Polish refugees

Refugees Have Always Made Americans Nervous

What happens when a big stream of refugees enters an American community, bringing their foreign customs and values and taking scarce jobs?
Welikia Manhattan map

What Did Manhattan Look Like in 1609?

The Welikia Project recreates a lost vision of Manhattan, one composed of marshes and forest surrounded by wide, meandering rivers.
Delmonico's dinner, 1906

The Evolution of the New York Restaurant Scene

In colonial America, restaurants as we know them today were virtually unheard of.
42nd Street 1980s

Is There Really a Link between Mental Illness and Homelessness?

"Housing first” programs are helping cut homelessness in big ways. How significant is the link between mental illness and homelessness?
New York Dada

What Did Fashion Magazines Have To Do With Dada?

When you think of Dada, do you think of Europe? If so, you’re missing one of its hotbeds—New York.
Egg Cream

The Egg Cream Mob

What's in an egg cream? No eggs. No cream. And a dose of mafia history.
Black and white engraving of Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman the… Politician?

Before Walt Whitman was a famous poet, he was a scandalous poet, but before even all that he was in the thick of local and national politics.
The Fulton Street subway station

The Psychology of Copycat Crime

A recent wave of subway slashings in New York City is an opportunity to examine the criminology and sociology behind copycat crime.

How the March Blizzard of 1888 Challenged New Yorkers’ Self-Perceptions

Winter's not over quite yet. The great Blizzard of 1888 was in March.
The Statue of Liberty.

The Poem at the Foot of Lady Liberty

Emma Lazarus's famous poem welcoming refugees to America was written during a period of nativist backlash against immigrants.