MrSID Image (University of Connecticut)
BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Creator:
Ryder, Robart
Title:
Long
Island Sirvaide by Robartte Ryder
Date created:
1674
Description:
Manuscript on parchment, 61 x 81 cm.
(irregular)
Subjects:
Long Island (N.Y.)--Maps--Early works to 1800.
Notes:
1. Original is a manuscript map in the Blathwayt Atlas housed at
the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.
2. Described in commentary on facsimile of Blathwayt Atlas
published by John Carter Brown Library.
3. Image created from a Kodak Photo CD using
slide purchased from John Carter Brown Library. Contact John Carter Brown
Library for reproduction rights.
Robert Ryder
Long Island Sirvaide by Robartte Ryder,
1674
After the British conquest of New Netherland in 1664, England started to replace Holland
as the leading producer of maps of the New York region. The Ryder map of Long Island is a
landmark because it is the first map of a sizable area of any of the British North
American colonies based on an actual survey.
Robert Ryder was a professional surveyor who was active in New York during the latter part
of the seventeenth century. He also produced a map of Staten Island (now lost) and
numerous surveys of private landholdings. In 1679 he assisted in taking an official
observation of the latitude of Fort James on the southern tip of Manhattan.
The depiction of the coastline of Long Island is much more accurate than on earlier Dutch
maps, or even than on any subsequent map published before the middle of the eighteenth
century. The Ryder map remained in manuscript until the beginning of the twentieth
century, and had relatively little influence on contemporary British maps. A
notable exception is John Thornton's "Part of New England, New York, East New Iarsey
and Long Island," which is partially based on the Ryder map.
REFERENCES:
David Yehling Allen, Long Island Maps and
Their Makers , 16-19
Jeannette D. Black, The Blathwayt
Atlas, v. II:
Commentary
Revised 9/2/02