 1853 insurance company survey, the 1920 ethnic survey, and the 1973 midtown vice map.

Some reviewers have referred to this in an apparently derogatory manner, saying it is a mere "coffee-table" book, to which one can only say that it would be a welcome addition to any New Yorker's coffee-table. It certainly won't satisfy ultra-serious cartographers or historians, but the quality of the writing and research is well beyond what is commonly found in so-called mere "coffee-table" books. In addition to the usual sources (Library of Congress, British Library, New-York Historical Society, New York Public Library), the authors have tracked down maps in archives in Spain, Italy, Holland, and perhaps most impressively, about a third of those presented in the book reside in private collections. Indeed, it's somewhat baffling that people complain about the size of the reproductions -- just be glad they were made available to be seen at all! Not to mention the practical limitations of reproduction: the original dimensions of most of the maps range from 12" x 18" to 90" x 135". These maps were made to cover walls, general headquarters planning tables, no book could possibly make them legible! In some cases, portions of maps are blown up for a detail view, but these don't reproduce very well. The original photos and scans simply don't support the detail and the results are pixilated. This small production problem aside, the book is beautifully produced from a typographic and color standpoint, and is well worth having or giving as a gift to your favorite Manhattanite.

Great book, screaming for a larger edition
I know I'm jumping on the bandwagon here, but the maps are disappointing because they're too small to be scrutinized. The text, however, compensates greatly for this flaw. The chapters are concise but not a word is wasted. I found the section on the British invasion of Brooklyn as well-written and gripping as any thriller. I can only hope that they are planning to come out with a larger edition for the illustrations.

Small Maps, but wonderful commentary
While I agree with one reviewer that the maps depicted in the book are small and difficult to read (more due to the apparent custom of making 17th and 18th century maps totally illegible in any case rather than the editors' layout of them), the commentary accompanying the maps is very illuminating and interesting.The authors also chose to use maps highlighting, for example, '70s-era police practice, '20s-era political classifications and a map of the subway along with the more conventional surveyor's maps; truly a very interesting collection.A good companion to any history of pre-20th century NYC, such as Gotham. ... Read more

Product Description
Mark Twain once famously said "there was but one solitary thing about the past worth remembering, and that was the fact that it is past and can't be restored."  Well, over recent years, The British Library, working with Microsoft has embarked on an ambitious programme to digitise its collection of 19th century books.

There are now 65,000  titles available  (that's an incredible 25 million pages) of material ranging from works by famous names such as  Dickens, Trollope and Hardy as well as many forgotten literary gems , all of which can now be printed on demand and purchased right here on Amazon.

Further information on The British Library and its digitisation programme can be found on The British Library website. ... Read more

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Whistle-stop posts along a picturesque cycling trail. An abandoned roundhouse in a new industrial park. A piece of "Black Diamond" anthracite coal lying in the grass. These are silent witnesses to the golden age of American railroading, 1946, when the steam locomotive's sonorous whistle could be heard from Pennsylvania to Vermont, from New York to Chicago.

The second installation of Richard C. Carpenter's highly acclaimed series covers an area criss-crossed by some of the oldest railroad lines in America. This volume includes over 191 beautiful, hand-drawn maps of rail systems in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. These masterpieces, accompanied by detailed sections on stations, track pans, tunnels, and viaducts, capture a time when rail was king in New England, before cars, trucks, and planes became dominant.

Customer Reviews (8)

Not much detail
Scale is such that detail of yards in not discernible.Main lines are visible but number of sidings no visible.

Money Well Spent
This is great work.As someone who grew up in the Northeast during the last days of steam it brought back some good memories.
The maps are easy to read and provide scads of information.For rail buff or model railroaders interested in "the good old days" of coal and hot water, it details many lines long since removed or abandoned.

A "must have" for railroad historians!
This book (hardcover), has to weigh a couple of pounds and is ALL maps. It shows the physical plant of Northeast railroading just after World War II. If you are fortunate enough to have a collection of individual railroad-issued maps you will know the routes that these railroads ran, but this book will show you just WHAT was along the routes. Items such as stations, interlocking plants, junctions etc are listed. As a practical aside, if you are reading an issue of a railroad magazine that highlights an area like Maybrook yard in New York, the maps in this book can help you follow the story accurately!. The ONLY thing this book has that keeps it from being a 5-star is that all of the maps are drawn in ink instead of some other reproduction process. For a map affectionado(sic)? like myself this is not a problem, but if someone is wanting a coffee-table picture book with maps, then this book is not for you. For everyone else, HIGHLY recommended!

A great deal of useful information
I must open by saying that the Railroad Atlas is in fact a comprehensive and valuable source of information; a "labor of love" in the strictest sense.If you have an interest in seeing how and where the various railroads ran and what stations and facilities were on them in the immediate post-war and pre-merger era, then this book is a must-have.

However, the prospective purchaser should be aware that the maps which form the heart of this atlas are not the slick and professionally produced products that we have been spoiled with in the recent years of the information age.They are obviously hand-drawn, and to be honest they look like something done on a kitchen table with a box of felt-tip markers.The basic map information was traced--carefully, but obviously by hand--from USGS topographic maps, and then the railroad information was added.

I am not trying to put off any prospective purchaser, and in fact I intend to purchase the remainder of the series.However, I think that you should be aware of the quality of the presentation in advance.As long as you don't expect something that looks like it was turned out by the draftsmen at Rand McNally you should be fine.

Maps chart each track and stops along the way and will prove invaluable to researchers
Volume 2 of the extensive rail reference atlas focuses on New York and New England in 1946 - and there are so many rail lines, the narrowed focus and separate volume are needed. The heart of A Railroad Atlas Of The United States In 1946 Volume 2 lines in color line maps on every page of rail lines. From New Hampshire and Maine to Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and New York, maps chart each track and stops along the way and will prove invaluable to researchers.
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Customer Reviews (1)

Alabama : Atlas of Historical County Boundaries
If you're interested in this sort of thing as I am this book could be of great value however the price is unreal. I have a CD that does much the same for the entire country at a third the price of one state however this book is MUCH more accurate and shows county boundaries that only occured for as little as three days. The CD is also easier to use. That said I'll likely ask for the book as one of those Christmas presents I wouldn't buy for myself. ... Read more