Section I (including early views)

New York from Long Island. About 1800

William Rollinson (American, b. England, 1762–1842)
after John Wood (American, active about 1800–1810s)
Colored aquatint, published 1801
The Phelps Stokes Collection

In 1800, New York was the second largest city in the United States; with a population of over 60,000, it was second only to Philadelphia with 72,000. Within ten years, New York, now home to nearly 100,000, had overtaken Philadelphia, and the city's extraordinary growth prompted a visiting Senator from Massachusetts to admit, "The progress of this city is . . . beyond calculation."

In William Rollinson's aquatint, John Wood recorded the city from the Battery to about Chambers Street as seen across the East River from Long Island. The horizon is punctuated by ships' masts and steeples. In the center of the print, starting on the left, a cluster of three towers –Trinity, First Presbyterian Church, and Federal Hall –is followed by the Middle Dutch Church with its clock tower; the elegant spire of St. Paul's Chapel dwarfs the square tower of the North Dutch Church; the next tall spire is that of the Brick Presbyterian Church; and, on the far right, St. George's Church appears.

Corner of Greenwich Street. Janvier, 1810

Anne-Marguérite-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny,
Baroness Hyde de Neuville (French, about 1779–1849)
Watercolor
The Phelps Stokes Collection

The Baroness Hyde de Neuville, who with her husband had fled Napoleonic France, recorded in 1810 the neighborhood of Dey and Greenwich streets, approximately at the site of the World Trade Center. Some of the homes, a mixture of red brick and wood, can be identified: the three-story house on the far right was owned by John Stoutenburgh; the large house at the northwest corner of Dey Street, in the center foreground, belonged to John Dey. In the 1820s and 1830s, the generally modest homes in this middle-class neighborhood were gradually replaced with elegant three-story houses built by well-to-do families. The neighborhood became an extension of the affluent community downtown around Bowling Green and Trinity Church.

Bridewell, and Charity-School, Broadway, Opposite Chamber [sic] Street –February 1808

Anne-Marguérite-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny,
Baroness Hyde de Neuville (French, about 1779–1849)
Watercolor
The Phelps Stokes Collection

The west wing of the unfinished City Hall on the left appears to be topped off by the steeple of the Brick Presbyterian Church on Beekman Street; more than three years were to pass from the time the Baroness made this sketch in 1808 until City Hall was first occupied in August 1811. Other landmarks seen from the corner of Broadway and Chambers are: Bridewell, the large building in the center with pediments and four chimneys, built in 1775 as New York City's prison; in the center foreground, Charity School, with its playground, which opened on May 1, 1807, under the direction of the Free School Society, to educate fifty almshouse children; and the Board of Health building, whose staff had to contend with streets inhabited by freely wandering pigs and cows. Sanitation was an ongoing concern in New York; a few years before, in 1805, the state had authorized the Common Council to appoint a standing Board of Health.

Broadway and City Hall in New York. 1819

Carl Fredrik Akrel (Swedish, 1779–1868)
after Axel Leonhard Klinckowström (Swedish, 1775–1837)
Colored aquatint, from Bref om de Förenta Staterne, 1824
The Phelps Stokes Collection

A Swedish aristocrat, Baron Axel Leonhard Klinckowström spent three years in the United States (1818–20) as an official emissary of his country; etchings made after his travel sketches and his published letters capture the spirit and look of the prospering city. City Hall is the centerpiece of this view of Broadway, facing north from Ann Street. Although in 1819 the cupola was surmounted, as it is today, by Justice with sword and scales, Klinckowström curiously records a cross. On the far left we glimpse a fluted column of Saint Paul's Chapel; two doors to the north, at 223 Broadway, is the home of John Jacob Astor. This print also records pigs rooting along Broadway, a situation which Klinckowström had protested was a health hazard; he had even seen well-dressed ladies bowled over by free-running pigs.

Interior of New York, Prevost [sic] Street and Chapel. 1816–23

Jules Louis Frédéric Villeneuve (French, 1796–1842)
and Victor Vincent Adam (French, 1801–1866)
after Jacques-Gérard Milbert (French, 1766–1840)
Lithograph, from Itinéraire pitttoresque du fleuve Hudson , 1828–29
Eno Collection

French artist, naturalist, geographer, engineer, and scholar, Jacques-Gérard Milbert used New York as the home base for his eight-year sojourn (1815–23) in the United States. Milbert found the architecture of New York undistinguished, but the vitality of the city exciting. Like the Baroness Hyde de Neuville, he selected this middle-class neighborhood as typical of New York.

New York from Heights Near Brooklyn. 1823

John Hill (American, b. England, 1770–1850)
after William Guy Wall (Irish, 1792–after 1864; active in America, 1818–62)
Colored aquatint and etching
The Phelps Stokes Collection

With this view and a companion piece, New York from Weehawk, William Guy Wall created two of the most beautiful early 19th-century views of New York. As in William Rollinson's aquatint after John Wood's turn-of-the-century panorama, New York is seen from across the East River, here from Bergen Hill in Brooklyn (near the present Carroll Park) overlooking the windmill near the Anchor Gin Distillery of Hezekiah Beers Pierrepont at the foot of Joralemon Street. The population had grown since Wood's view. The 1820 census recorded 123,706 people living in Manhattan, and the city was built up beyond City Hall; by the end of the decade it had reached Canal Street. Downtown streets east of Broadway, residential at the end of the Revolution, were now burgeoning with countinghouses and warehouses, serving the demands of shipping and trade. On January 1, 1824, some 324 vessels were berthed in New York harbor.