Nantucket Bird’s Eye View 1881, Colored

Reproduction of a hand colored bird’s eye view of Nantucket Island. Massachusetts in 1881. Bird’s-eye views appear as something between a panoramic view and a map, as though they were drawn by the artist while he was suspended in a hot-air balloon. In fact, they were drawn by hand using, most often, two-point perspective to produce a three-dimensional rendering. The city views are surprisingly accurate and represent a much neglected source for understanding the history of an area.