1803 / 1856 Plan of the City of New York
By: Casimir Th. Goerck, Joseph Fr. Mangin
Date: 1803 / 1856 (dated) New York
Dimensions: 21.5 x 17 in (54.5 x 43 cm)
This is a detailed map of lower Manhattan issued in D.T. Valentine's Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York for 1856. The map is a later edition of one of the most important maps of New York City, by Casimir Goerck and Joseph Mangin issued in 1803, for the Council of New York. The original 1803 example was meant to be the first, post-revolution, official map of the city.
In 1797, the Common Council hired cartographer Casimir Goerck and city surveyor Joseph Mangin to create the first post-Revolution map of the city of New York. During the pair’s collaboration, Goerck contracted and died from yellow fever during the 1798 epidemic; Mangin was left to complete the map on his own.
Mangin infused his ideas on the organization of the modern city into the map: he straightened the old colonial streets, placed new streets on a river landfill, and proposed the inclusion of rectilinear grids of streets north of the city proper. Mangin’s map preceded the creation of the New York City grid system by eight years. The Common Council, however, was not pleased with Goerck and Mangin’s work and rejected it, ordering all printed copies to be destroyed. Very few examples of this map exist today.
Despite this, Goerck and Mangin’s 1803 Plan of the City of New York influenced city planners of the time to consider what makes a cosmopolitan, highly-functional city. This led to the proposal for the New York grid system in 1807, which would then be implemented in 1811.
Condition: This map is in B condition, printed on thin paper and issued folded. At some point the map was flattened and reinforced along the fold lines on the verso, which has led to discoloration along the fold lines. The lower right corner has been torn away with no loss to the map image.
Inventory #12146
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