First off, let me admit that I am new to New York. I’ve been in the city for almost a year, and while I’ve learned to navigate the streets pretty well, sometimes I still turn a corner and find myself hopelessly lost. So I am very sympathetic to all the tourists wandering around BHS and Brooklyn Heights, struggling to find their way.

Unfortunately for tourists, Brooklyn Heights does not have a great deal of signage to help them find the neighborhood’s landmarks, or even the way to the Promenade or the Brooklyn Bridge. In response to this, a professor from Parsons the New School of Design gave her students a seemingly simple assignment: design a tourist map of the area around the Brooklyn Bridge.

Last week, a group of Parsons students came to BHS to look at our 20th century tourist maps. By looking at these examples, the students were able to see which mapping approaches produce the most aesthetically pleasing and functional maps.

Following are some of the maps that the students looked at during their visit. If you’re not a native New Yorker, try to remember the first days you were walking around the city, simply trying to get from Point A to B. Imagine coming out of the Borough Hall station, you’re on Court St. and there are people everywhere. You’re looking around, you don’t see any signs to help you, and you want to get to the Brooklyn Bridge. Would any of these maps have helped?

First, a map of Brooklyn designed for tourists traveling to the 1939 World’s Fair:

Brooklyn and how to get to the World's Fair. 1939. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Detail of Brooklyn Heights from the same map:

Brooklyn and how to get to the World's Fair. 1939. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Second, a map made for the real estate company Heights Cranford Inc. in 1959:

Map of Brooklyn Heights. 1959. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Detail from the same map:

Map of Brooklyn Heights. 1959. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Third, a 1955 map of Brooklyn Heights from “Nester’s Brooklyn maps”:

Nester's Brooklyn maps. 1955. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Detail from the same map:

Nester's Brooklyn maps. 1955. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Next, a map of Brooklyn Heights published for the Downtown Brooklyn Association ca. 1940s:

The heart of Brooklyn. 194-?. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Detail from the same map:

The heart of Brooklyn. 194-?. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Finally, a 2003 map of Brooklyn Heights for the Montague Street Business Improvement District:

Map of Brooklyn Heights. 2003. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Detail from the same map:

Map of Brooklyn Heights. 2003. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.