1956 Norman's Simplified Maps of New York City
DESCRIPTION
This hand-drawn folding visitor's guide features 4 maps of New York City that simultaneously capture the vitality and bustle that draws tourists to the city while simplifying its sprawl for the sake of navigability. Throughout, quips and recommendations in the author's voice make the city's intimidating sprawl approachable by giving viewers the sense that they're being shown around by a real-deal New Yorker.
Its verso is devoted to the area that the map assumes is most suitable for tourists—Mid-Town Manhattan. Centered on the Empire State Building (the sole illustrated landmark here), the map is set at a Northwest orientation. Though its left and right borders, the Hudson and East Rivers, are natural demarcation points, the top and bottom borders at 23rd St. and the southernmost point Central Park show the mapmaker's discretion at work cordoning off a portion of the city exclusively for tourists. To help these tourists navigate a potentially overwhelming visit, the maps left, right, and bottom borders introduce the city's street-grid system.
Within these borders the map primarily functions as an index of notable landmarks on each block, but occasional asides providing recommendations in a personable tone make the viewing the map feel like a tour from a local. Bookending the map's title are two inset text boxes—one "Facts About New York City" feature that lists such remarkable stats as the city clocking "20 Millions" [sic] telephone calls daily, the other a reiteration of the necessary simplification and incompleteness on display throughout. Beneath the map is an index of Manhattans streets and a curated "Outstanding Place of Interest List" whose most populated category interestingly happens to be "Churches," even above "Museums & Parks."
The map's recto includes three maps—its left half split between a map of New York's subway system and a map of the Financial District, its right devoted solely to a complete street map of Manhattan.
Among these, the map of the Financial District is most similar to the map of mid-town Manhattan only smaller in scale, featuring fewer editorial asides, and more instrumental. Flourishes like a seemingly useless indication that the Hudson River flows South and stylistic border-breaks for Canal St. and Ellis Island help the map retain its personable feel. Should a tourist dare to venture outside Manhattan, the map of the subway system provides a guide to the lines and stations connecting Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and just barely into the Bronx. Featured here are the map's compass and a second-and-final illustration of the Statue of Liberty. Opposite these two maps, a street map encompassing the whole of Manhattan charts the rest of the borough only this time including far fewer landmarks. Familiarity is especially cultivated in this map through quips like "The Bronx Zoo is the world's largest and best" that make the viewer feel as if they're getting shown around by an authentic New Yorker.
CONDITION
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