Hagstrom Map, based in
Maspeth, Queens, was the best-selling brand of
road maps in the
New York City metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass, at , and one of the list of most populous metropolitan areas, most populous urban agg ...
from the mid-20th to early 21st century. ''
The New York Times'' in 2002 described Hagstrom's ''Five Borough Atlas'' as New York City's "map of record" for the previous 60 years.
With the rise of
GPS navigation
A satellite navigation device (satnav device) is a user equipment that uses one or more of several global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) to calculate the device's geographical position and provide navigational advice.
Depending on the ...
and other electronic maps in the early 2000s, the printed-map business shrank to a fraction of its former size, undergoing extensive
consolidation
Consolidation may refer to:
In science and technology
* Consolidation (computing), the act of linkage editing in computing
* Memory consolidation, the process in the brain by which recent memories are crystallised into long-term memory
* Pulmon ...
. In 2009, the Maspeth headquarters were shut down; production has since moved to
Deland, Florida with the company's acquisition by the
Kappa Publishing Group
Kappa Publishing Group, Inc. is a Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based publishing company concentrating on adult puzzle books and magazines as well as children's magazines and maps. It is a private company founded in 1955 with $11.5 million in an ...
who placed Hagstrom in its Kappa Map Group entity. The Kappa Map Group suddenly ceased operations in early 2022 when the group's Managing Director departed for another position and no so-called "white knight" was found to rescue the mapping group. Decades of cartographic work was abandoned when the Map Group closed down.
History
Andrew Hagstrom was a
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
immigrant to the United States. in 1909. While working as a farmhand and in the meatpacking industry, he studying graphic arts at the New York Mechanics Institute. He then formed a drafting business in lower
Manhattan, circa 1916.
To demonstrate his skills to potential customers, and also help them find his business, the new businessman produced a map of his shop location.
The map featured exaggeratedly wide streets that offered abundant room for clear labeling of addresses, transportation, and other terrain features. The map proved popular, and he began selling it, forming the Hagstrom Map Company in 1916. He expanded coverage to all of Manhattan, then all of New York City, then its outlying regions, eventually offering over 100 maps.
The
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
used a Hagstrom design for its official
subway maps during the 1940s and up to 1958.
In 1968, Hagstrom was acquired by
Macmillan Publishers; Macmillan sold Hagstrom to the
Langenscheidt publishing group in 1981. In 2010,
Kappa Publishing Group
Kappa Publishing Group, Inc. is a Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based publishing company concentrating on adult puzzle books and magazines as well as children's magazines and maps. It is a private company founded in 1955 with $11.5 million in an ...
acquired the Hagstrom brand from Langenscheidt after the latter decided to sell off its U.S. operations.
[The Hagstrom Map Company Publication Code](_blank)
/ref> During the 1970s and 1980s, Hagstrom's catalog included maps of a number of cities beyond the New York area, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, and Philadelphia. Most of these publications were out of print by the late 1990s.
Hagstrom had three retail stores: one in Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
, one in Midtown, and one in Washington, D.C.; the last of which closed in 2010.
Andrew Hagstrom was knighted by the King of Sweden for his success in America.
Style
The widened-street style was a hallmark of Hagstrom's product line; although it added clarity in navigation and labeling, the widened streets borrowed their space from the surrounding blocks, in some cases reducing them to slivers; for instance, the Flatiron Building appeared as "a speck where Broadway and Fifth Avenue converge". Hagstrom also produced the "redlining" maps of New York City in 1938. From 1941 to 2002, all of Hagstrom's New York City maps were based on a single master map that was updated by hand. This produced a number of other visual artifacts; new streets and neighborhoods had to be shoehorned into layouts designed around previously existing features. A number of quirky and archaic labels also remained, such as ''"The Shed"'', a large disused building on Pier 42 on the East River, and Mussel Island
Mussel Island was an island in Newtown Creek located near its confluence with Maspeth Creek, between the Brooklyn neighborhood of Greenpoint and the Queens neighborhood of Maspeth in New York City.
Prior to industrialization, Newtown Creek hosted ...
, a long-gone feature of Newtown Creek
Newtown Creek, a long tributary of the East River, is an estuary that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, in New York City. Channelization made it one of the most heavily-used bodies of water in the Port of N ...
– a location not far from Hagstrom's building in Maspeth.
In 2002, Hagstrom switched to all-digital master maps using more conventional layouts and labels.
In its heyday, the company's lineup included atlases, borough maps, maps of the Tri-State Region and detailed and quite colorful maps of midtown Manhattan. The midtown maps, which detailed most of the significant buildings and businesses ( Rockefeller Center, Pennsylvania Station, Saks Fifth Avenue, etc.) show the changing face of the city's business district, and have started to draw the attention of map collectors.
References
Further reading
Laurel Hill on Forgotten NY Neighborhoods - scroll down to "Map capital of the world"
{{Kappa Publishing Group
Map companies of the United States
Companies based in Queens, New York
*