In celebration of the 200th anniversary of New York’s street grid, the Museum of the City of New York, in collaboration with the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, has put online the complete Randel Farm Maps for the first time ever. Made between 1818 and 1820 by John Randel, Jr., these one-of-a-kind, hand-drawn and hand-colored maps from the collection of the Office of the Manhattan Borough President document the island of Manhattan from today’s Houston Street to its northernmost tip in meticulous detail.

Through an extraordinary public-private collaboration, the Museum of the City of New York and the Borough President’s Office worked together to digitize this unique resource and assure its preservation and access to the public.

For the first time ever, the opportunity exists to explore the island of Manhattan as it existed two centuries ago. Zoom in to view individual villas, woods, marshes, hills, and ponds that once stood on the site of today’s skyscrapers, row houses, asphalt, and subway tunnels, and to learn the fascinating history of the ownership of the changing landscape of Manhattan.