The Iconography of Manhattan Island
Posted on | March 17, 2012 | Comments Off
The Iconography of Manhattan Island is a six volume work by Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes published between 1915-1928. They contain what must be a lifetime’s amount of research into the physical character of said island. In the preface to Manhattan in Maps (1997), authors R. Augustyn and P. Cohen note that the Iconography “…has been called ‘the greatest single reference work of any American city.’”
The first page of Volume 1 reads, “OF THIS BOOK THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY COPIES HAVE BEEN PRINTED ON ENGLISH HAND-MADE PAPER AND FORTY-TWO ON JAPANESE VELLUM.” I’d prefer a Japanese Vellum one if you have sets to spare, but otherwise Columbia University has very nicely scanned them all in their entirety.