Past Exhibits October 2003 to Present

Restored 1770 Ratzer Map On View

February 2 - May 29, 2011

BHS President Deborah Schwartz and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz admire the newly restored Ratzer Map.

Due to popular demand following the The New York Times' front page article about the Ratzer map that ran on January 17, 2011, the recently restored 1770 map is now on view to the public February 2-May 29, 2011.

The map is available for viewing during the Brooklyn Historical Society's hours as follows: Wednesday-Friday and Sunday, 12pm-5pm and Saturday, 10am-5pm. Museum admission is free for BHS members; $6 for adults; $4 for teachers/students/seniors; children 12 and under are free.

While bringing our collections out of deep storage, we came upon an extremely rare map of New York City made by Bernard Ratzer in the late 1760s – only the fourth known copy of the map in the world. The map was in horrible condition. Varnished more than 200 years ago, it was discolored and brittle, with horizontal cracks every few inches along the entire map. Happily, our professional archive team sprang into action, and got the map to a conservator who first took emergency measures to stabilize it, and after 12 weeks returned the map to a magnificently conserved state (scroll down to see before and after images).

This map may be one of the most important artifacts representing New York on the eve of the American Revolution. We are gratified to fulfill our responsibility as caretakers of such an important document. You can now view this map in BHS' historic tile lobby through May 29, 2011.

The 1770 map before, left, and after its restoration.

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