A History of New York in 50 Objects

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Sam Roberts, A History of New York in 50 Objects. New York Times, Sept 2, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/interacti ... -in-50-objects.html

Note (numbered according to the report)
(4) the Flushing Remonstrance, 1657
(a) remonstrance (n): "an earnest presentation of reasons for opposition or grievance; especially : a document formally stating such points"
(b) Peter Stuyvesant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Stuyvesant
(c 1602-1672; the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664)

(5) painting of New Amsterdam, 1665
("Dutch New Amsterdam endured for four decades")
(a) Take notice the quotation says "New Amsterdam" rather than "New Netherland" because Fort Amsterdam was built in 1625 and because New Amsterdam surrendered to the English in 1664.
(b) New Amsterdam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Amsterdam
(a settlement [outside of Fort Amsterdam] on the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as capital city of New Netherland [1614-1664]; section 1.2 Fort Amsterdam (1625))
(c) Johannes Vingboons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vingboons
(1616/1617-1670; painting)

(6) the oyster, late 1600
(a) Delmonico's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delmonico's
(section 1 Origin)
(b) Pearl Street (Manhattan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Street_(Manhattan)
(The name Pearl Street is an English translation of the Dutch Parelstraat (written as Paerlstraet around 1660). This street along the eastern shore of New Amsterdam was named for the many oysters found in the river)

(7) English-Dutch Dictionary, 1730
(a) The paragraph says, "The [English] victor renamed the settlement in  honor of the Duke of York, who had sponsored the mission."

Duke of York
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_of_york
(Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of the English monarch; section 2.1.5 Fifth creation, (1633) 1644–1685: James Stuart [1633-1701; father was Charles I and grandfather James I; Duke of York 1644-1685; coronated in 1685 to become James II])  
(b) For "Low Dutch," see Dutch language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_language
(Dutch is closely related to German and English and is said to be between them; The repeated use of neder- or "low" to refer to the [Dutch] language is a reference to the Netherlands' downriver location at the mouth of the Rhine and the fact that it lies in the lowest dip of the Northern European plain)
(c) The paragraph ends with the sentence: "Coleslaw, cookie, pickle, waffle, stoop and Yankee are among the Dutch words that endured."
(i) coleslaw (n; Dutch koolsla, from kool cabbage + sla salad; First Known Use 1794)
(ii) cookie (n; Dutch koekje, diminutive of koek cake; First Known Use 1703)
(iii) pickle (n; Middle English pykyl, pekill sauce, gravy, from or akin to Middle Dutch peeckel  brine; First Known Use 15th century)
(iv) waffle (n; Dutch wafel, from Middle Dutch wafele; First Known Use 1744)
All four definitions are from www.m-w.com.
(v) Stoop (architecture)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoop_(architecture)
(section 1 Etymology)
(vi) Yankee
(A) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee
(The origin of the term is uncertain)
(B) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/yankee
(origin unknown; First Known Use 1758)

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(9) a horse's tail, 1776
("A raucous rendition of the Declaration of Independence on July 6, 1776, inspired New Yorkers to converge on Bowling Green, the city's first public park,where they not only hacked off the crown-shaped finials on a wrought iron fence (it is still there) but also toppled and beheaded the gilded eqestrian statue of King George III")

(a) The fence is still there but finials are long gone.
(b) bowling green
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_green
(c) Bowling Green (New York City)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Green_(New_York_City)
(section 2 History)

(10) washington's balcony, 1789
(a) "New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City
(b) "Philadelphia was one of the nation's capitals during the Revolutionary War, and the city served as the temporary US capital [1790-1800] while Washington, DC, was under construction."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia
(c) For "Federal Hall National Memorial," see Federal Hall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Hall
(d) Alexander Hamilton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton
(Wanting "the federal government [to] assume state debts incurred during the Revolution * * * Hamilton eventually secured passage of his assumption plan by striking a deal with Jefferson and Madison. Hamilton would use his influence to place the permanent national capital on the Potomac River, and Jefferson and Madison [Virginians both] would encourage their friends to back Hamilton's assumption plan. In the end, Hamilton's assumption, together with his proposals for funding the debt, overcame legislative opposition and narrowly passed the House on July 26, 1790")

(11) wooden water pipes, about 1800
(a) Aaron Burr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_burr
(1756-1836; the third Vice President [1801-1805] of the United States under President Thomas Jefferson; In 1804, the last full year of his single term as Vice President, Burr killed his political rival Alexander Hamilton in a duel)
(b) Croton Distributing Reservoir
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croton_Distributing_Reservoir
(1842-1899; an above-ground reservoir at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan; The aqueduct and reservoir obtained their names from the water's source, a series of mostly underground conduits that would bring water from the Croton River in northern Westchester County to NYC's spigots)
(c) Chase Manhattan Bank was formed by the merger of the Chase National Bank and the Bank of the Manhattan Company in 1955. Chase Manhattan Bank merged with JP Morgan & Co in 2000 to form JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA.  Wikipedia

(12) Randel's map, 1811

Houston Street (Manhattan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_Street_(Manhattan)
(Despite the spelling, "Houston" is pronounced "HOUSE-ton", and is therefore not pronounced like the city of Houston, Texas.[2] The street's name was named for William Houstoun, whereas the city was named for Sam Houston)

(14) Singer sewing machine, 1851
("In the 19th century, New Yorkbecame the nation's manufacturing capital")
(a) Isaac Singer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Singer
(1811-1875; Many had patented sewing machines before Singer, but his success was based on the practicality of his machine, the ease with which it could be adapted to home use, and its availability on an installment payment basis; section 2 First inventions: "obtain[ed] US Patent number 8294 for his improvements on August 12, 1851. Singer's prototype sewing machine became the first to work in a practical way. It could sew 900 stitches per minute, far better than the 40 of an accomplished seamstress on simple work")

(b) Midtown West
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midtown_West(may refer to Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York)
(c) Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell's_Kitchen,_Manhattan
(a neighborhood of Manhattan between 34th Street and 59th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River; Once a bastion of poor and working-class Irish Americans; section 2 Name)

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(16) The Lefferts' cookbook, 1800s

Flatbush, Brooklyn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatbush,_Brooklyn
(The name Flatbush is an Anglicization of the Dutch language Vlacke bos (vlacke = vlak = flat; "flat woodland" or "wooded plain"))

(18) Edison's dynamo, 1882

dynamo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamo
(generally means a generator that produces direct current; The first electric generator was invented by Michael Faraday in 1831; The first practical designs for a dynamo were announced independently and simultaneously by Dr Werner Siemens [1816-1892] and Charles Wheatstone [1802-1875; English])

Edison is not mentioned in the above Wiki page.

(19) Brooklyn Bridge toll ticket, about 1883-1898

Brooklyn Bridge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Bridge
(one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States; Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River)

(20) manuscript of 'The New Collossus,' 1883

Emma Lazarus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Lazarus
(1849-1887; a poet; best known for "The New Colossus," a sonnet written in 1883, whose line includes "her name Mother of Exiles;" Lazarus began to be more interested in her Jewish ancestry after * * *)

(22) child's shoes from the General Slocum, 1904
(a) PS General Slocum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS_General_Slocum
(Maiden voyage 1891; named for Civil War General and New York Congressman Henry Warner Slocum; "On June 15, 1904, the General Slocum caught fire and sank in New York's East River.[1] At the time of the accident she was on a chartered run carrying members of St Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church (German Americans from Little Germany, Manhattan) to a church picnic. An estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board died")
(b) PS stans for passenger ship.

(23) Tiffany subway throttle, 1904
("Underground rapid transit originated in Europe and in 1897, a 1 1/2-mile subway tunnel opened in downtown Boston")
(a) subway (rail)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subway_(rail)
("It incorporates the oldest section of underground railway in the world, which opened in 1863 [then called Metropolitan Railway] and now forms part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines; and the first line to operate electric trains, in 1890, now part of the Northern line
(b) Tremont Street Subway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremont_Street_Subway
(the oldest subway tunnel in North America, opening on September 1, 1897; now forms the central part of the Green Line; From its inception, the subway used trolleys powered by electricity from overhead lines, made possible by the invention of the trolley pole in 1880 by [American] Frank J Sprague [but now powered by third rail)
(c) New York City Subway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Subway
(The first underground line of the subway opened on October 27, 1904, almost 35 years after the opening of the first elevated line in New York City, which became the IRT Ninth Avenue Line [1868-1940])

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(25) the Automat machine, 1912
("industrial New York all but invented the quick lunch to replace dinner, the old leisurely midday meal")
(a) dinner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner
(b) automat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat
(An automat is a fast food restaurant; "Inspired by the Quisiana Automat in Berlin, the first automat in the US was opened June 12, 1902, at 818 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia by Horn & Hardart. The automat was brought to New York City in 1912 and gradually became part of popular culture in northern industrial cities. Horn & Hardart was the most prominent automat chain")

(26) the bagel, early 1900s
(a) Kraków
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraków
(is the second largest [city] in Poland; section 1 Etymology)
(b) pizza
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza
(Pizza [an Italian word, from the Latin verb pìnsere, to press and from the Greek pēktos meaning "solid" or "clotted"] is Greek in origin; "Modern pizza originated in Italy as the Neapolitan pie with tomato [which came from New World]. In 1889, cheese was added;" US has developed regional forms of pizza [eg, Chicago, Detroit and New York])

(28) first Yankee Stadium program, 1923
John Philip Sousa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Philip_Sousa
(1854-1932; an American composer and conductor)

(29) Rivoli air conditioning advertisement, 1925
(a) Willis Carrier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Carrier
(1876-1950;

Quote from Wiki:

"The first Carrier in the United States was Thomas, who arrived in Massachusetts around 1663. There is historical evidence that Thomas was born in Wales in 1622 and that he was a political refugee who assumed the name 'Carrier' upon coming to America.

"In Buffalo, New York, on July 17, 1902, in response to a quality problem experienced at the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company of Brooklyn, Willis Carrier submitted drawings for what became recognized as the world's first modern air conditioning system [due to his insight to lower humidity]

"With the onset of World War I in late-1914, the Buffalo Forge Company, for which Carrier had been employed 12 years, decided to confine its activities entirely to manufacturing. The result was that seven young engineers pooled together their life savings of $32,600 to form the Carrier Engineering Corporation in New York on June 26, 1915[, whose successor moved to Syracuse, New York, in 1937, and the company became one of the largest employers in central New York].

(b) Rivoli Theatre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivoli_Theatre
(Rivoli Theatre or Rivoli Theater may refer to: "Rivoli Theatre, a movie theater in New York City, boasting a deeply curved screen and six-track stereophonic sound, demolished in 1987. Site of the original roadshow runs of the films Oklahoma, The Sound of Music, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Fiddler on the Roof, and Man of La Mancha, among others")

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(31) The Artichoke, 1933
(a) Black Hand (extortion)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hand_(extortion)
((Italian: La Mano Nera; section 1 Origins)
(b) Sicilian Mafia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Mafia
(emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy; The American Mafia arose from offshoots of the Mafia that emerged in the United States during the late nineteenth century, following waves of emigration from Sicily)
(c) Corleone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corleone

(32) Tree of Hope, 1934

Ella Fitzgerald
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Fitzgerald
(1917-1996; black)

(33) time capsule from 1939 World's Fair
("The World's Fair * * * officially celebrated the 150th anniversity of George Washington's inauguration")

(a) George Washington
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington
(The Electoral College elected Washington unanimously as the first president in 1789; At his inauguration, Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States of America on April 30, 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City)
(b) New York City
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City
(New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790)
(c) Flushing Meadows–Corona Park
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flushing_Meadows–Corona_Park
(a public park)

(34) Levittown house, 1947

(a) William Levitt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Levitt
(1907-1994; Jewish; widely credited as the father of modern American suburbia; He came to symbolize the new suburban growth with his use of mass-production techniques to construct large developments of houses selling for under $10,000)
(b) Hempstead (town), New York
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hempstead_(town),_New_York
(The original founding colonies named the piece of land Hempstead because it was declared to be a great farming spot for Hemp; Regarding the origin of the name "Hempstead", Hempstead founder John Carman was born in 1606 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England)
-----------------------------------
(35) 1955 World Series Banner
("It [the championship] was 'Da Bums'' firs and last World Series before the team decamped for Los Angeles")

History of the Brooklyn Dodgers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Brooklyn_Dodgers
(from 1884 until 1957, after which it moved to Los Angeles, where it continued its history as the Los Angeles Dodgers; The team currently known as the Dodgers was formed (as the "Brooklyn Grays") in 1883 by real estate magnate and baseball enthusiast Charles Byrne)

section 1.2 The team's nickname: "By 1890, New Yorkers (Brooklyn was a separate city until it became a borough in 1898) routinely called anyone from Brooklyn a 'trolley dodger,' due to the vast network of street car lines criss-crossing the borough as people dodged trains to cross the streets. When the second Washington Park burned down early in the 1891 season, the team moved to nearby Eastern Park, which was bordered on two sides by street car tracks. That's when the team was first called the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers. That was soon shortened to Brooklyn Dodgers. Possibly because of the 'street character' nature of Jack Dawkins, the 'Artful Dodger' in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, sportswriters in the early 20th century began referring to the Dodgers as the 'Bums.'

(36) Checker Taxicab, 1952-1986

Checker Motors Corporation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checker_Motors_Corporation
(1922-2010)

(39) Greek coffee cup, 1960s
("The Anthora, as the cup was called, was created in the early 1960s especially for the New York market")

Anthora
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthora
(Its name is a play on the word amphora)

(44) Loisaida Avenue sign, 1987.

Loisada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loisaida
(a term derived from the Latino (and especially Nuyorican) pronunciation of "Lower East Side")