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Description

The Earliest Obtainable Version of The First English Survey of Manhattan.

Lithographed folding map in three sheets, by D. T. Valentine, replicating the 1664 Nicolls Plan of Manhattan.

In the mid-1660s, Richard Nicolls, the first English Governor of New York, commissioned a survey of Manhattan and the surroundings.

The map shows the beginnings of the settlement at the farthest southern tip of Manhattan. "New Harlem", founded in 1659, is shown in the north. The map alludes to early settlement along the East River in Brooklyn.

The inset plan on the right side of the map shows the street layout of New York. This is a less well-known plan than the so-called "Duke's Plan," but it is quite important and the key holds quite a bit of important detail. Both the Nicolls and the Duke's Plan were created around the same time. However, the Nicolls was created from original surveys while the Duke's Plan was largely based on a 1661 map by Jacques Cortelyou.

The original manuscript is in the British Museum, and, as noted in the upper right corner of this map, it was there that the librarian of the NY-HS, George H. Moore, saw it and had it copied, in 1862. This is the first printed copy of the map available to collectors.

Condition Description
Folding map in three sheets, unjoined.