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Whitehall Terminal South Ferry Tapping Every Artery of Travel in Greater New York Philadelphia and Reading Railway Fast Trains to New York…

New York, 1897: The Gray Litho Co. Chromolithograph, 15” x 28.5” plus margins. CONDITION: Very good, occasional light soiling at margins, recently backed with Japanese tissue with a few minuscule touches of expert restoration along old horizontal and vertical folds.

A very scarce birds-eye view of Manhattan, illustrating the ferry and rail routes connecting at Whitehall Terminal (South Ferry) with “all parts of New York and Brooklyn,” as well as Staten Island and New Jersey.

Taken from an imaginary vantage point over New Jersey and looking to the northeast, this view of New York City spans from just north of Central Park to the waters beyond the southern tip of Manhattan. Red lines highlight ferry routes running from Whitehall Terminal (South Ferry) to Bay Ridge and Coney Island, Staten Island, and several Brooklyn points, as well as the elevated trains, cable lines, and belt lines to which they connect. Ships of all kinds dot the harbor, and wharves and piers are depicted in detail, as are the towering buildings of the Financial District. Various New York landmarks are illustrated, from the Statue of Liberty to Cleopatra’s Needle (the Obelisk) and the Metropolitan Museum in Central Park, to Madison Square Garden and the Brooklyn Bridge.

An inset in the lower-left corner shows the impressive and bustling Whitehall Terminal, with several elevated train lines, flags announcing the various ferry routes, and a massive sign for the “Staten Island Royal Blue Line Ticket Office.” The words “Tapping Every Artery of Travel in Greater New York” are proudly printed below the image. Red text to the right of the inset promotes the Philadelphia & Reading Railway, which used the Central Railroad of New Jersey’s terminal to connect passengers via ferry to the Liberty Street and Whitehall terminals in lower Manhattan: “Fast trains to New York. Land and receive passengers at WHITEHALL TERMINAL (South Ferry)…making direct connections under one roof…”

The Whitehall Terminal opened in 1903. Its construction—and the take-over of Staten Island ferries by New York City authorities—was prompted by the deaths of four passengers when a privately-operated Staten Island Ferry sunk in 1901. This view carries a copyright date of 1897, which may suggest that it was initially published in another form, presumably without the inset view of the terminal and over-printed text, but we have been unable identify an earlier version.

The Gray Lithographing Company was founded in the mid-1890s by Olin D. Gray (1854–1938). Born in Remsen, New York, Gray moved to St. Louis as a child and got his start managing the lithography firm of August Gast & Company. By 1887 the firm had reorganized and Gray had joined the New York office with Louis Wall, who relocated to Brooklyn to found his own firm about a decade later. Gray continued to operate the Gast Lithographing and Engraving Company alongside his own firm, which he sold in 1910 to Sackett & Wilhelms Lithographing Company. He retired to Florida.

No examples recorded in OCLC, nor do Google searches locate any institutional holdings. Neither this nor any earlier versions recorded in Reps. 

Item #9218

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