Old times - pressed, printed, papered, and nearly pulverized

An old map of southern Manhattan (New York City) from late 1700s was recently found, but it was tattered and yellowed and fragmented and on its way to destruction.  But with some restoration and preservation tricks it is now nearly like new - check out before and after here, and use the zoom to see details. Incredible how you can change paper for the better...

Back then New York itself was just a village at the very southern tip of Manhattan, down near Battery Park and Wall Street. A great book has been written about how the nature looked like on Manhattan when the Europeans arrived - Mannahatta by Eric Sanderson.  There were meadows, springs, small ponds, hills, and saltmarshes. Bears roamed on Manhattan and there were several indian villages.  Today it is a concrete jungle.  Fascinating...