1953 Nils Hansell Pictorial Map of New York: The Wonders of New York

A production of the utmost weirdness, this is a fun-fact-filled dramatic 1953 pictorial map of New York City by the flamboyant Swedish-American artist, Nils Birger Hansell. Covering the Manhattan from roughly the Battery to 96th street, the map presents a scene of bustling modernity with a humorous twist. Nils illustrates the architectural and entertainment wonders, and general curiosities, of New York City, successfully evoking the city's inspiring creative spirit. The map was perhaps inspired by the work of Charles Vernon Farrow, who made a similar map of New York in 1927 entitled, A Map of the Wondrous Isle of Manhattan. While cartographically similar, Nils' map is far more playful and flamboyant. The map is surrounded by a whimsical pictorial order illustrating day-to-day life scenes from 1950 s New York. Some 301 sites, individuals, and events, are located throughout and referenced numerically.

A Deep Dive into the Quirks of New York

The cartography and annotations suggest a deep connection and knowledge of New York. Among other oddities, he notes a building where only beautiful redhaird women are hired to man the elevators (260 Madison, #179), the old Syrian Quarter (#9), the folklore location of the pirate Captain Kidd's buried treasure (#77), and Shinbone Alley (#96, home of the philosopher-cockroach 'Archy' and the 9th life street cat 'Mehitabel'), and notes obscure facts, such as the city code that allows Trinity Church to claim any whale caught in the Hudson River.

Bowery Mose

Among the oddities, the map identifies 'Bowery Mose' or ' Mose the Fireboy,' a kind of New York Jewish-American Paul Bunyan who lived in the Lower East Side, worked as a fireman in Company 49, and apparently measured some 8ft in height He is credited with numerous of unlikely feats of strength and far-fetched escapades, among them deadlifting trolley cars and swimming the Hudson with 2 strokes. He legend is based upon Bowery Moses Humphrey, a New York grocer, printer, local tough, and member of the Bowery Boys. The Bowery Boys were a nativist, anti-Catholic, anti-Irish criminal gang who, among other eccentricates, enjoyed the theater.

Ships of the Sea

Hansell loved maritime life and appropriately, the seas are full of large ocean liners, among them the Queen Elizabeth, the Liberté, the S. S. Constitution, the S. S. United States and the Oslofjord (perhaps a nod to Hansell's Scandinavian heritage?). The U.S.S. Midway aircraft carrier, the largest ship in the world until 1955, appears in the lower right.

Publication History and Census

This map exists in only a single edition. It was published in 1953 by Nils Hansen and lithographed by Lutz and Shienkman. The map is today quite rare with the OCLC identifying only 4 examples in institutional collections. We are aware of one other example in the Rumsey Collection at Stanford.