"1770 Ratzer Map" Exhibition
The Brooklyn Historical Society
This event has ended.
While bringing our collections out of deep storage, we came upon an extremely rare map of New York City made by Bernard Ratzer in the late 1760s – only the fourth known copy of the map in the world. The map was in horrible condition. Varnished more than 200 years ago, it was discolored and brittle, with horizontal cracks every few inches along the entire map. Happily, our professional archive team sprang into action, and got the map to a conservator who first took emergency measures to stabilize it, and after 12 weeks returned the map to a magnificently conserved state.
Due to popular demand following the The New York Times' front page article about the Ratzer map that ran on January 17, 2011, the recently restored 1770 map is now on view to the public.
This map may be one of the most important artifacts representing New York on the eve of the American Revolution. We are gratified to fulfill our responsibility as caretakers of such an important document. You can now view this map in BHS' historic tile lobby.
[Image: The 1770 map before, left, and after is restoration.]
Media
Schedule
from February 02, 2011 to May 01, 2011