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New York City Property Map Collections at NYPL: Manhattan

This guide describes the ways researchers can navigate NYPL's various NYC real property cartographic collections via the research catalog and Digital Collections to locate cadastral, fire insurance, topographical, and real property auction maps.

Manhattan (New York County)

The majority of the Library's Manhattan cadastral maps are from the 19th century when the island was undergoing rapid urbanization (consult Sanborn maps for land ownership in the 20th century to the present.)   The best way to locate these maps in the research catalog is by using keyword search terms combined with the borough name.   

Examples of keyword searches:

Below are a few highlights from the collections with links to the research catalog and Digital Collections when available:

 

 

 

The Library's collection of fire insurance maps are available via atlases / sheet maps, the Digital Collections, online databases, and microfilm. Our collections include depictions of the blocks and lots of Manhattan starting in the mid 19th century to the present period.   

Atlases and Sheet Maps

Locating maps can be challenging because the subject heading Fire insurance -- New York (State) -- New York is all-encompassing and will result in records for all five boroughs. It's best to search the research catalog using terms such as:

Highlights from the collections that show Manhattan in chronological order from the 19th century to the present: 

Digital Collections Images

Over the past few years we have uploaded scans of most of our copyright free NYC fire insurance atlases to the Digital Collections. Browse the NYC Fire Insurance, Topographic and Property Maps research guide to locate Manhattan plates published between 1852 and 1955.

Online Database

The Library has a subscription to the ProQuest Digital Sanborn Maps database which can be accessed at any of the research branches or via your own device when you login using your NYPL library card. To view maps of Manhattan select "State: New York" and then select "City: New York City," the database includes maps from the 1890s to the 1950's.     

Microfilm

The library also has copies of Sanborns on microfilm, this format may be preferable if you need to document the transformation of a site over a long period of time. To view maps published during the first half of the 20th century browse the catalog record Sanborn fire insurance maps - New York;  for maps published from the 1960s to the 1990s see the record Fire insurance maps from the Sanborn Map Company Archives.

Topographic surveys of Manhattan often include names of property owners or in some cases depictions of buildings, property boundaries, and landscaping. The Library's collection of topo maps are mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries with the notable exception of our facsimile of the "British headquarters map" which is a copy of a survey of Manhattan by the British at the close of the U.S. Revolutionary War in 1782. As mentioned in the introduction early topo maps depict the unique geography of a place artistically using hachures, shading, and in some cases pictorially. Later maps were the results of a much more scientifically rigorous process and express changes in elevation with contour lines and spot heights.

This type of cartographic material usually has a catalog record that includes topographic or topographical in the title and may also include the following subject heading tags:

When browsing the catalog it may be more effective to use the keyword term "Manhattan topographical."

Below are a few highlights from the collections with links to the research catalog and Digital Collections when available: 

 

Real property auction maps, also known as "farm maps", are sheets or pamphlets created by auctioneers sometimes containing maps, birds-eye views, and or descriptions of land for sale. The majority of the Library's collections that show property for sale in Manhattan were published in the 19th century and document the gradual northward transformation of the island from a collection of small rural enclaves and large country estates into a urban expanse gridded with broad avenues and cross streets.  

Useful catalog keyword search terms:

Below are a few highlights from the collections with links to the research catalog and Digital Collections when available: