New York City Map 1776 City Plan - Manhattan, Brooklyn, Kings Bridge

The Universal Magazine published this detailed plan of New York City in its November 1776 edition, capturing the city's nascent urban development and pastoral outskirts at the very outset of the Revolutionary War's New York campaign. Appearing only thirteen years after Bellin's Ville de Manath ou Nouvelle-Yorc, itself the earliest obtainable map of the city, the Universal Magazine plan stands among the earliest obtainable printed maps of New York and was likely the first widely distributed map of the city in the English language. The map synthesizes the earlier surveying work of Montresor in 1766 and Ratzen in 1767, adding new details including the name Delaney's New Square applied to an area near the Collect Pond, here labeled Fresh Water, that had by 1776 become surrounded by blocks marked New Buildings not Finished. This particular example is offered as a second impression of the same edition, distinct from the copy of this map already in our collection.

The plan names many streets and roads, including Broadway and the Road to King's Bridge, marked with the note that this was where "the Rebels mean to make a Stand," running parallel to the Road to Kepps Bay, where "the Kings Troops Landed," a striking piece of contemporary military annotation captured directly on a commercial magazine map. Wharves, ferries, public buildings, some industries, orchards, gardens, fields and houses, including some named residents, are detailed alongside Fort George and the Battery, the city's principal military installations at its southern tip. While not a rare map in absolute terms, surviving examples have become increasingly scarce on the market, making a second clean example of the design a genuine find for any collector already holding one. Pastoral elements such as farmland near the Brooklyn Ferry stand in sharp contrast to the built-up lower Manhattan streets shown elsewhere on the same sheet.

This example makes a fitting gift for a collector already holding our other copy of the November 1776 Universal Magazine plan and looking for a second impression to keep as its own separate piece, or for a New York family wanting their own individual copy of this historically significant Revolutionary War-era plan. Both examples derive from the identical printing, but each carries its own individual condition and history as a physical object, exactly the kind of distinction serious print collectors value in choosing between multiple surviving copies of the same edition. It's supplied unframed and available across our full range of sizes, from a small desk print to a large-format piece for a bigger wall.