1920 Hammond Plan or Map of New York City

Issued to promote the Murray Hill and Plaza Hotels of New York City.

This is a nice c.1920s map of New York City by F. A. Hammond. The map covers from the Battery and Governor’s Island north to 94th Street in extraordinary detail. Parts of Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey are also featured. Roosevelt Island and Governor’s Island are also included. Throughout, the map identifies individual streets, parks, piers, ferry lines, railways, bridges, and other topography. Presented by The Murray Hill Hotel and the Plaza Hotel, the two hotels are prominently identified on the map. Other important buildings are also identified. A key near the top right border lists various important locations such as churches, clubs, music halls, theaters, residences, resorts, etc. The map, intended to promote the two hotels, was presented by F. A. Hammond.

Cartographer

Caleb Stillson Hammond (November 27, 1862 - December 14, 1929) was an American map publisher and printing entrepreneur active in New York City during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the founder of C. S. Hammond and Company. Born in Rush, New York, he gained experience in the map trade as a sales representative for Rand McNally before establishing his own publishing concern in Brooklyn in 1900 and incorporating it in 1901. Early cartographic publications included folded maps of Panama and of Florida's steamship routes and railroad connections, both issued in 1903, followed by Hammond's Atlas of New York City and the Metropolitan District in 1907. These publications established two enduring branches of the business: maps of places attracting public attention and commissioned cartography for commercial customers. The firm developed an extensive range of world, historical, school, and thematic atlases, as well as separate maps and globes, and supplied cartographic material for other publishers' encyclopedias, dictionaries, religious works, and textbooks. Its metropolitan mapping included street and transit maps, freight-delivery maps, and maps of railroad terminal facilities. Hammond died in New York City on December 14, 1929; the business continued under family ownership and relocated to Maplewood, New Jersey, in the early 1950s. His grandson, Caleb D. Hammond, Jr. (1915 - 2006), became president in 1948. The company's assets were acquired by Langenscheidt Publishers in 1999, and in December 2002, the American Map Corporation, part of the Langenscheidt Publishing Group, donated the Hammond archives to the Library of Congress.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Some wear and loss along original fold lines. Minor toning and foxing. Professionally flattened and backed with archival tissue.