JPEG Image (309 kb) Detail showing lower Manhattan and Brooklyn
High resolution Image in Mr SID format. Image of entire map from Library of Congress.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Creator:
Anonymous
Related names:
Vinckeboons, Joan.
Date
created:
ca. 1639
Description:
Manuscript, pen-and-ink and watercolor, 45 x 67 cm.
Subjects:
New York Region-- Maps--Early works to
1800.
New York (N.Y.)-- Maps--Early works to 1800.
Manhattan
(New York, N.Y.)--Maps--Early works to 1800.
Real property--New York
Region--Maps--Early works to 1800.
Real property --New York
(State)--New York --Maps--Early works to 1800.
Notes:
1. Pictorial map showing buildings and points of interest.
2. Depths shown by soundings.
3. Includes index of buildings with householders'
names.
4. Detail scanned from facsimile of map published by the Library
of Congress.
Manatvs gelegen op de Noot Riuver (ca. 1639)
This anonymous manuscript map is to be found at the Library of Congress. It is a copy made around 1670 of a map that was probably drawn in New Netherland. The original map is usually dated ca. 1639, but may have been drawn as early as 1630. The earliest known map of Manhattan and its vicinity, it is frequently attributed to Joan Vinckeboons, but there is no real evidence that he was actually the cartographer.
The title of the map can be translated as "Manhattan on the North River." (The Dutch called the Hudson River the North River.) The map shows the area around New York City, including Staten Island and Coney Island. Both Dutch and Indian settlements are shown, with the Native settlements indicated by long houses. On Manhattan, the Dutch fort, windmills, and some farms are depicted. The map does not show all of the individual houses on Manhattan, which was already more heavily settled than appears here.
REFERENCES:
Cohen, Manhattan in Maps , 28-31
Shirley W. Dunn "Interpreting the Little-Known Minuit Maps of C. 1630," Hudson Valley Regional Review 9:2 (1992), 26-38
Richard W. Stephenson. [Text accompanying facsimile of map.]
I.N. Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909 .
Revised 11/7/01