Bird's-Eye View
The library has assembled the finest collection in the state of bird's-eye views created of Michigan cities.
Bird's-eye views are printed illustrations of communities. Artists would go to a community, rapidly sketch the town, arrange for the printing of the sketches, and then sell the finished product for around $3.00 to $5.00 a copy. The name "birds-eye" views came from a marketing ploy used by most artists who discovered that pictorial representations of communities sold better if they were drawn as if the artists were flying over the community at a height of 1,000 feet or so, viewing it as a bird did. The illustrations were particularly popular between the end of the Civil War and 1900. Virtually every major American city, and a large number of small villages with large aspirations, is portrayed in a bird's-eye view.
Between 1838 and 1910, at least 196 bird's-eye views were drawn of Michigan communities, the first being of Detroit and the last being done of the village of Saranac, located near Grand Rapids. The Clarke Library holds over seventy of these Michigan views, more than any other institution except for the Library of Congress.