fire insurance maps

Coney Island Maps

Posted June 14th, 2008 by Matt Knutzen, Humanities & Social Sciences Library, Map Division

I've always been fascinated with landscapes changing through time as seen though the lens of the map. Shorelines, especially where there are lots of waves and tides, are particularly interesting things in that they are so clearly dynamic. These fire insurance maps of Coney Island, created between 1880 and 1907 document those changes beautifully. In addition to those covering Coney Island, the NYPL has digitized close to 2000 maps at this level of detail for all five boroughs of New York City.

G.W. Bromley, Atlas of the entire City of Brooklyn, 1880, Plate 35

E. Robinson, Robinson's atlas of Kings County, New York, 1890, Plate 20

G.W. Bromley, Atlas of the Borough of Brooklyn, 1907, Plate 28

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New York City Fire Insurance Atlases

Fire Insurance maps are some of the most detailed city maps published, showing building structures, lot dimensions, shoreline locations and sometimes, property ownership. At the NYPL we have an extensive collection of these maps, originally published as atlases, primarily covering the New York City area. In the past year and a half, we have digitized close to 2,000 pages from some 30 of these atlases. Also included in this collection of digital images are detailed topographic surveys conducted by some of the boroughs. We are in the process of creating Google Earth based indexes for these collections. Please see the attached file at the bottom of this post.

The following is a chronological list of atlases arranged by borough from the NYPL Digital Gallery.

Bronx

Robinson, Elisha. Certified copies of important maps, v. 1, 1888-1897

New York Topographic Bureau. Bronx, West, N.Y. 1:1,800, 1892-1895

Hyde, E.B., Atlas of the borough of the Bronx, 1901

Bromley, G.W., Atlas and owners names, borough of the Bronx, 1904

Bronx Topographic Bureau. Bronx, East, N.Y. 1:1,800, 1905

Bromley, G.W., Atlas of the Borough of the Bronx, 1921

Brooklyn

Perris, William, Maps of the city of Brooklyn, 1855

Perris, William, Plan of the city of Brooklyn, (8 sheets), 1855

Perris, William, Plan of the city of Brooklyn, (15 sheets), 1855

Dripps, Matthew, Map of the city of Brooklyn, 1869

Bromley, G.W., Atlas of the entire city of Brooklyn, 1880

Robinson, Elisha, Robinson's atlas of the city of Brooklyn, New York, 1886

Robinson, Elisha, Robinson's atlas of Kings County, New York, 1890

Ullitz, Hugo, Atlas of the Brooklyn borough of the City of New York, 1898-99

Bromley, G.W., Atlas of the Borough of Brooklyn, 1907-8

Manhattan

Sackersdorff, O., Maps of farms commonly called the Blue book, 1815 (1868)

Perris, William, Maps of the city of New York, 1852-4

Perris, William, Maps of the city of New York, 1857-62

Dripps, Matthew, Plan of New York City, 1867

Bromley, G.W., Atlas of the city of New York, 1897

Bromley, G.W., Atlas of the city of New York, 1898-99

Bromley, G.W., Atlas of the city of New York, 1911

Bromley, G.W., Atlas of the city of New York, v.4, 1916

Bromley, G.W., Atlas of the borough of Manhattan, Desk Ed., 1916

Bromley, G.W., Atlas of the city of New York, 1920-22

Bromley, G.W., Atlas of the city of New York, v.2, 1920

N.Y.C. Parks Department, Topographical survey of portion of Central Park, 1939-48

Queens

Wolverton, Chester, Atlas of Queens County, Long Island, 1891

Bromley, G.W., Atlas of the city of New York, borough of Queens, 1909

Staten Island

Beers, F.W., Atlas of Staten Island, Richmond County, New York, 1874

Borough of Richmond, Topographical Survey, Staten Island, N.Y. 1:1,800, 1906-1913

Multiple Boroughs

Beers, F.W., Atlas of New York and vicinity, 1868

Beers, F.W., Atlas of Long Island, New York, 1873

Viele, Egbert L., Topographical atlas of the city of New York, 1874

Robinson, Elisha, Atlas of the city of New York, v.5, 1883

Robinson, Elisha, Atlas of the city of New York, 1885

New York, N.Y. Engineering Bureau, Sectional aerial maps of the City of New York, 1924