19th century town plan of New York

Detailed town plan of New York, with vignette views of Broadway and City Hall, marking the routes of the railways into the city. The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge was founded in 1826 to publish educational material for 'all classes of the community', including this series of maps. 209 maps were published before the Society was disbanded in 1846. Until 1842 the maps were published by Chapman and Hall, supervised by Charles Knight for the Society; in 1852 the plates were sold to George Cox, then to Edward Stanford in 1856, to Thomas Letts in 1877 and, finally, to Mason & Payne in 1885.