Map of the Month - April 2014

Map of the property of heirs of Jane Smith, deceased, situate[d] at the Narrows in the town of New Utrecht, [1858?]. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

This month’s map, Map of the property of heirs of Jane Smith, deceased, situate[d] at the Narrows in the town of New Utrecht, is taken from a collection of manuscript maps from the Teunis G. Bergen and Bergen family papers held by BHS. Teunis G. Bergen (1806-1881) was an eminent member of this eminent Brooklyn family.

He served as Town Supervisor of New Utrecht from 1836 to 1859 and as a U.S. Representative to the thirty-ninth Congress. He also worked as a surveyor throughout his life, and researched and published extensively on the history of New Utrecht as well as the genealogy and history of the Bergen and Van Brunt families.

Over 200 manuscript maps from the collection have been cataloged, and I have been fortunate to have spent the past three months cataloging the latest group returned from the conservator. It is a rare opportunity to work with such a number of manuscript maps from a single source.

As I filed the last of the maps this week, this caught my eye for it illustrates well the kind of work that a map cataloger has to do to understand her source.

The first thing I noticed about this map was the neatness of the drawing and the clarity of the print in ink. This is Teunis’ ‘neat hand,’ used for finished maps. If you look more closely, however, you will notice many notes penciled in a decidedly less neat hand. In fact, the block of text from which the title is taken is scrawled in pencil in the space between the compass and Gelston/Third Avenue near the top of the sheet. This is Teunis’ ‘working hand.’

Detail, Map of the property of heirs of Jane Smith, deceased, situate[d] at the Narrows in the town of New Utrecht, [1858?]. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

 I became adept at deciphering this hand over the past months because many of the maps in this latest batch from the conservator appeared to be preliminary or private drawings--work where he was not overly concerned about his legibility. Incidentally, one detail which made it relatively easy to identify which maps were created by Teunis (versus his nephew, Van Brunt Bergen, who was also a surveyor) is his distinctive rendering of the compass.

A great many of the maps created by Teunis (and Van Brunt), including this one, measured property for heirs. Teunis also copied earlier maps for his historical research. This map neatly incorporates both of these aspects, for he has copied an 1836 map while updating it by filling in current property owners names in pencil to determine the boundaries for a group of heirs.

Notice the block of text in red ink on the upper left of the sheet in the detail below. It indicates a discrepancy between the 1836 original and Teunis’ contemporary measurements. This brings me to the question of dating this map. Often, there is no evidence on the map itself – actually, BHS’s library catalog is full of manuscript maps dated [18--?], indicating it was created sometime during the 19^th century. In this instance, however, we are fortunate in that two penciled notes marking the top corners of sections 109 and 110 (washed in blue watercolor) mention 1858, so I am able to tentatively date this map [1858?].

Finally, another typical feature of working with these maps is working with street and avenue names that were in the process of becoming obsolete as the grid of numbered streets and avenues overtook the modern-day neighborhoods of Bay Ridge and Fort Hamilton. Stewart Avenue, Lexington Avenue, Atlantic Avenue-- all these street names had me scratching my head until I became acclimated to New Utrecht circa 1850. Some of the streets became numbered streets—for example, Atlantic Avenue became 92^nd Street—while others have nearly disappeared altogether, like Stewart Avenue, a once bustling thoroughfare which now survives only as a narrow road between 70^th and 74^th Streets. The historical atlas collection here at BHS was indispensable for this work.

Detail showing vanished streets, Map of the property of heirs of Jane Smith, deceased, situate[d] at the Narrows in the town of New Utrecht, [1858?]. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

I can only give a superficial account of the satisfactions of getting to know a single cartographer over the course of a few months. The more I worked with the material, the more I was able to figure out. Sometimes I had to backtrack and fill in gaps left the first time through. I suspect that process will continue as more researchers look at these maps and make further connections, and decipher puzzling pieces of text. There are over 200 manuscript maps in this collection. Stop by and see if you can help fill some of these gaps.

Interested in seeing more Bergen maps? You can view the BHS map collection anytime during the library’s open hours, Wed.-Sat., from 1-5 p.m. No appointment is necessary to view most maps. Interested in looking at the Bergen Family papers? You will need to make an appointment to view archival collections. Find our online appointment form here.

Over 100 manuscript maps from the Bergen Collection have been conserved and cataloged with funding provided by a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.