ABOUT THE MAP

This historic map of the City of New York was published on 15 May 1933, under the direction of Herman H. Smith, Chief Engineer of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of the City of New York. The physical map, which documents all five Boroughs down to the street level, is approximately seven feet square. It was printed in six separate pieces (two panels wide by three panels long) which were then joined together to create the complete image. At the physical seams in the document, where the different panels were joined, the registration from one sheet to the next is not always perfect. Variations in print pressure also show up, as some of the panels are darker and crisper than others. The artifact was purchased in 2010, and permission to reproduce it on the "Roaring 'Twenties" website was obtained from the Municipal Archives of the City of New York.

The physical map was digitized at Princeton University's Digital Studio by Roel Muñoz and Beth Wodnick, under the supervision of Deputy Librarian Marvin Bielawski. Permission to use this digital rendering of the map was obtained from the Princeton University Library. Ten digital photographs were taken of the physical map, and these images were then digitally joined into a single image via Adobe Photoshop software. Due to the size of the original and its having been rolled up for many years, it was not possible to flatten the map fully prior to photography, and the digital seams where different component photographs were joined are, in some places, apparent. The digital seams are not necessarily at the same locations as the physical seams in the original.