1870 Appleton View of Prospect Park, Brooklyn

This is a beautiful 1870 view of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, issued by D. Appleton. Drawn while the park was still under construction, it reveals Prospect Park as conceived by the landscape architects, and indeed 'Artists,' Vaux and Olmsted. Vaux and Olmsted were awarded the task of designing Prospect Park in 1866 by the Brooklyn Common Council. Olmsted's vision drove the overall design while Vaux concentrated his attentions on bridges, buildings, and other structures within the park. The creation of Prospect Park, which was to consist of some 585 acres of public forest, pathways, promenades, lakes, bridges, and meadows, was a seminal moment in civic urban design. As with their most famous work, Central Park, Vaux and Olmsted were meticulous in their design of Prospect Park, with every tree, pond, and bench planned. Olmsted wrote: 'Every foot of the parks surface, every tree and bush, as well as every arch, roadway, and walk and been placed where it is for a purpose.' Though Olmsted is best known for his work in New York's Central Park, there are many who consider Prospect Park, his second masterpiece, to be his finest. Today, because of Vaux and Olmsted's efforts, Brooklynites have the privilege of enjoying what is, without question, one of the finest examples of a planned urban public recreation area in the world.

A note accompanying the view in Appletons' Journal read

This park possesses rare natural advantages; it is located on the hills in the rear of the city, between two and three miles from Fulton Ferry, and embraces within its limits hills, ravines, brooks, and, more than all, clusters of forest-trees of many of the hardiest and most beautiful varieties to be found on the continent. The views from all portions of the park are charming, but the most comprehensive is that from the 'Lookout,' near the eastern entrance. From this point, on a clear day, one can take in at a glance the coast from Far Rockaway to Sandy Hook, with the Atlantic as a background; the Bay and the Hudson, from Jersey Heights to the northerly terminus of the Palisades, and the cities of New York, Brooklyn, and Jersey City, with all the islands in the Bay, East River, and Sound.

The lake, a portion of which is shown in our illustration, now has a water surface of fifteen acres, but when completed it will contain about fifty acres, and will be abundantly supplied with pleasure-boats of all kinds. When we say that the park is over half finished, we mean to say that over one-half of the labor necessary has been completed; but this labor has much, in fact most of it, been of a character which does not show its results to the casual visitor, the purely ornamental being still almost untouched, and of a character which it will probably take two years to develop.

The park, although opened to the public in 1867, would continue to be under construction until 1873.

Cartographer

Daniel Appleton (December 10, 1785 – March 27, 1849) was an American bookseller and publisher who founded one of the most influential publishing houses of 19th-century America. Born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, Appleton began his commercial career in the dry-goods trade, first in his native town and later in Boston, where he also imported merchandise from England. In 1825, he moved to New York City and entered into business with his brother-in-law, Jonathan Leavitt, gradually supplementing his dry-goods inventory with imported English books. Recognizing the greater promise of the book trade, Appleton eventually abandoned dry goods altogether and established a dedicated bookselling and publishing concern at Clinton Hall, near Beekman and Nassau streets. His first publishing venture, William Mason's Crumbs from the Master's Table, appeared in 1831. Appleton's eldest son, William Henry Appleton (1814 – 1899), assumed management of the book department and became a partner in 1838, when the firm adopted the name D. Appleton and Company. Under Daniel Appleton's direction, the house expanded its offerings from importing religious and literary works to include children's books, travel literature, educational publications, and Spanish-language books for the growing Latin American market. Appleton retired in 1848 and died in New York the following year, leaving the business to his sons William Henry, John Adams, George Swett, Daniel Sidney, and Samuel Francis Appleton. Under their leadership, the firm developed into a major international publisher whose catalog embraced literature, history, medicine, science, reference works, travel, and cartography. Its later authors included Charles Darwin, Thomas Henry Huxley, Herbert Spencer, Lewis Carroll, and Arthur Conan Doyle, whose novels, short stories, and essays appeared under the Appleton imprint between 1894 and 1926. The company merged with the Century Company in 1933 to form Appleton-Century, subsequently becoming Appleton-Century-Crofts in 1948; it was acquired by Meredith Publishing Company in 1960.   Further Details...

Source

Appleton, D., Appletons' Journal (New York), 1870.    

Condition

Very good. Minor wear along original fold lines.