1880 Reizenstein Manuscript of 1728 Map of New Orleans
NewOrleans1728-reizenstein-1880$2,400.00
Title
Plan de la Nouvelle Orleans Capitale de la Louisiana 1728.
1880 (undated) 5.5 x 6.25 in (13.97 x 15.875 cm) 1 : 12000
1880 (undated) 5.5 x 6.25 in (13.97 x 15.875 cm) 1 : 12000
Description
This is an exceptional original c. 1880 manuscript draft map of New Orleans in 1728 drafted by eccentric German-American civil engineer Baron Ludwig von Reizenstein for later publication in George E. Waring Jr.'s influential 1881 History and Present Condition of New Orleans, Louisiana, and Report on the City of Austin, Texas.
The map presents the burgeoning city, with the street grid (now the 'French Quarter') laid out by de Pauger easily recognizable. Several sites within the city and along its periphery, including residential quarters, the prison, mills, a brickyard, a riverside levee, magazine (poudrière, likely the origin of the name Magazine St.), and the seat of government, are labelled or numbered, corresponding to an index at left. The 'Fleuve Saint Louis' (Mississippi River) flows before the city. Bayous, including the still-so-named Bayou St. John, and a drainage ditch (fossé d'écoulement) lay to the north of the city, towards Lake Pontchartrain.
A Closer Look
Waring's History and Present Condition of New Orleans, Louisiana, and Report on the City of Austin, Texas included an extensive history of the city of New Orleans from its founding until 1880. This historical section included 10 maps of New Orleans, both Reizenstein originals and versions of historical maps. The present map is Reizenstein's recreation of the map of Ignace-François Broutin (1690 - 1751), an important surveyor and engineer in early French Louisiana, who produced maps of the city in 1728 and 1732, which themselves were based on an unsigned manuscript map (now held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France) titled 'Plan de la ville de la Nouvelle Orléans en l'état quelle étoit le 30 may 1725,' among the earliest maps of the city, believed to have been prepared by Adrien de Pauger (c. 1685 - 1726) and/or Valentin Devin (fl. c. 1719 - 1725).The map presents the burgeoning city, with the street grid (now the 'French Quarter') laid out by de Pauger easily recognizable. Several sites within the city and along its periphery, including residential quarters, the prison, mills, a brickyard, a riverside levee, magazine (poudrière, likely the origin of the name Magazine St.), and the seat of government, are labelled or numbered, corresponding to an index at left. The 'Fleuve Saint Louis' (Mississippi River) flows before the city. Bayous, including the still-so-named Bayou St. John, and a drainage ditch (fossé d'écoulement) lay to the north of the city, towards Lake Pontchartrain.
The Waring Report
George E. Waring, Jr.'s History and Present Condition of New Orleans, Louisiana, and Report on the City of Austin, Texas was published in 1881 as part of a study commissioned in 1880 by the U.S. Census Bureau. In 1886, Waring's full report, the Report on the Social Statistics of Cities, was published to document and analyze the social, economic, and environmental conditions of urban centers in the United States. The Report sought to provide a detailed statistical overview of urban life, examining topics such as public health, infrastructure, housing, sanitation, and demographics. Its publication reflected the growing concerns of the time regarding urbanization, industrialization, and their impact on public well-being. The Report had a lasting influence on urban reform and public policy, leading to the implementation of large-scale public works projects, including sewer systems and public housing initiatives. His focus on sanitation and public health provided the foundation for modern urban hygiene practices, and his data-driven approach to social analysis became a model for subsequent studies on urban life.Publication History and Census
As L. Reizenstein's original manuscript map, this is unique. A lithograph version of the map was published in George E. Waring Jr.'s History and Present Condition of New Orleans, Louisiana, and Report on the City of Austin, Texas. The History contained this and several other maps by Reizenstein, the original drafts for which Geographicus also holds. Even printed examples of this map from the History are very rare. These original drafts are both larger and more beautiful, in addition to being one of a kind. We do not know precisely when Waring commissioned Reizenstein to make the maps, but it must have occurred around 1880 when the Waring report was ordered as part of that year's census. As Waring notes in the report, the New Orleans section is the largest in the book, having been mostly completed before the report was ordered. A one-of-a-kind record of New Orleans history.Cartographer
Ludwig von Reizenstein (July 14, 1826 - August 19, 1885) was a Bavarian civil engineer, architect, journalist, amateur naturalist, author, and publisher active in New Orleans in the mid to late 19th century. Reizenstein was born in Bavaria to an august noble family that, by this time, has fallen on hard times and scandal - apparently, his mother was a lesbian temptress who seduced her own 7 daughters. Young Ludwig was a bright but troubled child who bounced between schools and could not commit to a career. There are suggestions in family writings that he may have had homosexual relationships. While Ludwig was not directly involved with the Revolutions of 1848, he claimed to be a close friend of Lola Montez, the Irish dancer, actress, and courtesan who became a mistress of King Ludwig I and whose unpopularity may have contributed to his abdication. Convinced his son had to leave Bavaria, Ludwig's father sent him to America, where he was to run a farm for one 'Herr Steinberger of Bayreuth.' Steinberger died en route to America, and on arrival, Ludwig was left without funds or work.
At the outset, he split oysters on the shore, watched cows for a farmer, then he also edited a newspaper for a time, an undertaking which he soon gave up, since he lacked capital... then he traveled through most of the American states selling birdcages, coming finally to St. Louis, Missouri, where he met a relative, a Baron Egloffstein [Frederick Wilhelm von Egloffstein (May 18, 1824 - February 18, 1885)], who ran a surveying office. He finally felt more suited to this occupation than to any of the others he had yet tried, and he soon learned it and established himself in New Orleans as a civil engineer and architect, a business that brought him sufficient income to raise him to the level where he could obtain a house and garden in his last place of residence. (Reizenstein, L. von, The Mysteries of New Orleans, (Longfellow), page XVII-XVIII.)He took to civil engineering with an unusual dedication, settled down, and even married, to the delight of his father back in Germany. At the same time, Ludwig turned away from his noble heritage, naming himself simply 'Ludwig Reizenstein'. Around 1851, he briefly got involved in publishing, launching a German weekly called the Alligator. In 1852 he was living in Pekin, Illinois, where he announced the intuition to publish his now infamous novel Die Geheimnisse von New Orleans. Sometime in late 1852, he relocated to New Orleans, where he remained until his death. In New Orleans, he supported himself as a civil engineer and draftsman, mostly preparing property maps for auctions. He was also a hobbyist entomologist, fascinated with the local insect life. He served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) but was, at best, a reluctant supporter of the Confederacy and, being useless in combat, was ultimately attached to the medical corps. His name appears as draftsman on several maps related to the war, most of which were published on behalf of Union General N. H. Banks, likely after the war. Reizenstein is best known as the author of Die Geheimnisse von New Orleans [Mysteries of New Orleans], an occult urban-goth novel published serially from 1854 to 1855 in the German-language newspaper Louisiana Staats-Zeitung. The novel offers a scathing critique of antebellum slavery through a bloody, retributive justice at the hands of 'Hiram the Freemason' - a nightmarish, 200-year-old, proto-Nietzschean übermensch. The work features a black messiah, the son of a mulatto prostitute and a decadent German aristocrat, and includes a vividly depicted lesbian romance. It also openly criticized prestigious New Orleans citizens. All told, Mysteries shocked even New Orleans' famously libertarian sensibilities and was quickly censured. Reizenstein went on to publish other works and continue his study of insects. He died young, in his late 50s, of unknown causes. More by this mapmaker...
Condition
Excellent. Manuscript map on thick stock.