third nature

“You and the place you are from are not a chance encounter; it is something beyond destiny, it is something so meant to be that it is beyond words.”
Jamaica Kinkaid

Maps are a special category of object; simultaneously tool and art, abstract yet representing something very real. I have a soft spot in my heart for archaic maps in particular, not just for the romantic patina of their age, but also for their use as a tool in research. Recognizable landmarks are distorted through the distance of time, new roads are built, and rivers change course. This information is not simply a curiosity, but a genuine link to our past.

I recently came across the David Rumsey Map Collection, an incredible online resource. Over 1500 historic maps have been scanned and added to their digital collection, which is completely free to explore. I’ve gotten lost night after night digging into this archive, so much so that I’ve even started having dreams about the maps I’ve found.

The maps can be downloaded in a special format called MrSID, which is great for viewing, but doesn’t allow the export of high-resolution originals. One of things I was most excited about in discovering this archive was the possibility of printing them out and putting them up all over my house. I’ve started with a small group of maps from Brooklyn, most from around the turn of the 20th century, exporting them tile after tile and then stitching them together in Photoshop. The result is something like this:

Narrows-Jamaica Bay, Brooklyn, 1891, by by Bien, Joseph Rudolf
Courtesy David Rumsey Map Collection

It’s a highly detailed map of Brooklyn from 1891, most notable for the stunning details of Jamaica Bay, before Robert Moses had his way with it. This is the result of approximately 40 stitched tiles and creates a very nice print at about 12×18 inches. Which is of course the first thing that I did.

The curators of the collection have generously chosen a Creative Commons license for this work, which means that other users are free to download, modify, and share the images in any way they choose as long as they include proper attribution. Here’s a link to the full resolution TIFF file (72MB) of the map above, courtesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection. I will be posting more as I create them.

Brooklyn, like any city, has seen it’s share of changes over the last 100 years. Notably, many of the waterways south of the Flatlands were completely filled in by Robert Moses when he built the Shore Parkway in the 1930s. I’ve spent quite a bit of time exploring this area of the southern coast: Coney Island, Plumb Island, Barren Island. It is significant to note that these are islands in name only now. I sometimes title my pictures with archaic names, just to make sure they’re not lost.

All in all, roughly 12,000 of the original 16,000 acres of wetlands in and around Jamaica Bay have been filled in, and what little that remains has had to be reclaimed from industry and waste and is still quite toxic. Make a visit to Plumb Beach some day and you’ll see what I mean.

I’ve lived in Brooklyn longer than any other place in my life. I now say that I’m “from” Brooklyn, even though I wasn’t born here. My wife was born in Brooklyn, which makes me a native by marriage. We’re about to buy a house on 2nd Street, and I’ll probably live here for the rest of my life. Having been in Brooklyn almost ten years already, there are an awful lot of personal landmarks that make this place very special.

This is the location of my first apartment in New York City, where I was living in September, 2001. I had a clear view of lower Manhattan from my living room, and watched the smoke rise from the site of the World Trade Center for weeks.

This is where our new house is. It’s about a block from the canal, I expect we’ll have waterfront property some day.

This is where I took the photograph that first helped me realize that I have a personal vision, and made me feel strongly that I needed to follow it.

Brooklyn is so full of personal milestones that I hardly know where to start. I hope others appreciate these maps as much as I do; I will continue to post them as I build up my own personal collection.