1898 – F. E. Wachsmuth – New-York

Title:                   “New-York”​

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Description:

A large and rare chromolithographed bird’s-eye view of New York, made for German classrooms around 1898. It belongs to Adolf Lehmann’s Geographische Charakterbilder, a series of wall pictures showing typical landscapes and cities of the world. It was published by F. E. Wachsmuth’s Leipziger Schulbilderverlag in Leipzig. The chart keeps its original school format: mounted on linen, with bound edges and two metal eyelets for hanging in front of a class.

The view looks north from above the harbour, straight up Manhattan to Central Park, with Jersey City and Hoboken on the left and Brooklyn on the right. In the foreground are the Battery and the round Castle Garden, with Broadway leading up past Trinity Church, City Hall and the Post Office. The Brooklyn Bridge spans the East River and is labelled “East-River-Bridge”, its official name until 1915. It was still the only bridge across the East River until 1903. Governors Island, with the round Castle Williams, sits in the lower right. The rivers are crowded with paddle steamers, ferries, ocean steamers and sailing ships, with the long coal wharves of Jersey City on the left.

A key below the image identifies the landmarks by letter: Hudson, Central Park, Trinity Church, Broadway, Castle Garden, Long Island, City Hall, Post Office, Barge Office, East River, the East River Bridge and Governors Island.

The picture shows New York as it was in the 1880s rather than the late 1890s. Castle Garden still appears as the city’s immigrant depot, which it stopped being in 1890, and none of the skyscrapers of the 1890s appear. The same view is also recorded without the Lehmann and Wachsmuth imprints. This copy carries both.

School wall pictures were used until they wore out and were then thrown away, so very few survive. Geographicus found no copy of this view catalogued in OCLC, the main worldwide library catalogue.

Publisher:            F. E. Wachsmuth, Leipziger Schulbilderverlag, Leipzig

Series:                    Ad. Lehmann’s geographische Charakterbilder
Sheet size:            88,2 x 66,7 cm
Year:                      1898
Technique:        chromolithograph, mounted on linen

Condition:
Good. In its original school wall-chart format, mounted on linen with bound edges and hanging eyelets. A couple of tiny repairs.
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This is an original antique map published in 1898 and NOT a modern copy or reprint

 

On your request I will provide a Certificate of Authenticity