Viewing the Past Through a Different Lens: The Mannahatta Project

March 21, 2010

Imagine a lush landscape of rolling hills, salt marshes, and beaches, crisscrossed by streams and brooks that feed freshwater ponds. The island that Henry Hudson spied on the east side of the river housed an incredibly diverse ecosystem, according to Dr. Eric Sanderson, a Wildlife Conservation Society ecologist who heads the Mannahatta Project.

Using historical maps and modern science, the Wildlife Conservation Society reconstructed a detailed depiction of the ecology of the land on either side of the Hudson River as it would have appeared to Hudson’s crew and the Lenape Indians in 1609 in a multilayered digital map, which can be overlaid with a modern street map.

Dr. Sanderson will visit the Museum on Sunday, March 21 at 4 p.m. to give an illustrated talk about the project, which also offers vision of how elements of the natural landscape could be restored in the form of green roofs and other natural features. “The Mannahatta Project is not only a journey into our past but also a look forward to our future and how we can keep nature in our lives,” Dr. Sanderson said when the project was announced.