2011, Museum Exhibition, The Greatest Grid, Museum of the City of New York, Antique New York City Maps

The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011 Museum of the City of New York Curator and Book Editor: Hilary Ballon Special Exhibit: Dec. 6, 2011 – July 15, 2012 Six Maps and Views Lent by George Glazer GalleryThe George Glazer Gallery has loaned several maps and views of Manhattan to the Museum of the City of New York for the special exhibition The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the plan laying out the streets of the city and how it developed over the 19th and 20th centuries. The maps and views are also reproduced and described in the accompanying exhibition book. Historian Hilary Ballon of New York University served as guest curator and as lead author and editor of the book.  An introduction to the show on the Museum of the City of New York’s web site explains the exhibition’s premise: The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011 celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811, the foundational document that established Manhattan’s famous street grid. Featuring an original hand-drawn map of New York’s planned streets and avenues prepared by the Commission in 1811, as well as other rare historic maps, photographs and prints of the evolution of the city’s streets, and original manuscripts and publications that document the city’s physical growth, the exhibition examines the grid’s initial design, implementation, and evolution. The Greatest Grid traces the enduring influence of the 1811 plan as the grid has become a defining feature of the city, shaping its institutions and public life. Exhibition description continues below.