A South West View of the City of New York, in North America

A South West View of the City of New York, in North America

Pierre Charles Canot

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published in London in 1768, this prospect of New York was made when the city was under British control. Pierre Canot based his engraving on a drawing that Thomas Howdell, a Royal Artillery captain, made about 1763. The view looks south from a point near the present intersection of Henry and Montgomery Streets on the Lower East Side. The hill in the foreground was called Mount Pitt. At left is the East River, with Nutting (now Governor's Island) and Staten Island in the distance. The city appears at right. In 1765 New York's population had reached about 12,500 and streets were being laid out as far north as Collect Pond, a primary water source near what is today Foley Square. Beyond were pleasure gardens and burial grounds then estates, farms, and villages.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A South West View of the City of New York, in North AmericaA South West View of the City of New York, in North AmericaA South West View of the City of New York, in North AmericaA South West View of the City of New York, in North AmericaA South West View of the City of New York, in North America

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.