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Maximilian van Mittendorfer (fl. 1871-1896) was a New York-based artist, draughtsman, and architect. Mittendorfer is somewhat difficult to track through the historical record, having used many variations on his name throughout his career. His name is given varyingly as Max, M.V., Maximilian V., Maximilian Van, and lastly Maximilian Von Mittendorfer. He first shows up an artist working in Brooklyn in 1871 where he produced an image of Cupid, which was “handsomely lithographed by Julius Schledorn". In that same year, he was elected co-Librarian of the Palette Society, an association of artists and promoters of the arts. He evidently did not find enough work as an artist and quickly transformed himself into a design journeyman, showing up in New York City business directories as a designer, draughtsman, and architect from at least 1871 to at least the mid-1880s. He worked at 83 Nassau Street until moving to 150 Broadway (no more than a five-minute walk from the former location) sometime in the 1880s. Later he moved to 61 Park Place. We have traced three maps in which Mittendorfer had a hand, most importantly A.R. Roessler's map of 1874, followed by another Texas-related map a year later, "Map of Llano County Showing Geology" (Day, Texas Maps, #1524). The third map was evidently made in 1896 for the Hangerman Land Company and was titled “Map of Grand View Park, property of The Hangerman Land Company, situated at Rocky Point, Suffolk County, New York.” Sometime between 1874 and 1880, Mittendorfer signed a petition, along with other New York architects, in favor of using the metric system in the United States.  Though Mittendorfer billed himself as a civil engineer ("C.E.") when signing the Roessler map, we have found no external evidence that he was trained or qualified as a civil engineer.


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