Before New York: Explore Your Neighborhood

A map of locations searched by participants

On select dates, NYBG’s Urban Conservation Team invites visitors to explore how their city block may have looked 400 years ago using the redesigned Welikia Map Explorer. Through this interactive experience, visitors contribute to a shared map—created from data collected during these dates—that highlights the places that mattered most to them. The Welikia Map Explorer is a historical ecology mapping tool that reveals what New York City’s landscape, plants, animals, and people might have been like 400 years ago.