New York Harbor Quadricentennial Saluted with Extensive Exhibition Featuring Rarely Seen Treasures
The New York Public Library celebrates Henry Hudson and Dutch acumen with Mapping New York's Shoreline, 1609-2009, a comprehensive exhibition featuring rare and extraordinary maps, atlases, books, journals, broadsides, manuscripts, prints, and an animation superimposing historical maps on a three-dimensional Google Earth model drawn primarily from the Library’s Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, and from other New York Public Library collections. Mapping New York’s Shoreline will be on view at The New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street from September 25, 2009 to June 26, 2010. Admission is free. In conjunction with the exhibition, performances, lectures, classes, workshops and film/video screenings will be presented at locations throughout The New York Public Library.
In September 1609, Henry Hudson sailed into New York Harbor and up the river that would later be named in his honor, performing detailed reconnaissance of the Valley region. Other explorers had passed by the hidden harbor, but did not fully comprehend the commercial, nautical, strategic, or colonial value of the area. Once these explorers returned to Europe, much of the information they had gathered was presented to mapmakers, whose works were engraved on copper and printed on handmade paper. These maps were then distributed to individuals and coffee-houses (the news outlets of the day), and pored over by dreamers, investors, and potential settlers in the “new land.” Four hundred years later, some of these same materials are on view at The New York Public Library.
Mapping New York's Shorelineexplores the achievements of the Dutch in the New York City region, especially along the waterways forming its urban watershed, from the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound to the Hudson (or North) River and the Delaware (or South) River. Inspired by The New York Public Library's collection of Dutch, English, French and early American mapping of the Atlantic coastal regions, this exhibition features the best early and growing knowledge of the unknown shores along our neighboring rivers, bays, sounds, and harbors. From the earliest mapping (1598) reflecting Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano's brief visit, to the first English map of the area in 1664, to magnificently decorative Dutch charting of the Atlantic and the New Netherland region, these antiquarian maps tell the story from a centuries-old perspective, allowing visitors a glimpse at the modest beginnings of what is now one of the world’s great cities...
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In September 1609, Henry Hudson sailed into New York Harbor and up the river that would later be named in his honor, performing detailed reconnaissance of the Valley region. Other explorers had passed by the hidden harbor, but did not fully comprehend the commercial, nautical, strategic, or colonial value of the area. Once these explorers returned to Europe, much of the information they had gathered was presented to mapmakers, whose works were engraved on copper and printed on handmade paper. These maps were then distributed to individuals and coffee-houses (the news outlets of the day), and pored over by dreamers, investors, and potential settlers in the “new land.” Four hundred years later, some of these same materials are on view at The New York Public Library.
Mapping New York's Shorelineexplores the achievements of the Dutch in the New York City region, especially along the waterways forming its urban watershed, from the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound to the Hudson (or North) River and the Delaware (or South) River. Inspired by The New York Public Library's collection of Dutch, English, French and early American mapping of the Atlantic coastal regions, this exhibition features the best early and growing knowledge of the unknown shores along our neighboring rivers, bays, sounds, and harbors. From the earliest mapping (1598) reflecting Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano's brief visit, to the first English map of the area in 1664, to magnificently decorative Dutch charting of the Atlantic and the New Netherland region, these antiquarian maps tell the story from a centuries-old perspective, allowing visitors a glimpse at the modest beginnings of what is now one of the world’s great cities...