Rare Map of Yale Created by Alumni and Signed in Pencil

"Yale",

This superb, three-dimensional, bird's-eye view of the Yale College Campus was created by alumni Allen C. Parrette ('30) and William B. Cram ('31). It captures the campus following the completion of the "Quadrangle Plan," a cluster of residential student colleges around the central campus. But the map is also careful to include references to and illustrations of many of the cherished historical buildings that had been torn down during the building boom. The title shares several important historical facts about Yale, such as its founding in 1701 and the original name for the institution: Collegiate School. The name was changed to Yale in 1716 to recognize an early benefactor, Elihu Yale. It is possible that this map was published to commemorate another important benefactor, Edward Harkness, whose financial contributions helped fund numerous buildings between 1917-31, including the Drama School, Pierson College, and Davenport College. These new residential colleges were designed after the English Universities of Oxford and Cambridge to provide an optimal environment for students to learn, live and integrate socially. The elaborate border surrounding the map features the houses and heraldry of various fraternities at the school, and the school's coat of arms is shown at bottom right. Cram and Parrette were architectural students at Yale and later formed an architectural practice together in Connecticut. Issued by Mill Hill Publishers. This is a numbered limited edition of 154 out of 500 copies that features the artists' signatures in pencil at bottom right. This map is very rare, as we are aware of only one institutional example (at Yale) and no known examples offered for sale.

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Condition: A

A clean, bright sheet of woven paper with a "Van Gelder Zonen Holland" watermark. There are a couple of tiny holes in the blank margin at top right that have been archivally repaired.