Stokes, I. N. Phelps, and Ellen C. Ahern.
The Phelps Stokes Collection of American Historical Prints, Early Views of American Cities, etc., Including a few Items from Other Collections Owned by the Library.
120 pages.
New York, 1944.
Private Collection

---

Named in honor of his parents, Anson Phelps and Helen Phelps Stokes, the Phelps Stokes Collection of American and Historical Prints comprised over 800 works,⁹ and was donated to the New York Public Library in 1930. This document represents an early finding aid, composed by I. N. Phelps Stokes and edited by him and his longtime secretary, Ellen Ahern. Handwriting from both of them is evident in the marginalia throughout; the manuscript was further authenticated by Ahern’s handwritten addendum to the material.

At the time of composition, the Phelps Stokes Collection was not confined to archival safekeeping, but was displayed in the rooms and halls of the Main Library Building on Fifth Avenue (presently the Steven A. Schwarzman Building). Stokes, then a Trustee of the Library, wrote this collection guide, organized information by subject location (i.e., “New York Bay (or Harbor)” annotated each entry with references “to their description in [numerous] catalogues,” and provided a charming introduction that outlined the origins of his artistic and cartographic connoisseurship.

In Recollections and his production notes from Iconography, Stokes’ eternal lament was a personally haunting missed opportunity: he did not procure a copy of either the Manatus Map or so-called Castello Plan from a Florentine library when he had the chance. In this finding list, the two projections are listed under included maps of New York City, but only as “photo. from Castello copy.”

It is likely that the manuscript was deemed obsolete when NYPL transferred the prints out of public display. Deaccessioned by the New York Public Library at an undetermined date, it is now part of a private collection.

---

⁹By 1944.

Further Reading/Consulted Resources→