400 years of a city bought, renamed, and re-founded — from Lenapehoking and New Amsterdam to the 1969 campaign to make the five boroughs the 51st state. Every claim checked. Every source cited.
All eight episodes, cut into one continuous documentary — the purchase myth, the beaver crash, the bloodless takeover, the birthday edit, and the 51st state.
1613 — Juan Rodriguez winters on Manhattan, trading for the Dutch. The island's first documented non-Native resident.
1626 — Peter Minuit's famous purchase. The real letter, the real price, and why the beads story is a 19th-century embellishment.
Wampum economics: how metal tools, shell beads and a fur boom trapped out the beavers — and left the Lenape dependent.
Breukelen, Haarlem, the Bowery, Coney Island — the Dutch street map that survived the flag.
September 8, 1664 — four frigates, a stubborn governor, and the surrender that renamed a city.
1969 — Mailer and Breslin run for City Hall on city statehood. Cars banned, monorails built, Sundays gone sweet.
1975 & 1977 — two local laws changed the seal's date from 1664 to 1625. An aide's memo: 'I find no basis for 1625.'
The source document itself — ZIP codes, admiralty courts, and a city 're-established' in 1977? The claims, examined.
The original exhibit wove real history together with legal theories about ZIP codes, seals and cityhood. This edition keeps every word — and tests every claim against the record: 79 cited sources, corrections logged, contested theories documented with their court treatment.
27 illustrated pages — the full exhibit with corrections, sidebars, the 1969 election table, and the complete source ledger.
Download PDF ↗The same edition in editable form for researchers and educators.
Download DOCX ↗Four research briefs behind the corrections — verbatim evidence quotes for all 79 sources.
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Questions, corrections, research leads, or screening requests — we read everything.