Dec 07, 2023 - Sale 2655

Sale 2655 - Lot 120

Price Realized: $ 1,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
(NEW YORK CITY.) Ezra R. Pulling; and F.J. Randall. Sanitary and Social Chart of the Fourth Ward of the City of New York to Accompany a Report of the 4th Sanitary Inspection District, Made to the Council of Hygiene of the Citizen's Association. Hand-colored lithographed map of Lower Manhattan, specifically, the northeastern portion of the Financial District. 20 1/4x23 3/4 inches sheet size, wide margins; expertly conserved and lined on verso with thin tissue. Rare - the most recent auction record being a 1909 Anderson sale (bound with the report pamphlet). New York: D. Appleton & Co., [1865]
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Additional Details

In the 1860s New York City was facing extremely poor public sanitation standards and disease was rampant among its citizens, forcing city officials to consider reform. Analysis and inspections were conducted, detailed information was gathered, and ultimately plans were put in place to mitigate the infrastructural shortcomings that were leading to such deplorable living conditions. Data compiled for the present map helped promote the establishment of the Metropolitan Board of Health in 1866, which in time led to great improvements for the sanitary and social welfare of the residents of the city.

A legend thoroughly keys locations of tenement houses and cramped living spaces throughout the street plan, shanties and untenable buildings, public toilets (with approximately 50 specifically designated "in an extremely offensive condition", other insalubrious localities, and a scattering of houses where outbreaks of Typhus, Typhoid Fever, and Small Pox are noted to have occurred during the past year (1864). Each tenement is detailed with a census of how many stories the building has, how many families, and how many total persons are living there.