Stokes, I. N. Phelps The iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909 (v. 2)

(New York :  Robert H. Dodd,  1915-1928.)

Tools


 

Jump to page:

Table of Contents

  Page [xxiii]  



INTRODUCTION

THIS Essay on the Cartography of the North East Coast was origi¬
nally conceived, and in part prepared, as an introductory chapter
preceding the Historical Summaries in the Iconography. In this
form, it bore the title "Manhattan Island on Early Maps and Charts," and
was little more than a compilation, based on the works of Kohl, Harrisse,
and Winsor, augmented by some brief observations on a few maps of special
interest to our subject in the collections of the New York Public Library,
the Hispanic Society of America, the American Geographical Society, the
Harvard College Library, the Library of Congress, ['] and the author's own
collection; and by the results of some investigations undertaken on the
author's behalf, in London by Mr. Henry N. Stevens, and in Paris and
Holland by M. Henri Trope.

As the scope and volume of the Iconography grew, and with it that
of the Cartography, it became evident that even a superficial survey of the
subject could not, satisfactorily, be completed without at least a glance, in
person, at some of the more important European collections. For this
purpose, therefore, I went abroad in the summer of 1911, and, after examin¬
ing the principal collections of London, Paris, Amsterdam, and The Hague,
returned home, realising the wide expanse and the difficulty of the subject,
the fragmentary character of the information which I had been able to
gather, and my lack of expert knowledge and training.

While striving to produce something which should at least add a little
to our scanty knowledge of this interesting and important subject, I received
a letter from Dr. F. C. Wieder, an associate of the firm of Frederik Muller
& Co., of Amsterdam, and an experienced student of maps and other
material relating to America, with whom I had occasionally corresponded,

[i]The fine collection of copies of early maps of America formed by J. G. Kohl, about 1850, and long preserved
among the collections of the Department of State, was transferred to the Library of Congress in 1903, and, in
the following year, a catalogue of the collection was issued by the Division of Maps and Charts.
  Page [xxiii]