celebwatch 2005!

Jason Bateman at 1st and 1st (the nexus of the universe).

Dramatic Television

400

It's a centennially historical season here in New York. For those of us who enjoy refried beans, last Friday was the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Queensboro Bridge. But for all of New York, this year marks a special historical occasion: the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage from the Netherlands. Today is the 400th anniversary of the day he left from Amsterdam.

Here's a photo I took a couple of years ago of the spot from which the Half Moon disembarked. The plaque on the left reads:

From this ancient “Tower of Trade” Erected 1442(?) A.D. HENRY HUDSON set sail April 4th 1609 A.D. on the vessel “Half Moon” on that voyage of discovery destined to bring him to the harbor of New York and the Hudson River; This memorial erected September 1927 by The Greenwich Village Historical Society of New York City, U.S.A., Catherine Parker Olivette, Founder.

On the very bottom is the name of the sculptor which I can't quite make out, even with a magnifying glass and a copy of the actual photograph (Samuel Jameson Heinemann?). The plaque on the right is 50 years old today:

Presented to the City of Amsterdam on the 350th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage to North America by the Port of New York Authority, April 4th, 1959

Robert B. Meyner,
Governor, State of New Jersey

Nelson A. Rockefeller
Governor, State of New York

Under that there's the list of PA commissioners from New York and New Jersey, whose names are far too small to make out in my picture. Interestingly, at first I thought the plaque said 300th anniversary, but I couldn't figure out who the names could be; they weren't the name of New York's mayor in 1909 (George B. McLellan) or the Governor (Charles Evans Hughes). I kept looking at it, eventually realizing that the name on the right could be Nelson Rockefeller. Sure enough, Rockefeller's governorship started in January of 1959, right before the 50th anniversary, and the governor of Jersey at the time's name could then easily be recognized.

As a lot of really smart people have noted, the fact that New York (or rather, New Amsterdam) was founded by the Dutch and not the English is the basis for much of what makes it a special place. While other places where founded on ideas of religious liberty, New York is where religious liberty actually happened. While other colonials came to the new world to find the freedom to practice their own religion, it was often at the expense of practicing others; the Dutch, on the other hand, came to make money. As a result, they didn't really care what religion you were, as long as you helped 'em make money. During his governorship, Peter Stuyvesant actually tried a few times to restrict religious practices, but it seems as if he was always rebuffed by his Dutch masters. One of those instances involved admitting the first Jews into the city; another would lead to the Flushing Remonstrance, referred to in the Encyclopedia of New York City as “The first Declaration of Independence.”