Book of the Week - Mapping New York

      Mapping New York provides a look at historical and present day New York City through cartography. Black Dog Publishing has recently released this book as a follow up to their previous title, Mapping London.  The publishing company has allowed me to include some images from the book. They have offered me and any readers of this blog copies at a 40% discount--send an e-mail to jess@blackdogonline.com quoting ‘Map of the Week Offer’ as the subject.
        This book starts with a history of the city beginning with a few maps showing a small village at the tip of Manhattan Island extending northwards to the city's wall at present day Wall Street. Urban development and planning maps detail the growth of the city and of its transportation network. Below is part of Oscar Hinrich's "Guide Map of Central Park" from the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. The map was drawn 16 years after the park's opening and two years after its completion.

     Later chapters show maps from artistic and political perspectives. Below is a map titled "Routes of Least Surveillance" courtesy of The Institute of Applied Autonomy and Site-R. The red dots show the locations of CCTV cameras and the green lines indicate walking paths that minimize your exposure to them. Ordinary folks with legitimate reasons to be concerned about these cameras are detailed at the edges of the map.

         Here is a clever ad for the SONY Walkman.  The image is courtesy of Sony and the ad's creators, Saatchi and Saatchi Sydney. The subway stations represent musical groups.

Here is a detail from the map.

      The book concludes with some various "imaginings" of the city from artists, social scientists and others with many more interesting and unique maps.