Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, & Staten Island

Samuel H. Cornwell. The Brooklyn City Register or, Guide for 1848.
Brooklyn: C. H. Sprague, Printer, 101 Fulton St. 1848

This attractive and compact volume has an almanac, a street directory, and a wide variety of governmental and civic information, all comprising a little more than 200 pages, followed by a diary of four days to a page. One notable feature is a list of all the marriages in Brooklyn in 1847, as published in the newspapers.

[L. H. Nelson Co.]. Views of Brooklyn.
Portland, Me.: L. H. Nelson Company, 1905

Nelson was one of the largest publishers of viewbooks, under the title “Nelson’s International Series of Souvenir Books,” of cities all over the country and internationally too. The photographs are halftones and include many views of downtown, the Navy Yard, institutions, and Coney Island.

[Charles Andrew Ditmas]. Brooklyn’s Garden: Views of Picturesque Flatbush.
Brooklyn: Charles Andrew Ditmas, 1908

This volume is unusual in several respects. First, the views were produced in color by the Albertype process, and second, the book has hard covers but is bound using external string ties. The tipped-in views are mainly of residences and residential streets, with a few churches and clubs.

[Moses King, ed. & pub.]. King’s Views of Brooklyn.
Moses King, n.p., 1904

This is the only Moses King viewbook devoted solely to Brooklyn. The cover carries the legend “Made for the Lawyers Title Insurance Company.” In another copy owned by the curator, there is a statement that the volume was proposed by and funded by that company. King goes on to claim that it is “the most elaborate set of views of Brooklyn that has yet been published. . . .” This copy, a softcover version with a “Compliments of Franklin Trust Company” statement on the lower front cover (and a full-page Franklin Trust Company advertisement on the back cover), illustrates the King marketing system of having companies buy the book to give to customers and friends.

Walter I. Willis. Queens Borough New York City 1910–1920.
New York: Chamber of Commerce of the Borough of Queens, 1920

With the opening of the Queensboro Bridge in 1909, and subway service from Manhattan in the mid-1910s, development accelerated in Queens. That development is detailed in this book, with many photographs. In the 1920s Queens was poised to become a major center for motion pictures, with the Famous-Players Lasky studio and a planned Selznick Pictures Studio.

Staten Island Illustrated.
New Brighton: Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, 1911

Staten Island’s Chamber of Commerce published this large-format softcover volume showing Staten Island’s homes, businesses, infrastructure, institutions, and leading citizens, along with a map. With only a ferry connection to the rest of New York City at this point, the Borough of Richmond, Staten Island’s other name, was New York City’s most remote location.

Souvenir Views of Coney Island, New York.
New York and Brooklyn: Sackett & Wilhelms Corporation, n.d. [c. 1910].

This viewbook is c. 1910, and an early example of color illustration. It also has more close-up pictures of actual people, which is uncommon. Coney Island attracted enormous crowds, and many of the people are dressed in fairly formal attire, suits, ties, straw hats for men and fancy hats for women.