Last Sunday’s New York Times Book Review included a review of New York 400: A Visual History of America’s Greatest City with Images from The Museum of the City of New York that led with this line: “There is Tribeca as a bucolic meadow and craggy hill in a 1763 engraving.” Curious, I asked the folks at Running Press, which published the book, if they’d be kind enough to send over the image so I could post it. Isn’t it something? Here’s the corresponding text, which I cribbed while at Barnes & Noble (the book is pretty cool, by the way, if you’re looking for a gift for any newyorkophiles):

A South East View of the City of New York in North America, 1763: In the distance we can see at the right the spire of the original Trinity Church, the dome of the town hall, the prison, and at the center King’s College (now Columbia University). This was “drawn on the SPOT by Cap’ Thomas Howdell of the Royal Artillery,” but that palm tree is clearly a flight of fancy. This fine view from the famously rare Scenographia Americana series was taken from a point that today corresponds to the corner of Varick and Beach Streets. Engraved on copper by Pierrre Charles Canot, after a drawing by Capt. Howdell made in about 1763, London; printed for John Bowles, Robert Sayer, Thos. Jefferys, Carington Bowles, and Henry Parker, 1768. Gift of Miss Edith Allen Clark, given in memory of her brother, P.A. Clark.

To see a larger version of the drawing, click this thumbnail image.