The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Our adventure in the Netherlands continues with a quest to find the Walloons, the French-speaking religious refugees who became the first settlers of New Netherland in 1624. Their descendants would last well beyond the existence of New Amsterdam and were among the first people to become New Yorkers.But you can't tell the Walloon story without that other group of American religious settlers -- the Pilgrims who settled in Massachusetts four years earlier.All roads lead to Leiden, the university city with a history older than Amsterdam. Greg and Tom join last episode's guest Jaap Jacobs, the author of The Colony of New Netherland, to explore the birthplace of Rembrandt, the historic botanical garden and a site associated with Adriaen van der Donck (whose "patroonship," or manor, gives the city of Yonkers, New York, its name).Then they visit with Koen Kleijn, art historian and editor-in-chief of history magazine Ons Amsterdam, who takes them on a journey through Amsterdam's history -- from the innovative story of its canals to the disaster known as Tulipmania, the 1630 speculative mania that set the stage for generations of stock-market shenanigans.PLUS: A detour to Amsterdam Noord and a look at a miniature model of New Amsterdam, courtesy of the design and production team at Artitec. And while visiting Ian Kenny from the John Adams Institute, Tom and Greg come upon an old friend holding court in a fountain.PLUS: Tom sustains an injury --- from a bitterballen!

The epic journey begins! The Bowery Boys Podcast heads to old Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, to find traces of New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement which became New York.We  begin our journey at Amsterdam's Centraal Station and spend the day wandering the streets and canals, peeling back the centuries in search of New York's roots.Our tour guide for this adventure is Jaap Jacobs, Honorary Lecturer at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and the author of The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America.Jaap takes us around to several spots within the old medieval city -- Centrum, including the Red Light District -- weaving through the canals and along the harbor, in search of connections to New York's (and by extension, America's) past.This year marks the 400th anniversary of Dutch settlement in North America, led by the Dutch West India Company, a trading and exploration arm of the thriving Dutch empire. So our first big questions begin there:-- What was the Dutch Empire in 1624 when New Netherland was first settled? Was the colony a major part of it? Would Dutch people have even understood where New Amsterdam was?-- What's the difference between the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company?-- To what degree was New Amsterdam truly tolerant in terms of religion? Was it purely driving by profits and trading relationships with the area's native people like the Lenape?-- The prime export was the pelts of beavers and other North American animals. What happened to these thousands of pelts once they arrived in Amsterdam?-- How central were the Dutch to the emerging Atlantic slave trade? When did the first enslaved men and women arrive in New Amsterdam?-- And how are the Pilgrims tied in to all of this? Had they always been destined for the area of today's Massachusetts?Among the places we visit this episode -- the Maritime Museum, the Rijksmuseum, Amersham's oldest building Oude Kirk, the Schreierstoren (the Crying Tower) and many morePLUS: We get kicked out of a cloister! And we try raw herring sandwiches.Visit our website for images and more information 

Author Russell Shorto, an expert on New York City history, discusses the Dutch influence on New York City, including an exploration of Dutch principles shaping the city's foundation. They debunk stereotypes, talk about the impact of Shorto's book 'The Island at the Center of the World,' and consider potential TV adaptations. The conversation extends to Amsterdam history, discussing themes of liberalism, water management, and the 17th-century rivalry between England and the Dutch Republic.

Announcing an epic new Bowery Boys mini series -- The Bowery Boys Adventures in the Netherlands. Exploring the connections between New York City and that fascinating European country.Simply put, you don't get New York City as it is today without the Dutch who first settled here 400 years ago. The names of Staten Island, Broadway, Bushwick, Greenwich Village and the Bronx actually come from the Dutch. And the names of places like Brooklyn and Harlem come from actual Dutch cities and towns.Over the course of several weekly shows, we'll dig deeper into the history of those Dutch settlements in New Amsterdam and New Netherland -- from the first Walloon settlers to the arrival of Peter Stuyvesant.But we'll be telling that story not from New York, but from the other side of the Atlantic, in the Netherlands.Walking the streets of Amsterdam and other Dutch cities, searching for clues. Uncovering new revelations and new perspectives on the Dutch Empire, And finding surprising relationships between New York and Amsterdam.For this series we visited Amsterdam, Leiden, Utrecht, Haarlem and more places with ties to New York. We kick off this mini series next week (June 7). talking with the man who literally wrote the book on New Amsterdam -- Russell Shorto (The Island at the Center of the World)That's the Bowery Boys Adventures in the Netherlands. Coming soon.June 7 The New Amsterdam ManJune 14 Adventures in the Netherlands Part OneJune 21 Adventures in the Netherlands Part TwoJune 28 Adventures in the Netherlands Part ThreeJuly 4 Adventures in the Netherlands Part Four 

Consider the following show an acknowledgment – of people. For the foundations of 400 years of New York City history were built upon the homeland of the Lenni-Lenape, the tribal stewards of a vast natural area stretching from eastern Pennsylvania to western Long Island. The Lenape were among the first in northeast North America to be displaced by white colonists -- the Dutch and the English. By the late 18th century, their way of life had practically vanished upon the island which would be known by some distorted vestige of a name they themselves may have given it – Manahatta, Manahahtáanung or Manhattan.But the Lenape did not disappear. Through generations of great hardship, they have persevered.In today’s show, we’ll be joined by two guests who are working to keep Lenape culture and language alive throughout the United States, including here on the streets of New York-- Joe Baker, enrolled member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians and a co-founder of the Lenape Center, an organization creating and presenting Lenape art, exhibitions and education in New York. -- Ross Perlin, linguist and author of Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York

Delve into the fascinating history of the New York City Subway from its renegade beginnings in 1904 to the modern network we know today. Learn about the challenges of construction, including accidents and political obstacles. Discover how the subway system evolved with the 'Dual Contracts' and IND lines, shaping the city's transportation landscape. Uncover the excitement of the subway's inaugural opening and the frenzied events of its first day in 1904. Explore the competition and expansion of subway lines into the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, transforming the city's transit system.

From a dingy train ditch to a luxury address, Park Avenue's evolution reflects wealth and glamour. Discover its humble beginnings under steam locomotive domination. Explore the rise of glamorous apartment buildings and iconic landmarks. The construction of Grand Central Terminal reshaped the avenue. The automobile age brought further transformation to this iconic street, culminating in 1950s modernism with innovative office towers. Delve into the cultural establishments and challenges posed by 'super tall' structures along Park Avenue's southern stretch.

Join Kieran Gannon, a Flushing history expert, along with Elise Helmers and Emily Vieira Haley from the Bowne House, as they delve into Flushing's rich history from a Dutch settlement to a vibrant cultural hub. Jason Antos shares insights on the Kingsland Homestead, while Kyle Supley explores the enchanting tales of Flushing Meadows and its World’s Fairs. Food guide Owen Phan tantalizes taste buds with the area's diverse culinary scene. Together, they unravel the historic significance of religious freedoms, Quaker heritage, and Flushing’s evolution over centuries.

In today’s episode, Tom visits the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side to walk through the reconstructed two-room apartment of an African-American couple, Joseph and Rachel Moore, who lived in 1870 on Laurens Street in today’s Soho neighborhood.Both Joseph and Rachel moved to New York when they were about 20 years old, in the late 1840s and 1850s. They married, worked, raised a family – and they shared their small apartment with another family to help cover costs. Their home has been recreated in the Tenement Museum’s newest exhibit, “A Union of Hope: 1869.” The exhibit reimagines what their apartment may have looked like – and it also explores life in the Eighth Ward of Manhattan, and, specifically, within the black community of the turbulent and dangerous decades of the 1850s and 60s.This is the first time the museum has recreated the apartment of a black family – although, as you’ll hear, the museum’s founders had long planned for it. And the exhibit is also the first time the museum has recreated an apartment that wasn’t housed in one of their buildings on the Lower East Side, but in another neighborhood. So, just who were Joseph and Rachel Moore? And how and why did the Tenement Museum choose to put them at the center of their new exhibit?  FURTHER LISTENING:Tales from a Tenement: Three Families Under One Roof (episode #246)Nuyorican: The Great Puerto Rican Migration to New York (episode #384)The Deadly Draft Riots of 1863 Seneca Village and New York's Forgotten Black Communities

Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence is a perfect novel to read in the spring — maybe its all the flowers — so I finally picked it up to re-read, in part due to this excellent episode from the Gilded Gentleman which we are presenting to you this week. The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton’s most famous novel, an enduring classic of Old New York that has been rediscovered by a new generation. What is it about this story of Newland Archer, May Welland and Countess Olenska that readers respond to today?Noted Wharton scholar Dr. Emily Orlando joins Carl Raymond on The Gilded Gentleman podcast to delve into the background of this novel, take a deep dive into the personalities of the major characters and discuss what Wharton wanted to say in her masterpiece.  Edith Wharton published The Age of Innocence at a very important moment in her life. When the novel came out in 1920, she had been living in France full-time for nearly 10 years and had seen the devastating effects of World War I up close. Her response was to look back with a sense of nostalgia to the time of her childhood to recreate that staid, restrictive world of New York in the 1870s. A world that, despite its elite social cruelty, seemed to have some kind of moral center (at least to her).