CHACE, J.  Map of Suffolk County, L.I., New York

Philadelphia: John Douglass, 1858. Wall map, 49 x 57½ inches, including numerous insets.  This map is very scarce. This is reputed to be the best nineteenth-century map of Suffolk County, New York.

It was constructed by Chace under the supervision of the Smith-French survey of New York, the most ambitious and advanced mapping project for any American state to date. Due to the county's long and narrow form, Chace chose to divide the map into two parts, with the western part of the county shown at top, and the eastern at bottom. Interspersed are thirty-three inset plans of Suffolk towns, including Southampton, Easthampton, Bridgehampton, Amangansett, Sag Harbor, Riverhead, Islip, Stoneybrook, Sayville, Patchogue, Smith Town, Amityville, and Greenport.  Fire Place was apparently one of the insets. Hundreds of property owners are identified by name on the map and insets. An original of this map is available at the State University of New York at Stony Brook library.  In October 2005 I searched and found only one copy for sale priced at $9500.  I have not yet found it in any other map collections except SUNY-Stony Brook -- the original is in their Special Collections; a photostat is in their Map Reserve Room.  I have not visited the original at Stony Brook.

Page revised:  20 April, 2008