Nesting Ranch: Maps of New York City

5/5/11

Maps of New York City

*FYI - Updated photos below*

All found at various estate sales. These are all in our office. Please right click to new window/tab for larger views, enjoy!

Manhattan Subway Map 1975.
I love how it doesn't mirror the actual routes, even if it is very difficult to read compared to more literal maps, it's the design of bold thick tubes of colors that traverse the aesthetic & era vs. where the heck am I? How perfect! If you click some of the views to zoom you can see how yellowed the paper exterior title pages are exposed to either sun or smoke on the bottom right but folded inside the remainder of pages are preserved white.
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Yellowed bottom corner exterior from it's folded forgotten form.

& yet, crisp white, and very very vivid colors...

Wow, so many colors, maaan... where am i ???

Wall St

Is this not THE ultimate cluster F train?

Very simple blue, red and green lines, show the above-ground primary color arteries of the city. This one, bookending in published/revised years to the Subway Map described above, is a great contrast in the era. I guess the bus line didn't jive like the subway line? Well, man, I think it's down, even if above ground, because I just love that crazy solid profiled bus silhouette at the top.

Oddly, in someways, this reminds me of Alex Grey's drawings on my favorite Tool record, Lateralus.

The bus!

Central Park North

Central Park South

Grand Central & Penn Station

World Trade & Wall St.

Next stop...

Tourist maps of Central Park and Manhattan 1964. These came in a booklet that was black plastic spiral bound. All the boroughs are there but I'd have to scan/copy/print some since they're two sided if I wanted to put them all up as a mural... In the end though, I found book-ending one corner of the room worked. During the day we can stare out the room's window into the backyard on the tread mill or feel like we're running around Manhattan or Central Park, but safely in the dark.

The top pair represent a view of only Central Park

Top - Central Park (left is south / right is north)
Bottom - Manhattan (left is north / right is south)

The bottom pair with the colorful neighborhood blocks is a view of Manhattan with Central Park in the traditional middle of island.

What is most amazing about these pages is the silly layout to compensate for splitting the island across two landscape oriented pages. They're the worst oriented pair of maps ever; worse than their younger Subway Map from 1975! But hey, this is 1964, content is for squares, let's get more artsy color, right?!

The color blocks remind me of this one I found over at Strange Maps.

The space between Central Park ...

So, imagine you're navigating thru Central Park and Central Park South on the map is on the traditional "West" side or left side of the paper when looking at a map representing an overview of the park.

Central Park <<---South---North--->>

Ok, no big deal, I just flip this thing counterclockwise like a centerfold pinup girly mag and now North is North, Men are Men and away we go, yesiree ... er, right?

Manhattan <<---North----South--->>

But once you're out of the park and you look at the Manhattan Island Map, now Central Park South is on the "East" or right side of the paper!

So which way do you flip this thing if you can make heads or tales of it - and this is the easy northern part of town where everything is a grid unlike Soho.

The East River is now north.

NJ & the Hudson are on the bottom of the page, Battery Park is on the left side.

So just when you find your way out of the wilderness of Olmsted & Vaux, the authors spin Mike D's island of Manhattan (...MCAs from Brooklyn!) and now, North is West and South is East.

Welfare Island now known as Roosevelt Island.

I guess it all depends on the non-existent sign You Are Here, which isn't to be developed for another 20 years in a 1984 mall food-court. Regardless of it's flaws, it's another colorful, wonderful map even if I did just get pick-pocketed trying to read this damn thing.

Good job Mad Men!

Tourist Map of NYC dated 1958.

This is the pride and joy. Unlike the maps above found yellowed, this was found pristine white in a basement with other great maps of the time, filed very anally in manila folders, just laying in a box forgotten. This map orients correctly, the colors are bold, the texture of the paper is a wonderful grade, and it includes the cutest drawings of buildings and landmarks. Surrounding the border are all kinds of facts regarding hospitals, hotels, churches, airports, population figures. It's dynamite. I put this one behind museum glass I love it so and I hope you see why with these pictures.

Again, please click to zoom, some of the stats and names are super fun to read, enjoy!