DESCRIPTION: An original manuscript pen and ink engineering trace by Boston civil engineer William H. Whitney, titled Plan of Back Bay Showing Improvements on Streets and Estates from Latest Surveys, dated July 1, 1888. Prepared from Whitney's offices at 39 Court Street, Boston, the large-scale plan provides a detailed record of the Back Bay and adjoining districts near the completion of the great nineteenth-century program of land reclamation and urban development.
The map extends from the Public Garden and established Back Bay westward across the Charles River frontage, Commonwealth Avenue and the developing lands beyond Massachusetts Avenue, while extending south through Roxbury and the adjoining districts.
Of particular interest is the detailed treatment of the Back Bay Fens and Muddy River, shown while Frederick Law Olmsted's plans for Boston's emerging park system were being implemented. Beginning in 1878, Olmsted sought to transform the polluted tidal marsh into a carefully engineered landscape that combined drainage and sanitary improvements with naturalistic park design. The Fens became the first major component of the interconnected system later known as Boston's Emerald Necklace.
The trace is closely related to the 1881
Fuller & Whitney historical reconstruction engineering plans documenting the development of the Back Bay from 1814-1881.
By 1888 Whitney was working under his own name, although from the same 39 Court Street address formerly associated with Fuller & Whitney. As an original engineering trace rather than a later printed map, the sheet provides a detailed working record of the continuing surveying, property development, and physical transformation of Boston's Back Bay during the late nineteenth century.
William H. Whitney
(1843 - 1909)
During the period 1872 to 1888 Fuller & Whitney Civil Engineers, was conducted as a partnership between J. Franklin Fuller and William H. Whitney. That firm was instrumental in the latter half of the Back Bay fill and development project. Whitney assumed sole control of the firm in 1888 and changed the name to William H. Whitney.
In his autobiography Whitney refers to his work with the latest cutting-edge reprographic technology- blueprinting:
“In September 1881 I received a bronze medal at the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association Exhibit for sun or blue prints. I developed a process from the French and used it in illustrating the growth of Back Bay lands. I issued to subscribers monthly schedules and maps showing the changes of ownership, increase in value, improvement by filling and public works.” (The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Vol 64, January 1910. Number 253. p. lix)
PUBLICATION DATE: 1888
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States
BODY OF WATER: Boston Back Bay
CONDITION: Good.
Slight grubbiness.
COLORING:
ENGRAVER:
SIZE: 25
" x
15 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION:
PRICE: $3500
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