NEW ACQUISITIONS

A rare 1864 view of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, when it hosted the 1864 Brooklyn Sanitary Fair - a women-driven fundraising effort during the American Civil War (1861 - 1865). The view looks down Montague Street form Lafayette at the original location of BAM. The original building at 176 Montague was built in 1861 by architect Leopold Eidlitz, a founding member of the American Institute of Architects. This building sadly burnt to the ground in 1903 and was replaced by the current Peter Jay Sharp Building. (more details)

This is an 1893 George H. Walker map of the western section of the coast of Maine. The map depicts from Kittery east to Lincolnville and from Norway Lake and Snows Falls south to the Atlantic Ocean. Red overprinting highlights bicycle routes that meander through most of the region, including a coastal route. (more details)

This is a rare 1796 John Barrow map of modern day Zhoushan (舟山市; Tchu-San), China, prepared to illustrate the official report of the Macartney Embassy to China. At the time Zhoushan (Ting Hai) was a walled city just south of modern-day Shanghai on the opposite side of Hangzhou Bay. The city guarded the entrance to the Qiantang River and thus access to Hangzhou (杭州市). Coverage here extends from Zhoushan Islands south to roughly Dayang Islet and Jiushan Chan Island. Tracks follow the Clarence, one of Macartney's ships as it entered and left the Bay. At the bottom of the map, a curious circular panorama illustrates the view from the Clarence from its anchorage in Zhoushan harbor. (more details)

This is a 1955 Don Mahn and Scen-o-tour pictorial bird's-eye view of Miami and Miami Beach, Florida. This is one of the few maps to show the proposed Inter-American Cultural and Trade Center. Looking northwest over the cities from above the Atlantic Ocean, icons, drawn with the correct perspective, dot the landscape and mark schools, churches, hospitals, and libraries. Forty-five other locations are numerically identified and correspond with a key situated along the bottom border. A legend, surrounded by a pictorial border, explains all the icons present and lists nearly a dozen local radio stations. In a charming addition, it also includes a diagram of how to 'properly' fold the map. (more details)

This is a finely-engraved miniature map of the British Isles, printed in a 1661 Elzevir edition of Philipp Clüver's Introductionis in Universam Geographiam. This westward-oriented map follows the model of Abraham Ortelius' 1595 map of the same title. As with the Ortelius, this map presents modern geographical information (the outline follows that of Mercator's 1564 and Saxton's 1579 maps) but employs toponomy derived from classical sources, including Pliny, Strabo, and Julius Caesar. It therefore depicts the Britain known to Ancient Rome - Britannia - divided into its Imperial provinces. Celtic tribal names are given as well. The Roman walls built by Hadrian and Antoninus Pius are shown, and historical details, such as Caesar's landing site in his 55 BCE invasion are marked as well. Forests and mountains are indicated pictorially. (more details)

This is a 1959 Henry Emmett Gross city plan or map of St. Louis, Missouri, covering from Shrewsbury to the Mississippi River. Innumerable streets are identified throughout, as are city parks, including Forest Park and Francis Park. St. Louis was then and still is a railroad hub, numerous railroad lines run into town. An alphabetic street index appears along the bottom border. (more details)

This is a superbly detailed chart of the Volga River, engraved by John Gibson in 1753, produced for inclusion in Jonas Hanway's An Historical Account of the British Trade Over the Caspian Sea. It relies on details provided Hanway by sources in the Russian Academy in St. Petersburg. In composing the map, Gibson has solved the problem of displaying a long, meandering river in detail by framing the map in three sections, adding a fourth general map to indicate how the detail maps connect. A General View of the Volga, positioned in the lower right quadrant of the sheet, shows the full length of the Volga from its source to the Caspian Sea with the letters 'A' and 'B' marking the points where the corresponding positions on the detail maps connect. (more details)

This is a 1930 Bekins Van and Storage Company city plan or map of Omaha, Nebraska. Depicting Omaha from the University of Nebraska-Omaha campus (then called Omaha University) to the Missouri River and from North Omaha south to Mandan Park. Streets are labeled throughout, along with numerous parks, athletic fields, hospitals, and schools. Both Union Pacific and Burlington railroad lines are illustrated and labeled, along with their respective depots. Both Carter Lake and the 'municipal aviation field' (now Eppley Airport) are labeled on the map's right side. Numerical street indexes appear in the upper-left and lower-right, and list streets north and south of Dodge Street, respectively. (more details)

A scarce 1864 Daniel A. Heald map of the Washington D.C. / Richmond, Virginia area during the American Civil War.  The strategically and politically critical corridor between Washington D. C. and Richmond, Virginia was one of the most hotly contested theaters of the American Civil War (1861 - 1865).  When this map was issued, in 1864, the war had already turned strongly in favor of the Union. Late 1864 and early 1865 witnessed a succession of battles as Union forces pursued Confederate armies as they retreated toward their capital, Richmond.  Battle sites are marked by crossed cavalry swords.  The main map relates to the 1862 Peninsular Campaign.  While the submap follows military operations in Eastern Tennessee, Northern Alabama, and Georgia - representing the final days of the Confederacy. (more details)

An amusing piece of late Cold War propaganda, this c. 1983 World Peace Council propaganda map of the world presents the world from U.S. President Ronald Reagan's point of view. (more details)

This c. 1922 Clason Map Company and Wyoming State Board of Immigration promotional resource map of Wyoming. The map was published to encourage immigration and development to the beautiful yet remote state. Uniform coding throughout highlights the states rich natural resources: red identifies oil fields, dark green marks irrigated land, light green identifies proposed and developing irrigation areas, and blue areas identify national forests. Yellowstone National Park is illustrated and labeled in the upper left corner of the state. Photographs of Wyoming's farming, ranching, and mining form the border. These images include a chicken ranch, bee hives, and fields of sunflowers, onions, and sugar beets. (more details)

This is a c. 1950 P. D'Anello city plan or map of Panama City, Panama. Two colors, pink and light orange, immediately leap at the viewer, and, upon examination, delineate between the República de Panama (light orange) and the Canal Zone (pink). (more details)

This is a c. 1975 pictorial tourist map of Arequipa, one of Peru's most beautiful and historic cities. Pictorial vignettes highlight important buildings throughout central Arequipa, including the cathedral, the Plaza de San Francisco, the Banco Central de Reserva (Central Reserve Bank), and the Parque Duhamel. Hotels, banks, restaurants, and other businesses are identified as well. Numerous airline offices, including Aire France, Aerolineas Argentinas, and Lufthansa are also labeled. A stunning pictorial border encircles the map on three sides highlighting the Andes, bullfighting, and hotels. (more details)

An attractive 1922 map of Fort Wayne, Indiana by John M. E. Riedel. The map covers the city limits and street grid as they appeared in 1922. This particular examples include some manuscript updates to define 'Walks and Alleys' and 'Sublets to A.G.'. It is not 100% clear what either of these refer to, but the annotations are fairly precise. The pink 'walks' which appear haphazard though the city may refer to sidewalk development. (more details)

This is an attractive map of Italy, engraved as early as 1671 by Frederik De Wit. The map covers the Italian Peninsula in its entirety including the Dalmatian coast, at the time controlled by the Republic of Venice, as well as the islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and part of Sicily. As with virtually every map of Italy produced in the seventeenth century, De Wit follows the model established by Magini's monumental 1608 Italia Nuova. Magini's map was justifiably influential, rendering the whole of Italy and its islands in magnificent detail with their river systems clearly presented and mountains shown pictorially. (more details)

A delightful 1934 first edition pictorial map of Alaska drawn by Edward Camy to promote 'The Alaska Line. Prepared in the style of Jo Mora, Camy's map covers most of Alaska and parts of the Yukon and British Columbia as far south as Seattle. For a place that is shrouded in twilight for several months a year, this map is remarkably bright and sunny – no doubt an attempt by the Alaska Line to offset the image of Alaska as cold and dreary. Cartoonish vignette illustrations elaborate on Alaska's flora, fauna, culture, scenery, mineral wealth, and the activities that can be enjoyed there. The route of the steamship line along as it weaves around the Islands near Sitka on its way to Valdez and Kodiak is noted. Other routes go directly to Nome or island hop on the Aleutians. An inset map in the upper right offers the option to disembark in Cordova for an inland tour to Fairbanks, visiting Mount McKinley and Anchorage before re-embarking at Seward. A cartoon strip along the bottom of the map follows the adventures of two travelers as they dine, dance, sleep, and play their way up the coast. A whale in the lower left is advertised as a 'portable geyser'. (more details)

This is an 1886 M. Kossiakof map of Turkestan in Central Asia. Red lines trace Kossiakof's route through the Rasht Valley (Karateghin) and Darvaz (Darwaz) regions with the 1881 Regel Expedition. The primarily botanically focused 1881 expedition was led by Johann Albert von Regel (1845 - 1909), a Swiss-Russian physician and botanist. Nonetheless, the Regel Expedition was one of the first European penetrations into the area. Kossiakof was a military topographer attached to the mission. He mapped the region, labeling cities, towns, and villages through which the group passed. Rivers are illustrated. In the lower right corner, an inset map of Asia and eastern Europe situates the depicted area in a continental manner. The map covers only the actual path followed, along with the observable surrounds, underscoring Kossiakof's integrity in illustrating only scientifically confirmed geography. (more details)

This is a 1939 Claude Shafer pictorial map of Ohio. Shafer, a cartoonist celebrated in Ohio for his wit, combines historical events with pictorial depictions of important sites. A stork carries a Wright Flyer in a sling, much as it might a baby, near Dayton, labeled as the 'birthplace of the airplane'. Ohio's famous mounds are illustrated, along with Fort Ancient, and the Serpent Mound. The Johnny Appleseed Memorial is referenced, as are McGuffey Readers in Oxford and Collier's Weekly in Springfield. The state's many resources are illustrated, including salt and coal mines, oil wells, the rubber plant in Akron, and the Youngstown steel district. Shafer's wit shines in several places, including the illustration of a man 'looking for Helen of Troy' in Troy, Ohio and a bear scaring the daylights out of a man in the Roosevelt Game Preserve. (more details)

This is a 1945 Railway Express Agency (REA) map of PostWar Town, U.S.A. Created to promote REA's Air Express Service, 'notes' pinned around town highlight how Air Express serves the community at large by supplying goods and services to local businesses. The local farmer, contractor, florist, department store, and movie theater all use Air Express. This allows products (including the newest movies) to be sold anywhere, even in cities without an airport. The map's verso text describes the service in the following manner:

This is probably a different kind of map than you ever saw before. It doesn't show you how to go anywhere. It isn't even a map of any real town. But don't be discouraged, or go off writing letters to Mr. Rand and Mr. McNally.

Postwar Town could be your town or city. It could be in upstate Maine or New York or the foothills of the Rockies. The point is, Postwar town is populated with people whose business and personal needs demand, quite frequently, that they get something in a hurry or send something somewhere in a hurry.

The Heavens CAN Help You!

Now, this is an Air Express map - and if you examine it carefully you'll see how all these people use Air Express to help them in their business and daily living. For Air Express is no longer a novelty…over 1,559,495 shipments totaling 31,066,414 pounds were shipped by air in 1943, and even more in 1944. This is the method of shipping that you will be using increasingly as the air age goes on.

And because Air Express is coordinated with Railway Express Agency service, towns without airports can still get the benefit of 3 mile-a-minute air speed on the long stretches. Three hundred and seventy-five cities in this country now receive direct air service, and this number will be greatly increased at war's end.

More 'Freedom of the Air' for Non-War Shipments

It's true, of course, that the urgencies of war have demanded that priority shipments fly first - with non-priority shipments going on a 'space available' basis. Even in the thick of war, and on this basis, relatively few non-priority shipments have failed to find room., At the same time, it's important, and heartening, to know that the government has found it possible to make more airliner equipment available.

That's why you'll see more and more dresses, fresh vegetables, flowers, and dozens of other non-priority items, flying by air. Oysters fresh with the salt of the Atlantic, posies still glistening with the dew of a California morning, will find their place beside crankshafts and cannon with increasing frequency.

So instead of assuming that there's no space for your package, check first with your local Railway Express Agency office. They can tell you - or put you in touch with your local Priority Control Office, if there's any doubt.

When you're shipping by air, remember that no special or extra protection is needed. Pack lightly, pack compactly, pack in small units wherever possible…this way you conserve weight and space, lower the cost for yourself, and give the other fellow a break. Finally, to get extra speed, extra early delivery, ship when ready!

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This is a 1953 Spyro Spiridon (Spyridon) pictorial map of Jerusalem. Spiridon's map illustrates sites across the city in profile, including schools, hospitals, churches, synagogues, hotels, and even the Y.M.C.A. The Dome of the Rock, the Wailing Wall, the Church of Dormition, and the Old City's walls are prominent. The Dead Sea appears along the upper right border. (more details)