Native American

Relic Hunting in Northern Manhattan

Reginald Pelham Bolton

“I chanced to visit an old inn near Fort George some years ago and I noticed a human skull that the proprietor kept among the bottles above his bar.  The man told me he had unearthed it, together with several swords and cannon balls, in his yard.  I offered to buy it, not caring much [...]

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Princess Naomi

Thumbnail image for Princess Naomi

Since moving to Inwood  I’d heard stories of an almost mythical figure known only as Princess Naomi, who, in the 1930’s, took up residence near the old tulip tree in Inwood Hill Park. The site of the tree, which was felled by a hurricane in 1938, is now marked by a boulder with a plaque [...]

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The Old Nagle Cemetery

Inwood Cemetery, NYC

In mid-17th century Jan Nagle and Jan Dyckman traveled to the New World and settled in northern Manhattan. For more than two centuries the families farmed the land, raised cattle, planted orchards, built bridges and homes and even intermarried. And while Dyckman is a familiar Inwood name, largely thanks to the preservation of the post-Revolutionary [...]

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Drums Along the Hudson 2010

Drums Along the Hudson 2010

On Sunday May 23, 2010 Inwood Hill Park hosted Drums Along The Hudson.  If you’ve never been, the festival is a fun for the whole family annual event that’s been going on since 2002. There’s food, entertainment, music and all kinds of photo opportunities. Below are a few photos of the festivities.

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Hudson Fulton Celebration Postcards

Hudson Fulton 1909 Celebration postcard

In the summer of 2009 Fourth of July spectators marveled at the wonders of pyrotechnics from viewing galleries and apartment buildings up and down the Hudson River. Normally held on the East River, city leaders moved the spectacular display to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s historic voyage up the North River now bearing [...]

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The Summer of Henry Hudson

Henry Hudson

Four hundred years ago Henry Hudson, an English sea captain flying a Dutch flag, departed Amsterdam looking for a northwest passage to the Orient. It would be his third and most important voyage. According to a journal kept by shipmate Robert Juet, Hudson and his crew on the Half Moon sailed into New York Harbor [...]

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Drums Along the Hudson

Drums Along the Hudson, Inwood Hill Park Native American Festival, May 2009

 Four hundred years ago  Henry Hudson and his crew of the Half Moon first encountered the Lenape Indians living and thriving near the mouth of the Spuyten Duyvil. Flash forward to the eighth annual Drums Along the Hudson: A Native American Festival enjoyed by young, old, Native American and Native New Yorker alike.

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Late 19th Century Inwood- Part III

William Calver

Much of what we know today about the history and pre-history of  Inwood and Washington Heights is due largely to the turn of the century work of amateur historians, self taught archaeologists and close friends William Calver  and Reginald Bolton. Starting in the 1880′s Bolton and Calver began exploring northern Manhattan with picks and shovels, [...]

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