Henry Hudson 400 | Amsterdam - New York

New York's position as a burgeoning port town and expanding city is apparent in James Lyne's plan of 1731. The new piers on the West side and the docks along the East side are both depicted, as well as New York's most important monuments of the time. What is noticeable is the city's growth beyond its earlier boundary of Wall Street, which prior to 1699 had a wall running along it.

Likely first published to illustrate the city's real estate and civic reorganization, this map became the prototype for the 1755 plan published by Gerardus Duyckinck. Though not widely distributed in its time, this engraving marks an era in the urban development of New York. Scholars believe only three copies survive. Source: Paul E. Cohen, Manhattan in Maps (New York: 1997).

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Negative #15909

Balthasar (1591-1645) came from a family of cartographers. This map is drawn in 1625, the year of the foundation of New Amsterdam and shows Amsterdam as the 17th century powerhouse. The greatest city expansion plan in Europe since Roman times was just completed: three grand canals, plus a working-class district (the 'Jordaan') and a town rampart that would enclose the city.

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Amsterdam and The Dutch Republic at their peak; this map is drawn shortly after the Dutch ruler William III conquered Britain in 1688 - an invasion that was later named 'Glorious Revolution' by 17th century British spin doctors.

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The mapmaker (c.1658-1740) lived and worked in Amsterdam. The city is still very rich and powerful, but London and Paris are the new centers of the world.

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Amsterdam on the eve of Henry Hudson 300. The city is rapidly expanding, but the big lay outs are still on the drawing board, waiting to be executed in the next thirty years. Note that Vondelpark -the Central Park of Amsterdam- and the world famous Concertgebouw (Concertbuilding) are still on the outskirts of the city that they are at present deeply embedded in.

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The Visscher Map--to which this map is often referred--is a revision of Jan Jansson's and Augustine Herman's 1650 map of the North Atlantic. This version features an added inset view of New Amsterdam, offering one of the earliest known printed views of the city, and the first to be seen by a European audience. It would become the prototype for Carolus Allard's map, often called the "Restitutio (restoration) View," for its new cartouche, which reflected the brief period from 1673-1674 when the Dutch recaptured New York, and restored control to Holland.

Dutch publishers would continue to print the Allard version of the map for the next one hundred years, long after the region had been more thoroughly surveyed. By the mid-eighteenth century, thirty-one different editions of the Visscher map had been published, a true testament to the map's popularity.

Sources: Campbell, Tony. "The Jansson-Visscher Maps of New England" in R.V. Tooley. The Mapping of America. London: Holland Press, 1980. Cohen, Paul. Manhattan in Maps, 1527 - 1995. New York: Rizzoli, 1997.

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This map was originally printed for Blunt's Stranger's Guide to the City of New-York and was later republished in another of E.M. Blunt's guidebooks, The Picture of New-York (1825). The boundaries extend north to 12th Street on the West side and 31st Street on the East side, and features a key at the left denoting "places of interest".

Hooker's map shows the very first stages of the northward urban expansion taking place at the time when the gridiron street system was in its early stage. Six years before this map's publication in 1811, John Randel, a young surveyor under Commissioner Simeon de Witt, finalized his plan to expand the island of Manhattan by 11,400 acres, and preparations for the expansion began.

Sources: Daniel C. Haskell, Manhattan maps: A co-operative list (New York: 1931)

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Negative #81024d

The Netherlands and England were both great maritime nations in the 17th century and it was inevitable that a conflict would arise between them. There were three Anglo-Dutch Wars. The first from 1652 to 1654, the second from 1664 to 1667 and the third from 1672-1674. It was the end of the second war that gave the British New Amsterdam (which became New York). The Third Anglo-Dutch War was part of the Franco-Dutch War (1672-1674), waged by Louis XIV of France who sought control of the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium).

New York, which the Dutch had managed to reconquer in 1673 and had baptized Nieuw-Oranje (New Orange), was permanently handed over to the English in 1674, but the Dutch retained Surinam. In 1688 the Dutch ruler William III conquered Britain, an invasion that was later named 'Glorious Revolution' by 17th century British spin doctors.

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Because of the networks and geographical knowledge of the Portugese, Spanish and Antwerp immigrants the Dutch succeeded in breaching the Portugese trade monopoly first in Africa, and later in Asia. In 1602 an impressive 65 ships set sail for the East from Amsterdam. The Portugese could not maintain their trade monopoly to Southeast Asia: the number of seafarers that sailed from Lisbon declined dramatically.

If a northern route to Asia existed, it would offer important advantages over the existing route around Cape of Good Hope. It would avoid the problems with the heat, and long-lasting calms, plus the many pirates who waited in ambush along the southern routes. Henry Hudson was convinced that this northern route, over the North Pole, existed.

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This chart shows the River James (Virginia), than called Powhatan, named after the Indian tribe. Pocahontas is the tribe's most renowned Indian. Jamestown, the first British settlement in the US, is mentioned in the center of the map, above the River. On display at the South Street Seaport Museum exhibition that opens September 12, 2009.

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This map from the Netherlands Maritime Museum has fine decorations, unique features of Vingboons' work. It is part of a series of 4 maps that portray the world, the only Vingboons' maps and charts on parchment

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A map of the Netherlands and part of England. The coastline of the Netherlands has changed greatly since the 17th century because of huge reclamation works in the past four centuries. On display at South Street Seaport Museum exhibition that opens September 12, 2009

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Click on the box for more information on Henry's first voyage of discovery.

Click on the box for more information on Henry's second voyage of discovery.

Click on the box for more information on Henry's third voyage, which would make him immortal.

Click on the box for more information on Henry's fourth voyage, from which he would not return.

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	First Voyage (5/1/1607 to 9/15/1607)
	Second Voyage (4/22/1608 to 8/26/1608)
	Third Voyage (4/4/1609 to 11/7/1609)
	Fourth Voyage (4/17/1610 to 10/20/1611)

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