The Fall of New Amsterdam, painted in 1932 by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris
It’s one of the most foundational questions we could ever ask on this show — how did New York City get its name?
You may know that the English conquered the Dutch settlement of New Netherland (and its port town of New Amsterdam) in 1664, but the details of this history-making day have remained hazy — until now.
Russell Shorto brought the world of New Amsterdam and the early years before New York to life in his classic history The Island At The Center of The World.
His new book Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America functions as a sequel of sorts, revisiting the moment when New Amsterdam ceased to be — and New York was born.
Shorto joins Greg and Tom for a very spirited discussion of international warfare, displaced princes, frantic letter writing and ominous warships in the harbor.
At the end of this story, you will not only know how New York — the city, the state, the whole place, from Buffalo to Long Island — got its name, you will know the exact forgotten historical figure who gave it that name.
More details
NIEUW AMSTERDAM OFTE NUE NIEUW IORX OPT TEYLANT MAN by Johannes Vingboons (1664), Stadt Huys, the first City Hall on Pearl StreetThe Duke of York Charter, 1886 illustrationKing Charles II, portrait by John Michael Wright, The Duke of York and future King James II, portait by John Riley
FURTHER LISTENING
Our mini-series on New Amsterdam, featuring Russell Shorto, recorded in 2024
The New Yorker turns one century old — and hasn’t aged a day! The witty, cosmopolitan magazine published its first issue on February 21, 1925. And even though present-day issues are often quite contemporary in content, the magazine’s tone and style still recall its glamorous Jazz Age origins.
The New Yorker traces itself to members of that legendary group of wits known as the Algonquin Round Table — renowned artists, critics and playwrights who met every day for lunch at the Algonquin Hotel.
And in particular, to two married journalists – Harold Ross and Jane Grant – who infused the magazine with a very distinct cosmopolitan zest. High fashion, martinis and Midtown Manhattan mixed with the droll wit of a worldly literati.
A new exhibition at the New York Public Library — “A Century of the New Yorker” — chronicles the magazine’s history, from its origins and creation by Ross and Grant to its current era, under the editorship of David Remnick.
Greg and Tom interview the show’s two curators Julie Golia and Julie Carlsen about the treasures on display from the New Yorker’s glorious past — from the magazine’s first cover (featuring everybody’s favorite snob Eustace Tilly) to artifacts and manuscripts from the world’s greatest writers.
Through February 21, 2026, third floor of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 42nd Street and 5th Avenue
“The New York Public Library’s new major exhibition A Century of The New Yorker draws on NYPL’s collections, including the magazine’s voluminous archives and the papers of many of its contributors, to bring to life the people, stories, and ideas that made The New Yorker.”
Greg and Tom have taken off their historian hats for a minute and have suddenly become — movie critics? Close but not quite!
This week we’re giving you a ‘sneak preview’ of their Patreon podcast called Side Streets, a conversational chat show about New York City and, well, whatever interests them that week.
In honor of the Academy Awards, the Bowery Boys hosts pay homage to the great Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert while looking at five award-worthy films with strong New York City connections:
— Anora with its captivating south Brooklyn locations
— A Complete Unknown, taking us back 1960s Greenwich Village
— Wicked, a spritely interpretation of the Broadway musical
— The Brutalist, an epic about more than just architecture
— Saturday Night, a frenetic tribute to the comedy-show icon which turns 50 years old this year
NOTE There are light spoilers (especially to locations used in some of these films) but nothing that will ruin your enjoyment of these movies.
The wait staff at Small's Paradise, 1929. The venue, on 134th Street and today's Adam Clayton Powell Jr Boulevard, was the rare Black-owned nightclub that was integrated. It became one of Harlem's most enduring hot spots, closing in 1986. New York Daily News Archive / Getty Images
For the Bowery Boys episode number 450, we’re looking at the glamour and mystery of Harlem during the 1920s, a decade when the predominantly black neighborhood, in the words of Langston Hughes, “was in vogue.”
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Alain Locke’s classic essay “The New Negro” and the literary anthology featuring the work of Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen and other significant black writers of the day.
The rising artistic scene would soon be known as the Harlem Renaissance, one of the most important cultural movements in American history.
And centered within America’s largest black neighborhood — Harlem, the “great black city,” as described by Wallace Thurman, with a rising population and growing political and cultural influence.
The Survey Graphic, published in March 1925, focusing on “Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro” and featuring the writing of Alain Locke.
And during the 1920s, Harlem became even more. Along “Swing Street” and Lenox Avenue, nightclubs and speakeasies gave birth to American music and fostered great musical talents like Count Basie, Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington.
Ballrooms like the Savoy and the Alhambra helped turn Harlem into a destination for adventure and romance.
While Harlem was truly the largest and most prominent African-American neighborhood in America, it was still tied to — and even reliant upon — the white New Yorkers who became fascinated by black culture. Many Harlem nightclubs (notably The Cotton Club) were not open to the black residents who lived around them.
What were these two worlds like — the literary salons and the nightclubs? How removed were these spheres from the every day lives of regular Harlem residents? How did the neighborhood develop both an energetic and raucous music scene and a diverse number of churches — many (like the Abyssinian Baptist Church) still around today?
FEATURING the stories of Sugar Hill, the Dunbar Apartments, and Hamilton Club Lodge Ball
City Vineyard, the Tribeca sister location of City Winery, presents Bowery Boys History: Live!, a live storytelling cabaret event on Thursday, March 13th, 2025 at 7:30 PM!Tickets here
Calling all history geeks, New Yorkers, and lovers of great storytelling.
LIVE FROM 400 YEARS OF NEW YORK CITY HISTORY — it’s the Bowery Boys with an all-new, ongoing live event! Join Greg Young from the Bowery Boys Podcast and a rotating roster of the city’s greatest historians, tour guides and personalities for a fascinating evening of history, a storytelling cabaret of all-true tales and spellbinding secrets from the past.
Bowery Boys History Live is like a cabaret night for historians! Or a variety show for local history lovers. Featuring the histories of famous New York people, neighborhoods and landmarks. With some hilarious detours and maybe even a song or two. Sit back, grab a drink and a bite, and join us for a fun-filled tribute to New York City.
Greg will be joined on stage by three special guests, all former guests on the Bowery Boys podcast:
PLUS a few more surprises. Join us at City Vineyard!
THE BOWERY BOYS HISTORY LIVE! Greg Young with Krikor Daglian, Ann McDermott and Kyle Supley CITY VINEYARD 233 West Street (Pier 26), on the Hudson River waterfront Thursday, March 13, 7:30 pm, doors open 6pm
Tickets $40, with a $25 per person minimum for food and drink
Greg with Ann McDermott on Extra Place near the old CBGBGreg with Krikor Daglian in the East VillageGreg with Kyle Supley at Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Daniel Celentano, Festival, 1934. Celentano was born and raised in East Harlem.
One of America’s first great Italian neighborhoods was once in East Harlem, populated with more southern Italians than Sicily itself, a neighborhood almost entirely gone today except for a couple restaurants, a church and a long-standing religious festival.
This is, of course, not New Yorks’ famous “Little Italy,” the festive tourist area in lower Manhattan built from another 19th-century Italian neighborhood on Mulberry Street. The bustling street life of old Italian Harlem exists mostly in memory now.
If you wander around any modern American neighborhood with a strong Italian presence, you’ll find yourself around people who can trace their lineage back through the streets of Italian Harlem. Perhaps that includes yourself.
But it’s not all warm nostalgia and fond recollections. Life could be quite hard in Italian Harlem, thanks to the nearby industrial environment, the deteriorating living conditions and the street crime, the early years of New York organized crime.
So who were these first Italian settlers who left their homes for what would become a hard urban life in upper Manhattan? What drew them to the city? What traditions did they bring? And in the end, what did they leave behind, when so many moved out to the four corners of the United States?
Find the episode wherever you listen to podcasts or listen right here:
LISTEN NOW Italian Harlem: New York’s Forgotten Little Italy
a street vendor with wares displayed, during a festival in Italian Harlem. 1915, Bain Services/Library of Congress
We’re not done with Harlem! In fact we’re building up to an epic new 450th episode for our next show.
FURTHER LISTENING:
Past Bowery Boys episodes with close links to this current show:
There were very few history podcasts around back in the year 2008, but the Bowery Boys Podcast was certainly here … and so was the Memory Palace, hosted by Nate DiMeo, presenting small, often forgotten vignettes from history in a descriptive narrative format.
In this special interview episode, Greg talks with Nate on the occasion of his new companion book The Memory Palace: True Short Stories of the Past which features many of his fable-like historical portraits, including many from New York City history — from revolutionary amusements on Coney Island to less frequented corridors within the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
And Greg and Nate go deep on the relationship between history and memory, on the reliability of memory to help us relive the past and how our own experiences can help fill in the gaps within histories that seem lost to us today.
Featuring a couple of elephants, the Wallendas, Parks and Recreation, the X-Men, a very large painting of Versailles, and the big secret about the monster hiding in your closet right now.
LISTEN NOW: THE MEMORY PALACE
John Vanderlyn/Panoramic view of the the Palace and Gardens of Versailles, courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of ArtA brand-new Zipper being factory tested at Chance Mfg, 1975, courtesy Ride ExtravaganzaThe WallendasKen Allen, the escape artist. Photo by Kirk Bossen/Newsweek Town Hall, Somers, NY, photo by Greg Young
Some selected episodes of the memory palace, including a couple personal favorites:
Lets start the new year with something beautiful shall we?
The latest in the Bowery Boys podcast feed — join Carl Raymond, host of The Gilded Gentleman podcast, and Lindsy Parrott of the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass at the Queens Museum, as the luxury and elegant behind the name — Tiffany.
Just the name “Tiffany” evokes the glamour and elegance of the Gilded Age. But there is much more to the story than just the eponymous retailer who continues to sell fine jewelry and decorative objects today.
In this episode, Carl is joined by Lindsy Parrott, the Executive Director of The Neustadt Collection, one of the country’s most important collections of Tiffany glass and archival materials.
Lindsy and Cal discuss the two Tiffanys — Charles Lewis Tiffany who began the original retail silver and jewelry and his son Louis Comfort Tiffany who created revolutionary designs in stained glass.
Greenwich Village is one of America’s great music capitals, an extraordinary distinction for an old neighborhood of tenements, townhouses, dive bars and a college campus.
So many musical titans of jazz, folk, pop and rock and roll got their start in the Village’s many small nightclubs and coffeehouses, working alongside artists, writers, actors and comedians to create an American cultural mecca unlike any other.
And it was here, on January 24, 1961, that a nineteen-year-old young man from Minnesota entered the fray — Robert Zimmerman, otherwise known as Bob Dylan.
The Village completely transformed the young folk singer into the voice of a generation, working out his transformation on the minuscule stages of the Gaslight, Cafe Wha? and Gerde’s Folk City.
But this show isn’t strictly about Dylan’s ascent to greatness, but the neighborhood — the people, the streets, the basements! — which cultivated artists like Dylan (and Billie Holiday and Nina Simone and Pete Seeger and Barbra Streisand and Joan Baez and so on.)
PLUS: Bob Moses and Jane Jacobs stop by for a hootenanny (and a protest)
LISTEN NOW: BOB DYLAN’S GREENWICH VILLAGE
Jones Street, today a popular place for selfies thanks to the album coverPhotography by the legendary music photographer Don HuntsteinBen’s Pizzeria on MacDougal StreetBob and Suze’s apartment on West 4th StreetThe former Gaslight and Kettle of FishStill hosting hootennanies at the Cafe Wha?
FEATURED READING
David Browne / Talkin’ Greenwich Village
Bob Dylan / Chronicles Stephen Petrus and Ronald D Cohen / Folk City: New York and the American Folk Music Revival Suze Rotolo / A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties Howard Sounes/ Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan Sean Wilentz / Bob Dylan in America
FURTHER LISTENING
Music featured on this show:
“Talkin’ New York” by Bob Dylan (from his first album for Columbia Records) Dylan Thomas reciting “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” from Dylan Thomas Reading A Child’s Christmas in Wales & Five Poems “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday (Commodore) “Little Girl Blue” by Nina Simone (Bethlehem/Verve) “A Sleepin’ Bee” by Barbra Streisand (Columbia Records) “Goodnight Irene” by the Weavers (Decca Records) “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues” by Bob Dylan “Blowin’ In The Wind” by Bob Dylan “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” by Bob Dylan “Only A Pawn In Their Game” by Bob Dylan “The Times They Are A-Changin’” by Bob Dylan
Does your personal library overwhelm your home? Are there too many books in your life — but you’ll never get rid of them? Then you have a lot in common with Gilded Age mogul J.P. Morgan!
Morgan was a defining figure of the late 19th century, engineering corporate mergers and crafting monopolies from the desk of his Wall Street office. His vast control over the steel and railroad industries paired with his connections in international banking granted him great power over American life and helped fuel the great economic disparities of the Gilded Age.
In the process Morgan became one of the wealthiest men in America — but he did not tread the traditional path through New York high society. He preferred yachts over ballrooms.
And books! For decades he collected thousands of rare books, letters, paintings and manuscripts from Gutenberg bibles to medieval illuminated tomes. So many books, in fact, that Morgan decided to start the new century with his own personal project — the construction of a library.
Morgan’s study
Today the Morgan Library and Museum is open to the public and, as an active and thriving institution, continues to highlight the world’s greatest examples of the printed word — from Charles Dickens manuscript for A Christmas Carol to past exhibitions on Beatrix Potter, James Joyce and even The Little Prince.
Tom and Greg explore the biography of J. Pierpont Morgan then head to the Morgan Library to speak with Jennifer Tonkovich, the Eugene and Clare Thaw Curator of Drawings and Prints.
And then they wander through the winding connections of buildings which comprise the Morgan Library & Museum — from Morgan’s study (and its ‘hidden’ vault of books) to the glorious main stacks, lined with triple tiers of bookcases fashioned of bronze and inlaid Circassian walnut.
LISTEN NOW: MR. MORGAN AND HIS MAGNIFICENT LIBRARY
Share your love of the city’s history with a Bowery Boys Walks gift certificate! Our digital gift cards let your loved ones choose their perfect tour and date.
1903 portrait by Fedor EnckeSaturday Globe, 1901From the vaulted room in Morgan’s studyFrom the Franz Kafka showThe tapestry of gluttony
JP Morgan Jr’s brownstone which is today a part of the whole Morgan Library complex. In fact we recorded a portion of the show from its music room!
New York Public LibraryThe music room where we recorded a portion of the show.
The Morgan Library and Museum from above. The slender garden in the middle was replaced in 2006 by a lavish hall designed by Renzo Piano.
New York Public Library
FURTHER READING
J. Pierpont Morgan’s Library: Building the Bookman’s Paradise / The Morgan Library and Museum The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, JP Morgan and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism / Susan Berfield The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance/ Ron Chernow J.P. Morgan – The Life and Deals of America’s Banker / J.R. MacGregor Morgan: American Financier / Jean Strouse
Listeners have been asking us for years about ‘gift subscriptions’ to our Patreon page, where you can find hundreds of Patreon-only audio podcasts from the Bowery Boys — including our 40+ episodes of our new series Side Streets.
Depending on the membership level, you’ll also get access to exclusive Bowery Boys merchandice, ad-free early episodes (Gilded Age level and above), early ticket announcement and other cool stuff.
Visit this pageto check out the gift options for all the membership tiers.
Here are the three most popular offerings on Patreon (however there are a couple more options as well:
The energy and personality of New York City runs through its local businesses — mom-and-pop shops, independently run stores and restaurants, often family run operations.
We live in a world of chain stores, franchises, corporate run operations and online retailers that have run many of these kinds of stores out of business. But what is New York without its diners, its small book shops, its curious antique stores and its historic delis?
These kinds of shops contribute to the health of a neighborhood. And today we’re celebrating them with Nicolas Heller, better known to his 1.4 million Instagram followers as New York Nico, “the unofficial talent scout of New York City.”
But he’s also helped lift up small businesses and even helped them survive through the pandemic and beyond.
And now Heller’s new book New York Nico’s Guide to NYC, he highlights 100 of his favorite small business from all five boroughs. So we thought we’d geek out with him for about an hour, talking about our favorite small places in the city.
FEATURING Astor Place Hairstylists, Pearl River Mart, Katz Deli, Fishs Eddy, DeFonte’s in Red Hook and many, many more
And remember to shop local this holiday season!
LISTEN NOW: NEW YORK’S CLASSIC MOM-AND-POP SHOPS
Please give a shout-out to your favorite local New York City business in the comments of this page or on social media — and tag us!
Local businesses featured in this week’s episode include:
PODCAST This episode focuses on the special relationship between New York City and Puerto Rico, via the tales of pioneros, the first migrants to make the city their home and the many hundreds of thousands who came to the city during the great migration of the 1950s and 60s.
Today there are more Puerto Ricans and people of Puerto Rican descent in New York City than in any other city in the nation — save for San Juan, Puerto Rico.
And it has been so for decades.
By the late 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans lived in New York City, but in a metropolis of deteriorating infrastructure and financial woe, they often found themselves at the lowest rung of the socio-economic ladder, in poverty-stricken neighborhoods.
Photograph shows a group of Puerto Ricans, at Newark airport, who just arrived by plane from Puerto Rico waiting to be transported to New York / 1947, World Telegram & Sun photo by Dick DeMarsica, courtesy Library of Congress
Puerto Rican poets and artists associated with the Nuyorican Movement, activated by the needs of their communities, began looking back to their origins, asking questions.
In this special episode Greg in joined by several guests to look at the stories of Puerto Ricans from the 1890s until the early 1970s. With a focus on the origin stories of New York’s great barrios — including East Harlem (El Barrio), the Lower East Side and the South Bronx.
FEATURING The origin of the Puerto Rican flag and the first bodegas in New York City!
And listen to Angel and Olga’s show — the Go Bronx podcast! Find them here or listen to these two selections below:
Isabel González. Courtesy of Belinda Torres-Mary
Victoria and Rafael Hernandez, East Harlem music revolutionaries.
Puerto Ricans demonstrate for civil rights at City Hall, New York City] 1967 / World Telegram & Sun photo by Al Ravenna. (Library of Congress)Puerto Rican Wedding, East Harlem, 1970. Vergara, Camilo J., photographer (Library of Congress)Puerto Rican family on the Lower East Side. Vergara, Camilo J., photographer (Library of Congress)
SONG CLIPS FEATURED IN THIS SHOW (AND OTHER VINTAGE GOODIES)
FURTHER READING
Almost Citizens: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Constitution and Empire / Sam Erman Borderline Citizens: The United States, Puerto Rico, and the Politics of Colonial Migration / Robert C. McGreevey From Colonia to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans in New York City / Virginia E. Sanchez Korrol Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America / Juan Gonzalez Hispanic New York: A Sourcebook / Edited by Claudio Ivan Remeseira How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States / Daniel Immerwahr Latinos in New York: Communities in Transition / Edited by Sherrie Baver, Angelo Falcon and Gabriel Haslip-Viera Loisaida as Urban Laboratory: Puerto Rican Community Activism in New York / Timo Schrader My Music Is My Flag: Puerto Rican Musicians and Their New York Communities 1917-1940 / Ruth Glasser Pioneros: Puerto Ricans in New York City 1892-1948 / Felix V. Matos-Rodriguez Puerto Rican Citizen: History and Political Identity in Twentieth-Century New York City / Lorrin Thomas Racial Migrations: New York City and the Revolutionary Politics of the Spanish Caribbean / Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof
FURTHER LISTENING
After listening to this week’s episode on the Great Puerto Rican Migration, dive back into past episodes which intersect with his story.
A celebration for the Apollo 11 astronauts, August 13, 1969. Courtesy NASA/BIll Taub photographer
In 1886, during a miles-long parade celebrating the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, office workers in lower Manhattan began heaving ticker tape out the windows, creating a magical, blizzard-like landscape.
That tradition stuck. Today that particular corridor of Broadway — connecting Battery Park to City Hall — is known as the “Canyon of Heroes” thanks to the popularity of the ticker-tape parade.
Ticker tape parade on Broadway for presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon, 1960 (Library of Congress)
While many cities with skyscrapers host ticker-tape parades today, New York was the place they originated in the late 19th century and for a very obvious reason — the ticker-tape itself, a byproduct of the Financial District which revolutionized the way stocks were traded.
New York has regularly honored athletes, politicians, pilots, kings and queens, astronauts and generals with ticker-tape parades for over 125 years. Today, they’re best known as a way to celebrate New York sports teams, the winners of the World Series, the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup.
Charles A. Lindbergh renjoying his tickertape parade up Broadway,, June 13, 1927. Courtesy Smithsonian Institute
The story of the ticker-tape parade is also a story of modern American history in capsule form, celebrating technological achievements, victories in war, cultural milestones and international unity.
Greg and Tom are back in the studio to give you a rundown of New York’s greatest parades. And they also pay tribute to those other local heroes — the Department of Sanitation who cleans up after these festive but messy celebrations.
LISTEN NOW: THE TICKER-TAPE PARADE
The ticker tape unfurling for the Statue of Liberty 1886 (Getty Images)
On January 1, 1898, Greater New York was formed from the union of two cities – New York and Brooklyn, along with other towns and villages of the region, creating the five boroughs we know and love today.
But each of those five boroughs brings their own unique histories and personalities. And so for this year’s annual Bowery Boys Halloween Special, we thought we’d give each borough the spotlight – or rather the spooklight – to highlight the city’s haunted landscape, from rural escapes to densely populated urban centers.
And a special treat — every single one of these ghost stories was sourced from actual newspaper and magazine reporting of their respective eras. Journalists on a ghost beat, finding ghostly activity in every corner of the city.
courtesy the Bronx Zoo
The Bronx: The Reptile House at the Bronx Zoo doesn’t seem like a haunted house, but when a sudden ghost whistling disturbs both man and beast alike, zoo directors call a meeting …. and a medium.
Courtesy Brooklyn Public Library Digital
Brooklyn: When a former hospital in Flatbush converts into a luxury apartment tower, horrifying poltergeists stop by to spook the new tenants. Is it all a ruse — or something more sinister?
Manhattan: The Russian mystic Madame Blavatsky attempts to divine the identity of a spooky ghost orb along the East River waterfront. Is it the apparition of the beloved watchman Old Shep?
Queens: The 19th-century town of Flushing seemed overflowing with ghost stories! But none more notorious than the sight of three sword-wielding spirits at the Old Meeting House, the 17th-century house of worship with a few secrets under its foundations.
Photo by Tom Wrobleski/SI Advance
Staten Island: A tombstone-nabbing ghoul at the Old Clove Cemetery in Concord decides to ride a trolley.
LISTEN: GHOST STORIES OF THE FIVE BOROUGHS
Our LIVE edition of the Bowery Boys Ghost Stories of Old New York comes to Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater again this Oct 29, 30 and 31. Get your tickets today! Some performances have already sold out. Visit the Joe’s Pub website to get your seats.
FURTHER LISTENING:
“Ghost Stories of the Five Boroughs” is the 18th edition of the Bwoery Boys Halloween special. The first was recorded in October 2007! To listen to the entire series, visit our Gotham’s Greatest Ghosts home page.
But this episode references history that we’ve spoken about in many past podcasts. Take a break from the scary stories to dive into these episodes on New York City history:
New York Times, August 21, 1921New York TImes, March 21, 1878New York Times, January 2, 1885NYT, March 22, 1878The Old Flushing Meeting House and its burial ground, courtesy Library of CongressThe meeting house in 2024, from the streetBrooklyn Daily Eagle, April 20, 1884Brooklyn Daily Times, Feb 15, 1888Bronx Zoo Reptile House, courtesy NYPL
