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1873 Dripps Pocket Map of New York City, Brooklyn and Hoboken
NYC-dripps-1873
Title
1873 (dated) 37.5 x 23 in (95.25 x 58.42 cm)
Description
This map was popular throughout the mid to late 19th century when it was commonly issued folded into with Valentine's Manual of the Common Council of New York. This map, however is a rare independent issue. Unlike the Valentine variations, our map is bound into its own special binder. The map is dissected and mounted on linen in 30 sections for easy folding. Ultimately this is an unusual and very difficult to find variant on an important 19th century New York Map.
Cartographer
Matthew Dripps (1812 – April 9, 1896) was an Irish-born American mapmaker active in Philadelphia and New York during the second half of the 19th century. Dripps was born in Gracefield, Ireland. In Ireland, probably Belfast, he worked as a grocer. Dripps immigrated to American from Belfast on the Patrick Henry in 1849, arriving in Philadelphia, where he connected with the Reformed Presbyterian Church and worked briefly as a tax collector. His earliest recorded maps, depicting Philadelphia, appeared during this period. Dripps relocated to Brooklyn, New York in 1850, setting up shop as a map publisher. His two largest maps were published in the following years, 1850 and 1851, and combine to form an enormous map of Manhattan. These gained him the attention of the City Council, who used his maps for census and government work. Afterwards, he issued other large format New York City and Brooklyn maps as well as smaller maps for the New York City Clerk's office. He was married to Ameila Millar Dripps with whom he had six children, among them Amelia Dripps and the clergyman Joseph Frederick. Dripps is interred at Greewood Cemetery, Brooklyn.