Bruegel meets Currier & Ives in this bird’s-eye view of Central Park in 1865, with glimpses of a cross section of New Yorkers reveling in ice and snow.

If you’ve seen 19th century urban aerial views similar to this one, then you’ve likely discovered the work of John Bachmann, the Swiss-born artist behind these panoramas.

Trained in Paris, Bachmann came to New York in 1848. He earned fame for his bird’s-eye lithographs of a growing Gotham, showing the rising skyline and expanding contours of the city through the 19th century. His first, of Union Square, was completed in 1849. A view of Green-Wood Cemetery came next, followed by the Empire City in 1855.

These bird’s-eye lithographs found a wide audience as New York was transforming from a major American city into one of the most powerful metropolises in the world.

“By mid-century, urban city views became the most popular commercially produced type of lithograph, appearing as household decorations or used—as was more likely with Bachmann’s views—for public display in municipal settings, serving decision makers and civic boosters as advertisements of the wonders of urban life,” wrote Hannah Wirta Kinney in an essay for Visualizing 19th century New York.

The opening of Central Park in 1858 caught Bachmann’s attention. The lithograph in this post, “Central Park, Winter,” focuses on the ice skaters enjoying the Lake and sleigh riders navigating the surrounding West Drive.

What does it tell us about the park at the time? First, it was far from finished.

In the lithograph, Bow Bridge—so named because this graceful span resembles the bow of an archer or violinist—crosses the Lake to the Ramble, and the two reservoirs are ringed by drives. Belvedere Castle was years away, the entire northern end of the park was under development, and Bethesda Fountain wouldn’t be dedicated until 1873.

Though much of the park was awaiting new bridges, roadways, and thousands of new trees, Central Park was already a huge hit. New Yorkers who had leisure time could take a carriage ride or streetcar to the park (the elevated trains would come in the 1870s) and spend their time in this wondrous recreation of nature.

Perhaps the most popular leisure activity was ice skating, attracting thousands of skaters every day. At the time, the Lake was called the “skating pond,” which was the original name designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux gave it in their Greensward plan.

The figures are small, but you can feel their delight. Some glide in groups, some lock arms, at least one is spinning around after a fall. Ice skating was one of the few activities men and women could enjoy together without violating social norms, and you can imagine how many courting couples came to the Lake to take advantage of this freedom.

Notice those huge calcium lights giving the Lake a dazzling glow? Moonlight skating was very popular when the Lake opened, and the intensity of artificial light made it safer and probably more romantic. Nighttime skating was so popular, Olmsted changed the closing time of the Lake from 8 p.m. to midnight, per the NYC Department of Records and Information Services.

In the 1860s, calcium lights were used in theaters, and gaslit lamps on the street and from homes provided weaker illumination. But the kind of nightlife we experience today was almost unknown. Nighttime skating could be seen as a harbinger of things to come. Once electricity arrived in the 1880s and 1890s, streets, marquees, department store windows, and cafes were brilliantly lit—turning Gotham into the city that never sleeps.

It’s hard to align the Central Park of today with this early image. Olmsted and Vaux’s original design had it that the park should be a respite from the crowded industrialization of the city. Many of the features we know today were yet to be conceived; others were altered or removed (like the rectangular reservoir, which is now the Great Lawn).

And Bachmann could be imaginative in his renderings. Another birds-eye lithograph he produced of Central Park in 1875 (above) features a very embellished Belvedere Castle and tropical-like foliage, as New York Historical points out in an insightful post on its website.

What does remain the same 154 years after Central Park was completed is New Yorkers’ use of the park as a leisure and recreational space—a popularity Olmsted and Vaux began with the opening of the skating pond.

[Top image: The Old Print Shop; second image: New York Historical]

Tags: 1860s Central Park Views, Central Park in its earliest days, Early Ice Skating Central Park, Early view of Central Park, John Bachman NYC Birds Eye Lithographs, John Bachmann Central Park Birds Eye View, John Bachmann Central Park Winter, John Bachmann NYC printmaker, Skating Pond Lake Central Park

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