On May 16, 1691, in a drizzling rain, two middle-aged men climbed gallows erected at present-day One Pace Plaza near the Manhattan entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. Before the largest crowd yet gathered in the small city of 5,000 inhabitants, Jacob Leisler and his newly wed son-in-law, Jacob Milborne, were hung until half-dead then beheaded. Their alleged crimes were “levying war” against King William and Queen Mary, counterfeiting their Majesties’ great seal, murdering one Josiah Browne, and “other high misdemeanors.” The executions traumatized the onlookers. The “shrieks of the people were dreadful, some were carried away lifeless, and some rushing forwards, almost ere the life of their beloved ruler was extinct.” The political repercussions reverberated throughout New York’s colonial period and still echo today. Historians focus on Jacob Leisler as the central figure of the turmoil. Yet, the events that came to be known as “Leisler’s Rebellion” were a result of broader international and local circumstances.
Revolutionary New York
Saturday, July 4, 2026, will mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Since then, Philadelphia, and to a similar degree, Boston, have woven their roles as centers of the American Revolution into a strong civic identity. In contrast, New York City has preferred to look forward and downplay its history during that tumultuous period. However, the fact is that New York City played a decisive role in the formation of a new country. This week, For the Record tells the story of New York during the Revolution.
“My World Stopped”: Joan Nestle Thanks Mayor Mamdani
“As we celebrate Pride, we also celebrate all those who came before us, the power they built, the sacrifices they made, the first steps they took when a day like today never seemed possible.” Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani spoke these words to hundreds of community members on June 9th, 2026, at his first ever Pride event. Whereas recent June community celebratory events have been held at Gracie Mansion, such as the Puerto Rican celebration or Juneteenth, the Pride Event was held in the Surrogate’s Courthouse, 31 Chambers street, also home and headquarters to the Department of Records and Information Services, which houses the Municipal Library and Municipal Archives. Aptly aligned, his speech included a focus on the significance of the archival imprints that the queer community has insisted permeates across generations through decades of community archiving.
Juneteenth
Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. The date marks June 19, 1865, when the last enslaved people in Texas were freed by the Union Army under the Emancipation Proclamation. However, it was not until the following December, when the 13th Amendment was ratified, that all enslaved people in the United States were freed.
For 200 years, from 1627 (when the Dutch West India Company warship Bruynvisch arrived in Manhattan carrying 22 enslaved Africans), until 1827, slavery was very much a fact of life in New York. By the 1790s, New York City’s population of enslaved people was second only to Charleston, South Carolina. New York had the largest number of enslaved people of any state in the North and was the second-to-last to abolish slavery (New Jersey was the last state). Even after 1827, when slavery ended in New York, free Blacks were not safe on its streets. Runaways from the south and even free Black New Yorkers could be kidnapped by marshals and sent to a slave state using the Fugitive Slave Clause as cover.
The Knicks!
New Yorkers have been on a roller coaster ride with the New York Knicks in their bid for the NBA championship. This prompted research in Municipal Library and Archives collections for Knicks-related information, memorabilia, and photographs.
Last week, For the Record informed readers that “Father Knickerbocker” dribbling a basketball was the team logo from 1946 to 1964, and told the story of who was the real Father Knickerbocker.
Research in the collections also yielded ten historical images that featured the team stars of an earlier era. This week, For the Record posts the press release DORIS issued on Wednesday promoting the archival photographs and the opportunity to purchase copies from the Municipal Archives, or postcard versions of the pictures that are available in the CityStore.
The “Real” Father Knickerbocker
If you are a Knicks fan you might know that the original and still official corporate name of the basketball team is the New York Knickerbockers. You might even know that “Father Knickerbocker” dribbling a basketball was the team logo from 1946 to 1964. But who was the real Father Knickerbocker?
Herman Knickerbocker was from an old Dutch New York family. As a young lawyer, he befriended the struggling writer Washington Irving. In 1809, Irving pulled off the 19th Century equivalent of a viral media stunt. Borrowing the name of his friend, he placed several missing persons advertisements in New York newspapers saying he was looking for Diedrick Knickerbocker, whom he described as a Dutch historian missing from a Manhattan hotel. Posing as the hotel proprietor he said Knickerbocker had left behind a manuscript, which he would publish if the man did not come forward. The story of the missing historian created a buzz. On December 6, 1809, Irving published A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty by Diedrich Knickerbocker. The book was a satirical look at the history and politics of New York and America, and it was an instant success.