1954 Hagstrom Map of New York City Subway Construction Projects

A plan to improve the New York City Subway.

This is a 1954 Hagstrom map of New York City Subway construction projects. It illustrates developments, such as the 2nd Avenue Line, that are only now coming to fruition.

A Plan to Improve the New York City Subway

In 1954, the New York City Transit Authority proposed a $658 million construction program. Most of these improvements are detailed here, using red to highlight proposed new construction and blue to illustrate which lines would see improved service. Red circles contain blurbs promoting what each project would provide, such as increased service by as many as 18 trains per hour on certain lines and 34 trains per hour (both local and express service) along the proposed 2nd Avenue line. (The first section of the 2nd Avenue line finally opened in 2017 with proposals to build almost the entire line as illustrated here still pending). Only two of the proposed projects were under construction when this map was published. The first was the 60th Street Tunnel Connection (which opened on December 1, 1955) and the second was the IND Rockaway Line, which opened on June 28, 1956.

An Incredible Amount of Detail

Apart from highlighting the proposed improvements to the New York Subway, the entire subway network is illustrated with all stops labeled. Major streets and avenues are illustrated and identified as well. The tunnels under the East River and Hudson River appear pictorially, with train cars or passenger vehicles (in the case of the Holland Tunnel and the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel) drawn within. Parks, museums, government buildings, and even New York's zoos are labeled.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Hagstrom and published by the New York City Transit Authority in 1954 in the NYCTA's 1st Annual Report. The separate map is not cataloged in OCLC and rarely appears on the private market. The full report is cataloged in OCLC as being part of 30 institutional collections throughout the United States and the United Kingdom.

Cartographer

Andrew Gunnar Hagstrom (1890 - September 24, 1977) was a map publisher based in Maspeth, Queens. Hagstrom was born in Karleby, Skaraborg, Sweden. He emigrated to New York in 1909, where he took work milking cows at a farm near Coney Island, Brooklyn. He then worked in the meatpacking industry while taking a degree in commercial art at the New York Mechanics Institute. Afterward, he founded a drafting business in Manhattan and created a map to showcase his drafting skill and help customers find his shop. He then purchased the copyrights to Dolph and Street Company's base maps of New York City. His maps proved popular, and he expanded operations by founding the Hagstrom Map Company (1916 - 1968) and issuing additional maps of parts of New York City and the surrounding regions. By 1949, Hagstrom had issued more than 150 maps, guides, and atlases, most of which focused on New York. Many of his maps from this period feature a unique dating cipher based on his name (HAGSTROMCX corresponds to the numbers 1-9, with 0 representing the months and years; for example, a map with the code OSO would be 7/47, or July 1947). Hagstrom pioneered a cartographic style that exaggerated street widths to improve clarity and make room for large-print, readable labels. The New York Subway system even hired Hagstrom to produce its map, which was in use from the 1940s to 1958. In 1958, the King of Sweden knighted Hagstrom (Royal Order of Vasa, First Class) for his success in the United States. His company flourished until 1968, when Macmillan acquired it. The brand has since passed through multiple corporate portfolios and is now owned by Kappa Publishing Group. Hagstrom died in 1977 at age 81 in the Virgin Islands   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Light wear along original fold lines. A few small areas of loss along fold lines not at fold intersections.