1897 Merchants Association of New York Certificate and New York City View

New York City on the Eve of Incorporation.

This is a rare 1897 bird's-eye view of New York City appearing on a membership certificate for the Merchants' Association of New York, printed by G.W. and C.B. Colton. Capturing the metropolis on the eve of the incorporation of the City of Greater New York in 1898, it is notable for including an immense planned but never-built bridge over the Hudson River.

A Closer Look

The certificate was issued for one T. S. Lennox, a non-resident member of the association (perhaps from Glenford, New York - the writing is now faint), member number 19,129. The centerpiece of the certificate is a magnificent aerial or bird's-eye view of New York City, a rare view of the city (previously sold by us as NewYorkCityView-colton-1897) that was among the last publications of the storied Colton firm before it became Colton, Ohman, and Company. Presented in chromolithograph color, this view reveals Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens as seen from high above Jersey City and Hoboken, which themselves appear in the lower left quadrant. Several bridges are noted, including the Brooklyn Bridge (completed in 1883), the Williamsburg Bridge (opened in 1903 but under construction as this view was being drawn), the Queensboro Bridge (proposed but, as this map was being drawn, not as yet under construction), and a curious bridge that never materialized, crossing the Hudson to Hoboken (discussed more below). Central Park is clearly visible, as are the Statue of Liberty in the lower right quadrant, St. John the Divine in the upper left, and Brooklyn's Prospect Park in the upper right.

A Canceled Colossal Bridge

The most unusual feature of this view is the large bridge over the Hudson River at left. Such a bridge was never built (the George Washington Bridge opened in 1931 considerably further to the north), but two such bridges were planned in the 1890s to alleviate the limited capacity and tremendous overcrowding of wharves on both sides of the Hudson, along with the resulting boat traffic in the river. Indeed, discussions for such a bridge had been underway since the early 19th century but were impossible to realize until the age of steel. A parallel set of schemes for railroad tunnels was also explored, particularly by the Pennsylvania Railroad, but these were deemed infeasible as there was no known means to ensure a supply of breathable air in the tunnels.

The first bridge proposal of the 1890s was to be built by the North River Bridge Company, which was chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1890, and would have connected with 23rd Street in Chelsea. Planned to be truly gargantuan, the 200-foot-wide span, supported by 825-foot-high towers, would have had space for 12 rail lines along with room for carriage and pedestrian lanes. The bridge was to be designed by civil engineer Gustav Lindenthal (1850 - 1935), who had already hoped to construct such a span since 1884, but plans had to be scrapped due to the extremely high projected cost and the Panic of 1893.

The second planned bridge, seen here, also received congressional approval and was to be built by the New York and New Jersey Bridge Company, landing in Manhattan somewhere between 59th and 69th Streets. However, this project failed to gain the crucial support of the city's Chamber of Commerce, which saw the company as unprepared for such a massive undertaking, likely being nothing more than a scheme to swindle investors and the city. In any event, the Panic of 1893 helped to scuttle any plans for this bridge as well. Afterward, the electrification of railroads made rail tunnels the preferred method of getting goods and people across (under) the Hudson, resulting in the construction of the Downtown Hudson Tubes, which opened in 1909.

The Merchants' Association of New York

The Merchants' Association of New York was founded in 1897 to promote and develop commerce in and around New York City, and was in large part a reaction to the depressed economic conditions following the Panic of 1893. The association also engaged in political lobbying, charitable works, and encouraged ethical business practices among its members. It had a less elite membership than the Chamber of Commerce, consisting of wholesalers, jobbers, small factory owners, importers, and retailers. The Merchants' Association had two classes of membership, Class A, issued to full-time businesses active in New York City, and Class B, issued to non-resident businesses active outside of New York City. The certificate bears the signatures of Charles J. Root, the organization's secretary, and William F. King, its first president. The association's red-orange seal is set in the lower right quadrant.

Chromolithography

Chromolithography, sometimes called oleography, is a color lithographic technique developed in the mid-19th century. The process uses multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, to yield a rich composite effect. Generally, a chromolithograph begins with a black basecoat upon which subsequent colors are layered. Some chromolithographs used 30 or more separate lithographic stones to achieve the desired effect. Chromolithograph color can be blended for even more dramatic results. The process became extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when it emerged as the dominant method of color printing. The vivid color of chromolithography made it exceptionally effective for advertising and propaganda.

Publication History and Census

Original Merchants' Association of New York certificates are very rare, the present offering being one of only a small handful of known examples. While we can assume that these certificates were issued in volume, their extreme rarity is accounted for by the fact that the Merchants' Association aggressively recalled all of its original certificates in June 1913 in exchange for a new, redesigned certificate. Most examples of the Merchants' Association's original founding certificates were thus destroyed. The association also issued a guide map of the city around the same time, also printed by Colton, which is somewhat more widespread (OCLC 61102697, 953569097).

Cartographer

Joseph Hutchins Colton (July 5, 1800 - July 29, 1893), often publishing as J. H. Colton, was an important American map and atlas publisher active from 1833 to 1897. Colton's firm arose from humble beginnings when he moved to New York in 1831 and befriended the established engraver, Samuel Stiles. He worked under Stiles as the 'Co.' in Stiles and Co. from 1833 to 1836. Colton quickly recognized an emerging market in railroad maps and immigrant guides. Not a cartographer or engraver himself, Colton's initial business practice mostly involved purchasing the copyrights of other cartographers, most notably David H. Burr, and reissuing them with updated engraving and border work. His first maps, produced in 1833, were based on earlier Burr maps and depicted New York State and New York City. Between 1833 and 1855, Colton proceeded to publish a large corpus of guidebooks and railroad maps, which proved popular. In the early 1850s, Colton brought his two sons, George Woolworth Colton (1827 - 1901) and Charles B. Colton (1832 - 1916), into the map business. G. W. Colton, trained as a cartographer and engraver, was particularly inspired by the idea of creating a large and detailed world atlas to compete with established European firms for the U.S. market. In 1855, G.W. Colton issued volume one of the impressive two-volume Colton's Atlas of the World. Volume two followed a year later. Possibly because of the expense of purchasing a two-volume atlas set, the sales of the Atlas of the World did not meet Colton's expectations, and so, in 1856, the firm also issued the atlas as a single volume. The maps contained in this superb work were all original engravings, and most bear an 1855 copyright. All of the maps were surrounded by an attractive spiral motif border that would become a hallmark of Colton's atlas maps well into the 1880s. In 1857, the slightly smaller Colton's General Atlas replaced the Atlas of the World. Most early editions of the General Atlas published from 1857 to 1859 do not have the trademark Colton spiral border, which was removed to allow the maps to fit into a smaller format volume. Their customers must have missed the border because it was reinstated in 1860 and remained in all subsequent publications of the atlas. There were also darker times ahead; in 1858, Colton was commissioned at a sum of 25,000 USD by the government of Bolivia to produce and deliver 10,000 copies of a large format map of that country. Although Colton completed the contract in good faith, delivering the maps at his own expense, he was never paid by Bolivia, which was at the time in the midst of a series of national revolutions. Colton would spend the remainder of his days fighting with the Bolivian and Peruvian governments over this payment, and in the end, after a congressional intervention, he received as much as 100,000 USD in compensation. Nonetheless, at the time, it was a disastrous blow. J. H. Colton and Company is listed as one of New York's failed companies in the postal record of 1859. This led Colton into the arms of Alvin Jewett Johnson and Ross C. Browning. The 1859 edition of Colton's General Atlas lists Johnson and Browning as the 'Successor's to J. H. Colton' suggesting an outright buyout, but given that both companies continued to publish separately, the reality is likely more complex. Whatever the case may have been, this arrangement gave Johnson and Browning access to many of Colton's map plates and gave birth to Johnson's New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas. The Johnson's Atlas was published parallel to Colton's atlases well into the 1880s. The Colton firm itself subsequently published several other atlases including an Atlas of America, the Illustrated Cabinet Atlas, the Octavo Atlas of the Union, and Colton's Quarto Atlas of the World. They also published a large corpus of wall maps, pocket maps, and guides. The last known publications of the Colton firm date to 1897 and include a map and a view, both issued in association with the Merchant's Association of New York. Alice M. Colton married August R. Ohman (May 3, 1859 - April 22, 1934) on January 5, 1897. In 1898, Ohman joined the Colton firm, which continued to publish as Colton, Ohman & Co. until 1901.   Further Details...

Condition

Fair. Open tear extending 3 inches into printed area professionally repaired on verso. Margin tears professionally repaired on verso. Edge chipping. Old signature significantly faded.

References

Star of the Republic Museum, LOCAL-CONT-NO: 1969-239.28. Greater New York: Bulletin of the Merchants' Association of New York', Volume 2, June 9, 1913, page 12. New England Stationer and Printer, Volume 11, page 4.