Treasures of The New York Public Library

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Building under construction, 750 Third Avenue (East 47th Street - East 48th Street), December 17, 1957.<br><br><br />
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Wurts Brothers. From a collection of photographs of New York City.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy.<br><br><br />
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Magnificent New York: The Wurts Brothers

The New York Public Library's Map Division has an outstanding collection of works by French mapmakers, including Louis Bretez and the Cassini family.<br><br><br />
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Louis Bretez. Plate 15 from his: <i>Plan de Paris: Commencé de l'année 1734</i>. [Paris?, 1740]. The New York Public Library, The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division.<br><hr><br>

Louis Bretez's View of the Tuileries and Louvre

The railroads rapidly developed, not only as a means to get from point A to point B, but also as tourist transit to Yosemite Valley and Yellowstone National Park. The West became a destination. As <i>Putnam's Magazine</i> put it in 1853: "And the Iron Horse, the earth-shaker, the fire-breather, which tramples down the hills, which outruns the laggard winds, which leaps over the rivers, which grinds the rocks to powder and breaks down the gates of the mountain, he too shall build an empire and an epic."<br><br><br />
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H. (Henry) Wellge. <i>Yellowstone National Park.</i> Milwaukee: Northern Pacific Railroad, 1904.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division.<br><br><br />
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Defining the West: Yellowstone National Park in 1904

Critics praised William James Bennett's views of Niagara Falls. "We have seldom met," wrote one, "among the numerous delineators of this stupendous wonder of nature, any conveying a more forcible impression." In Bennett's idyllic view of the American fall taken from Goat Island, wild goats, which once inhabited the island and gave the place its name, graze in the foreground.<br><br><br />
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William James Bennett. <i>Niagara Falls. / To Thomas Dixon Esqr. This View of the American Fall, Taken from Goat Island.</i> Colored aquatint with roulette and engraving (second state), 1830. Published by Henry I.J. Megarey; printed by John Neale at Illman & Pilbrows.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print Collection.<br><br><br />
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Niagara Falls: W.J. Bennett's "Stupendous Wonder of Nature"

<i>New York, from Brooklyn Heights</i>, after a work by John William Hill, is the largest and most ambitious print in William James Bennett's series of American city views.<br><br><br />
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William James Bennett. <i>New York, from Brooklyn Heights</i>. Colored aquatint with engraving and etching, 1837 (date depicted, probably 1836). Second state. Published by Lewis P. Clover.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print Collection, I.N. Phelps Stokes Collection.<br><br><br />
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William James Bennett: Master of the Aquatint View

Alexander Alland. Patience, the northernmost of the two New York Public Library Lions (Fifth Avenue between 41st Street and 42nd Street). Photograph, ca. 1930s.<br><br><br />
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Selection from the Photographic Views of New York City Collection, 1900-1939.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy.<br><br><br />
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Demolish, Build: Photographic Views of NYC, 1870s-1970s

"The Pyramids of Geezeh." Exodus I. II.<br><br><br />
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<i>The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments ... Illustrated with Photographs by Frith</i>. Glasgow; Edinburgh; London: William Mackenzie, 1862-63.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Photography Collection, from the Lenox Library.<br><br><br />
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A Tour-de-Force of Victorian Design and Taste: The Queen's Bible