My project changed considerably over the past week or so. While I was originally playing around with trying to map individual gas lamps, this proved to be infeasible for the vast majority of streets in Manhattan. Consequently, I digitalized streets that has gas lamps instead.
These maps show streets where gas lamps were introduced between the years 1825 and 1840. The first map shows streets where gas lamps were installed between 1825-1830, the second shows streets with gas lamps between 1831 and 1835, and the last shows streets with gas lamps between 1836 and 1840. There is a clear upward progression to the streets where gas lamps were installed over time; between 1836-1840, gas lamps are installed in streets much farther north than between 1831 – 1835 and 1825-1830. As I begin to work on my paper, I will be exploring the reasons behind this trend. Additionally, I will be looking at the reasons why certain streets received gas lamps over others and will hopefully be able to explain how the geography of artificial light in Manhattan came to be.