Sidney’s remarkably informative, decorative and rather uncommon map depicts a circular area within a 12-mile radius of lower Manhattan. Drawn on a large scale, map is minutely detailed, showing topographical features, roads and railroads, ferry terminals, parks, cemeteries, and the names of hundreds, possibly thousands of landowners. The visual appeal of the whole is greatly enhanced by the decorative foliate border and pictorial vignettes of the Arms of the State of New-York and the American eagle.

Map maker James C. Sidney, was a “clever civil engineer from England” who was often employed by Philadelphia map publisher Robert Pearsall Smith. Sidney drew numerous county maps as well as maps of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, Trenton, and other cities. All were wall-sized and, in Ristow’s view, “attractively and neatly composed, lithographed, and printed.” (p. 257)

References

Haskell, Manhattan Maps, #930. Phillips, Maps of America, p. 533.