Studying Antique Maps of Pelham Using Online Services That Provide High Resolution Scans -- Part III

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This will be the last in the current series of Blog postings regarding how to study rare and historically-significant maps of Pelham that are freely-available online from a variety of academic and private sources. Such maps are available as very high resolution electronic files that permit the use of freely-available software tools to magnify the maps and permit study of the maps in minute detail in ways that local historians could only dream about only a decade ago. It is possible, using such services, to locate at least several dozen such maps showing Pelham and surrounding areas available from online collections maintained by the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the David Rumsey Map Collection and many, many others.

During my last two blog postings I have addressed the online high-resolution map collections maintained by The Library of Congress in its American Memory Collection and by The New York Public Library. Both collections offer such maps, including many that show Pelham and surrounding areas, in the MrSID image compression format used by cartographers, academics, scholars and historians to study such maps in detail. I have saved the best for last, so to speak.

Today we will consider an excellent resource for viewing such maps and even downloading the maps and software tools that permit offline study: the public Web site of the David Rumsey Map Collection located at http://www.davidrumsey.com/. This award-winning Web site includes thousands of maps available online for study. Many of the maps in the collection show Pelham and surrounding areas. Included in the collection, merely by way of example, are high resolution images (capable of being magnified to sizes much larger than the original maps) of such maps as: (1) John H. Eddy's case map entitled "Map of the Country Thirty Miles Round the City of New York" prepared in 1811; (2) Frederick W. Beers' map entitled "Town of Pelham" showing Pelham and City Island published as a plate in a Beers atlas in 1868; (3) Plates including those that show Pelham and surrounding areas from the Westchester County Atlas published by Joseph Rudolf Bien and Cornelius Clarkson Vermeule in an Atlas of Westchester County published in 1891; (4) David H. Burr's 1829 map of Westchester County including Pelham; and many, many more.

Each and every one of these maps may be viewed on the David Rumsey Map Collection Web site where visitors can select portions of the maps and magnify them to several times their original size for careful study. In addition, exquisite bibliographic detail is maintained and presented for each and every map in the collection.

As with the Library of Congress and New York Public Library online collections, each and every map available on the David Rumsey Map Collection Web site may be downloaded from the site as a MrSID image compression file for offline study using the MrSID viewer available for free from the software company known as LizardTech. For guidance regarding how to download and use the MrSID viewer software, see the postings for Monday February 14 and Tuesday February 15.

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

Studying Antique Maps of Pelham Using Online Services That Provide High Resolution Scans -- Part II

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

Yesterday's posting began a discussion of how to access free online resources to permit the careful study of high resolution images of historically important maps that show Pelham and surrounding areas. These techniques, of course, may be used to study historically important maps for any locale, but the focus of this Blog -- of course -- is Pelham, New York in lower Westchester County.

Yesterday we explored the high resolution map images maintained in the online American Memory Collection maintained by The Library of Congress. We also discussed how to download and use the free software known as "MrSID" offered by a company named LizardTech. The software allows users who access The Library of Congress American Memory Collection and download free "MrSID Image" files of selected maps on that site to study the maps offline, magnify them to several times their original size, export images that comprise all or parts of the maps for printing, and much, much more.

Today's posting will address how to access, study and download high resolution MrSID image files of historically important maps available on The New York Public Library Web site. Like The Library of Congress, The New York Public Library makes high resolution MrSID image files available of rare and historically significant maps, many of which show Pelham and surrounding areas.

The NYPL Digital Library includes several large collections of maps, atlases and charts. The home page for the entire Digital Library collection is found on the NYPL Digital Gallery "All Collection Guides" located at http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?topic=all.  Although serious students of Pelham history will want to explore the entire collection, I have found one of the categories of the maps available on that page to be particularly useful. It is "American Shores: Maps of the Middle Atlantic Region to 1850" located at http://www.nypl.org/research/midatlantic/.  Another useful collection is "Charting North America:  Maps from the Lawrence H. Slaughter Collection and Others" located at http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?topic=all&col_id=149.  Below I will use the "American Shores" collection as an example.

Use your browser (e.g., Internet Explorer) to visit the American Shores collection at http://www.nypl.org/research/midatlantic/. On that page you will see in the upper right corner a button entitled "Search Map Collection". Click on that button, which will take you to the Keyword Search page for the collection (located at http://digital.nypl.org/digital_AmShores/index.cfm). As always, it is a best practice to review the information available on that page regarding how to structure your search queries to find materials in the collection. In the search box beneath the words "Enter keyword(s) to find maps" type the phrase New York and click the button marked ">>".

You should see the first of many pages of search results that match the Keyword search query "New York". You will see so-called "thumbnail images" (i.e., small pictures) of the maps that match the Keyword search query "New York". By clicking on a thumbnail image, you will be taken to the bibliographic reference page for that map. Let's try it.

Among the many choices on the first search results page that you see after peforming a Keyword search for "New York" should be a thumbnail with a title beneath it that reads in part "sketch of the operations of His Majesty's fleet and army :". Click on the thumbnail image for that map. You will be taken to the following page: http://digital.nypl.org/digital_AmShores/CollectionDetail_AmShores.cfm?trg=2&strucID=252793&imageID=433940&word=New%20York&total=263&num=0.

Note that on the left of the screen is bibliographic information about the map which, we see, was published by Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres on January 17, 1777. You also will see that the complete title of the map is "A sketch of the operations of His Majesty's fleet and army : under the command of Vice Admiral the Rt. Hble. Lord Viscount Howe and Genl. Sr. Wm. Howe, in 1776". It is a hand-colored map and is fairly large (80 x 58 cm). I will cheat a little and tell you in advance that the Manor of Pelham and the area around Pell's Point are shown in fair detail on the map with a rough approximation of the encampment of British troops in the Pelham area.

If you click on the image of the map, you will see a larger version of the map, but this version is still so small that it is impossible to make out the necessary detail to see Pelham and surrounding areas (the larger image that one sees when one clicks on the image is located at http://digital.nypl.org/digital_AmShores/CollectionLarge_AmShores.cfm?strucID=252793&imageID=433940&word=New%20York&num=0).

Note, however, that on the bibliographic page for the map, there are several links to the right of the image. Among the links are: "Pan & Zoom (requires plug-in)", "Download free plug-in" and "tips for using plug-in". (You should read "tips for using plug-in" after you have completed this exercise. It will help you tremendously.)

What is a "plug-in"? A "plug-in" is a little piece of software that integrates with your browser (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer) so that you can use your browser to do things that it otherwise would not be able to do -- in this case, pan and zoom on high resolution map files created by the NYPL using the MrSID image compression technology. The "plug-in" to which the links refer is the "MrSID" software addressed in yesterday's posting on this Blog -- yes, the same software plug-in required to view and manipulate maps in The Library of Congress American Memory Collection. The free MrSID plug-in must be installed before you can study the maps in detail.

On the bibliographic page for the map you are looking at on the NYPL Web site, click on the link entitled "Download free plug-in" and download the current version of the free MrSID software selecting "Open" (not "Save") when prompted by your system. Once you have successfully downloaded the plug-in, go back to the bibliographic page for the map you are looking at on the NYPL Web site (example: http://digital.nypl.org/digital_AmShores/CollectionDetail_AmShores.cfm?trg=2&strucID=252793&imageID=433940&word=New%20York&total=263&num=0) and click on the link on the right side of the screen entitled "Pan & Zoom (requires plug-in)". You will see a small version of the map. Click on the button above the map that has a magnifying glass and then click on the part of the map you want to magnify. Keep clicking. You will see that you can magnify it so that the reference to "Pell's Point" and the few centimeters that encompass Pelham and surrounding areas on the map (which earlier you could not even see) now fill your entire computer screen, allowing you to study the map in great detail. You should explore the MrSID software by exploring "Help" (the button with a question mark on it). There is an incredible amount of functionality available and the software plug-in is extraordinarily sophisticated.

If you wish to save a copy of the high resolution MrSID image of the map so that you can use the MrSID software to analyze the map offline, place your cursor on the image of the map that you earlier magnified. Right click your mouse. (This means that instead of clicking your mouse the way you usually do by clicking the left button of the two buttons on the mouse, click the right button of the two buttons on the mouse.) Among the choices you will see should be "Save Image As . . . " Select that choice and save the file to a place on your hard drive (e.g., save it to your "My Documents" folder). The file you are saving will be the MrSID version of the map. You later will be able to open that file using the MrSID software even if you are not online.

There are a host of maps dating back to the 17th century in the New York Public Library Digital Library collection that show Pelham and surrounding areas. Using the techniques described above, anyone with a computer and Internet access can perform analyses and study rare maps in ways that scholars dreamed about only a few short years ago.

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

Studying Antique Maps of Pelham Using Online Services That Provide High Resolution Scans -- Part I

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

There are a tremendous number of online resources that offer high resolution images of important maps showing Pelham and surrounding areas from the 17th century to the present. Any serious student of local history can find important historical maps that can be magnified to sizes larger than the original. Often free software tools may be used to maintain the scale of the original map as the image is resized so that important distances may easily be determined. For genealogists, many of these old maps reflect the owners of properties depicted on the maps.

This posting will be the first in a series of postings that will describe how to access and utilize such maps from online services such as those offered by The Library of Congress, The New York Public Library and many other sites such as DavidRumsey.com. Part I will address the map collections maintained by The Library of Congress in its online "American Memory Collection".

The Library of Congress American Memory map collection may be found at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?category=Maps. It contains seven categories of maps including civil war maps (1861-1865), Liberia maps (1830-1870), maps (generally - 1500-2004), National Parks maps, Panoramic maps (1847-1929), Railroad maps (1828-1900) and Revolutionary Era maps (1750-1789). For students of Pelham history, I have found the Maps (general, 1500-2004) and Revolutionary Era maps (1750-1789) collections to be particularly good, although there are relevant materials in some of the other categories as well.

We will use the Maps (general, 1500-2004) collection as an example. By clicking on that link on the American Memory maps page, you will be taken to the following location: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html There you can browse maps by category, although I prefer to search for maps. At the bottom of that page you will see a link entitled "Search by Keyword". By clicking on that link and following the simple instructions on the search screen, you will be able to perform keyword searches. Try "Westchester", for example. You should see a set of 8 search results returned including some important early maps of Westchester County that show the area surrounding Pelham. Don't limit yourself to searches for Pelham and Westchester. Searches for "New York" and even browsing the collections for early maps of the Atlantic cost of North America reveal important early maps that show Pelham and surrounding areas.

Most important is the technology offered by the Library of Congress for studying the maps you have found. Click on any of the search result links to look at a map of Westchester. You will notice that you are first taken to a bibliographic page providing information about the map you have selected as well as a thumbnail image of the map. If you click on the image of the map, you will be taken to a page with a "Zoom View" and a "Navigator View" of the map. You can easily magnify the map and select portions that you wish to analyze more carefully. Don't stop there, however.

Notice that at the very bottom of the page there are links entitled "Download MrSID image" and "View more information about the MrSID compression technology". The Library of Congress and many other such institutions use an image compression technology known as the MrSID compression technology for delivering images of maps online for academic analysis. The technology allows users, using ordinary home computers, to magnify images of maps to many times their original size, to export high resolution images of all or any portion of the map for printing or other purposes, and to preserve the original scale of the map no matter what size is viewed (among many other things). Most interestingly, this can all be done offline simply by downloading a free copy of the MrSID image from the Library of Congress Web site and also downloading a free copy of the MrSID compression technology software available from a company known as LizardTech available via links on each map page in the Library of Congress American Memory map collections. To learn more about the free MrSID browser plugin offered by LizardTech, you can go directly to http://www.lizardtech.com/download/dl_download.php?detail=geo_expressview_plugin&platform=win and downoload it from there.

Once you have downloaded the MrSID software, you can save from any of the map pages on the Library of Congress site a high resolution copy of the map(s) in which you are interested by clicking on the links entitled "Download MrSID Image" and, when prompted, instructing your system to "Save" to a location of your choice on your computer hard drive (e.g., your "My Documents" file). Once you have done so, open the MrSID software and select file > open then browse to the map file you saved and open it. Using the button that looks like a magnifying glass you can begin magnifying and browsing the map you have selected whether you are online or not. The software is rich in its functionality, so you will have to explore it for its features. You can use it, however, to find Pelham and its roads, properties and topography during a host of different times from the 17th to the 20th centuries.

During the next few days I will blog about some of the additional online map collections where important maps of Pelham and surrounding areas may be found and analyzed using the MrSID software.

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."