SEAL AND FLAG 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CITY OF NEW YORK 
 1665- 1915
 
 **2v 

 
 Seal of The City of New York j 
 1915
 
 SEAL AND FLAG 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 AUTHORIZED BY THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED 
 BY THE MAYOR TO COMMEMORATE THE TWO 
 HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF 
 THE INSTALLATION OF THE FIRST MAYOR AND 
 BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF NEW 
 YORK ON JUNE 24. 1665. AND THE ADOPTION 
 OF THE OFFICIAL CITY FLAG ON JUNE 24. 1915 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 JOHN B. PINE, L.H.D. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 NEW YORK LONDON 
 
 {Xbe •Knickerbocker Press 
 
 1915 
 
 Jf
 
 Copyright, 1915 
 
 BY 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 TEbe fmlcfeerbocfeer press, Hew HBorft
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The flag which has recently been adopted by 
 The City of New York as its official emblem, com- 
 bining the colors of the United Netherlands, under 
 which the city was settled, with the design of the 
 municipal seal, under which English authority 
 replaced the Dutch, tells the story of the origin 
 and early history of the city. Founded by the 
 Dutch in 1626, as "New Amsterdam," it was re- 
 named "New York" in 1664, and a year later, 
 on June 24, 1665, the municipal government was 
 formally transferred to the Mayor and Board 
 of Aldermen of The City of New York, as suc- 
 cessors in office of the Burgomasters and Schepens 
 of the City of New Amsterdam. 
 
 To commemorate the two hundred and fiftieth 
 anniversary of this event and to recall the asso- 
 ciations which give historical significance to the 
 corporate seal (now happily restored to its original
 
 IV 
 
 Preface 
 
 design), and to the flag of orange, white and blue, 
 under which civil government was established on 
 the Island of Manhattan, the Anniversary Com- 
 mittee appointed by the Mayor have authorized 
 the publication of this volume. 
 
 J. B. P. 
 June 24, 1915.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. — The transition from Dutch to 
 English government in the City of 
 New York, by Victor Hugo Paltsits i 
 
 II. — The history of the Seal and Flag, 
 
 by E. Hagaman Hall ... 22 
 
 III. — Report of a Committee of the Art 
 
 Commission Associates ... 68 
 
 IV. — Resolutions of the Art Commission . 77 
 
 V. — The meaning of the Seal and Flag, 
 
 by John B. Pine .... 79 
 
 VI. — Proceedings of the Board of Alder- 
 men 86 
 
 VII. — The Code of Ordinances of the City 
 of New York, Chapter I, Article 
 2, relating to the City Seal, 
 the official City Flag, and the 
 Mayor's Flag .... 95 
 
 List of Members of the Anniversary 
 Committee . . . . .101
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PLATE FACING 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Seal of the City, 1915 Frontispiece 
 
 I. Arms of the City of Amsterdam, 1578 
 
 Seal of New Amsterdam, 1654 . 4 
 
 II. Seal of New Netherland, 1623 
 
 Seal of the Province of New 
 York, 1669 .... 22 
 
 III. Seal of the City of New York, 1686 
 
 Seal of the City of New York, 
 1686 38 
 
 IV. Seal of the City of New York, 1784 
 
 Seal of the Mayoralty, 1784 . 58 
 
 V. Official Flag of the City, 1915 . 79 
 
 VI. Tablet in Commemoration of the 
 
 250TH Anniversary . . .102 
 
 vu
 
 SEAL AND FLAG 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 THE TRANSITION FROM DUTCH TO 
 
 ENGLISH GOVERNMENT IN THE 
 
 CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 By Victor Hugo Paltsits 
 Former State Historian of New York 
 
 In so far as historical records inform us, Henry- 
 Hudson and his motley crew were the first Euro- 
 peans who, on September 12, 1609, looked upon 
 the beautiful island of Manhattan, the mother of 
 the greater city of New York. This discovery 
 by the venturesome commander of the ship 
 "de Halve Maen" (Half Moon) was accidental. 
 Hudson's contract required him to search "for 
 a passage by the North, around by the North
 
 2 Henry Hudson 
 
 side of Nova Zembla" and to "continue thus 
 along that parallel" until he should "be able to 
 sail Southward to the latitude of sixty degrees." 
 He was enjoined from going along any other routes 
 or passages than these and actually endeavored 
 to carry out his commission. Meeting with dan- 
 gerous icebergs and subjected to extreme suffering 
 from fogs and snow-storms in the region of the 
 North Cape of Norway, dissensions arose among 
 his crew which determined him, "contrary to his 
 instructions," to change his operations to America, 
 either in forty degrees north latitude or to search 
 for a northwest passage through Davis Strait. 
 
 Hudson's voyage was followed in a desultory 
 manner by Dutch skippers from 1610 to 161 4, 
 and after the latter year several ships came over 
 under exclusive privileges granted to the United 
 New Netherland Company, a trading corporation, 
 whose privileges expired in 161 8. A few detached 
 voyages were made subsequently. In 1621, the 
 newly-organized Dutch West India Company was 
 granted a monopoly in supersession of all others 
 in America. Its objects were the weakening of 
 Spain by war and by commercial repression. It
 
 Peter Minuit 3 
 
 was this Company which sent out the first colon- 
 ists, who settled in 1624 where the city of Albany 
 now stands. Other settlers went to the same place 
 in 1625. On May 4, 1626, Peter Minuit arrived 
 in New Netherland — as the whole country was 
 called; began the first settlement of Manhattan 
 Island at its southern extremity, and laid the 
 foundations of New Amsterdam. During the 
 summer of this year Director-General Minuit 
 effected the purchase of Manhattan Island from 
 the Indians by giving them trinkets valued at 
 sixty guilders, or twenty-four dollars. Of course, 
 Minuit had brought over with him a number of 
 colonists and servants of the West India Company. 
 He soon began to concentrate in the new settle- 
 ment men, women, and children from the prior 
 posts. In 1628, the population of Manhattan 
 consisted of only two hundred and seventy souls. 
 Now, the West India Company had reserved to 
 itself the complete jurisdiction of Manhattan 
 Island. Other parts of the Dutch province could 
 be granted to patroons or large land owners; but 
 not so with respect to Manhattan Island. The 
 Company reserved its rights there inviolably.
 
 4 New Amsterdam 
 
 This we know from the Company's "Charter of 
 Freedoms and Exemptions," of June 7, 1629. 
 That charter was designed to encourage coloniza- 
 tion, and the peopling of the island of Manhattan 
 was its principal concern. The island was made 
 the staple port of all products and wares. This 
 meant that the trading ships were to unload at 
 New Amsterdam or pay certain duties there for 
 the benefit of the Company. 
 
 For more than a quarter of a century there was 
 nothing like a corporate government in the settle- 
 ment of New Amsterdam. Its laws were made 
 and administered by a Director-General and 
 Council, with the consent of the Directors at 
 Amsterdam, who together were supreme in every- 
 thing affecting the life and business of the people. 
 This autocratic system began to annoy the com- 
 monalty and, in 1649, the resentment took form in 
 a remonstrance to the States General of the Nether- 
 lands, in which the grievances of the people were 
 set forth at length. No one who has read the 
 records of the time can doubt the justification 
 of the complaints of the people of New Nether- 
 land. The government was rigorous and at times
 
 PLATE I 
 
 Arms of the City of Amsterdam 
 
 1578 
 
 Seal of the City of New Amsterdam 
 1654
 
 Municipal Government 5 
 
 contemptible. The States General had to con- 
 sider this firm protest, supported as it was by 
 strong men and the sympathy of the inhabitants, 
 yet there was a good deal of backing and filling 
 in its deliberations. On April 11, 1650, a report 
 was made by a committee of the States General, 
 entitled, a "Provisional Order respecting the 
 Government, Preservation and Peopling of New 
 Netherland," which was designed to meet the 
 complaint of the commonalty by a removal of 
 the causes that had so greatly disturbed the con- 
 duct of affairs in the province oversea. Among 
 other things, it recommended that there be granted 
 "within the city of New Amsterdam a municipal 
 government, consisting of one Sheriff (schout), two 
 Burgomasters and five Schepens," .and that the 
 Board of Nine Men, a limited representative body, 
 should, in the meantime, "continue three years 
 longer and have jurisdiction over small causes 
 arising between Man and Man, to adjudicate 
 definitely on suits not exceeding the sum of fifty 
 guilders [$20] and on higher amounts under privi- 
 lege of appeal . ' ' This was the foundation on which 
 the municipal concessions of 1653 were built.
 
 6 Peter Stuyvesant 
 
 The year 1653 was the banner year of New 
 Amsterdam during the Dutch occupancy. It has 
 already been observed that hitherto its govern- 
 ment was coordinate with that of the province. 
 On April 4, 1652, the Directors of the Amsterdam 
 Chamber of the West India Company informed 
 Director-General Peter Stuyvesant and his Coun- 
 cil that a municipal form of government had been 
 granted to New Amsterdam. It took some time 
 for this communication to arrive from Holland and 
 its immediate execution was delayed. On Febru- 
 ary 2, 1653, Stuyvesant and the council proclaimed 
 the form of municipal government by a set of 
 instructions. Strictly speaking, this instrument 
 was not a charter; but it was embryonic of charter 
 rights. It derived its authority from "the Direc- 
 tors of the Chartered West India Company of 
 the Chamber of Amsterdam, Lords and Patroons" 
 of New Netherland. It originated "a bench of 
 justice" in New Amsterdam, "to be framed, as 
 far as possible and as the situation of the country" 
 permitted, "after the laudable customs of the city 
 of Amsterdam, which gave her name to this first 
 commenced town"; but all sentences in this in-
 
 City Officials 7 
 
 ferior city court were to "remain revocable and 
 appealable to the director-general and council, in 
 order to be definitely determined by them." It 
 named a bench of two burgomasters and five 
 schepens who now and hereafter were to be sworn 
 in on the 2d of February (Candlemas Day) of 
 each year, save that when that day fell on a Sun- 
 day an alteration was to be made. A certain 
 number of the officials were to be changed yearly 
 and others put in their places. This was done so 
 that those who continued in office could inform 
 the new members of the former transactions of 
 the court. The jurisdiction of the court was 
 limited to the regions lying between the North 
 and East Rivers, south of the Fresh Water, which 
 was an irregular stream south of Canal Street. 
 The instructions conferred upon the burgomasters 
 absolute authority to nominate administrative 
 officials, but subject to election and confirmation 
 by the Director-General. The office of schout or 
 prosecutor was filled by the provincial fiscal and 
 not till 1660 did the city secure a grant of an 
 independent schout. 
 
 During the entire Dutch regime after 1653, the
 
 8 Grant of Charles II. 
 
 city fathers were engaged in periodical conflict 
 with the provincial government and in registering 
 protests to the Directors at Amsterdam against 
 the limitations of their authority and the rights 
 of the commonalty. These protests, whilst arous- 
 ing resentment in Stuyvesant and rejoinders from 
 the Directors at Amsterdam, helped to wrest from 
 both concessions that were welcomed by the city. 
 On March 12/22, 1664, * King Charles II. 
 granted to his brother James, the Duke of York, 
 a part of Maine, all of Long Island, Martha's 
 Vineyard, Nantucket, 
 
 "and all the land from the west side of Con- 
 nectecutte River to the East side of De la Ware 
 Bay," giving to him "his heires and Assignes and 
 to all and every such Governor or Governors 
 
 1 Double dates are given in the months of the years 1664 and 
 1665 in order to avoid confusion and error. The English dated 
 their records according to the Julian calendar, which had its 
 origin in the time of Julius Caesar, and is known as "old style," 
 to distinguish it from the Gregorian calendar, known as "new 
 style," and which was a reform in the reckoning of time that 
 was instituted in Roman Catholic countries or countries under 
 their influence, in February, 1582. The Dutch had adopted the 
 Gregorian system, whilst among the English it was not pro- 
 mulgated before September, 1752. In the seventeenth century 
 therefore, a difference exists of ten days. Most of the Christian 
 countries follow the Gregorian system, except Russia and Greece. 
 The latest date is the modern equivalent.
 
 Grant of Charles II. 9 
 
 or other Officers or Ministers as by our said 
 Brother his heires or Assignes shall bee appointed 
 to have power and Authority of Governement 
 and Commaund in or over the Inhabitants of the 
 said Territories or Islands that they and every 
 one of them shall and lawfully may from tyme to 
 tyme and att all tymes hereafter for ever for 
 their severall defence and safety encounter 
 expulse repell and resist by force of Armes as 
 well by Sea as by land and all wayes and meanes 
 whatsoever all such Person and Persons as with- 
 out the special Lycence of our said deare Brother 
 his heires or Assignes shall attempt to inhabite 
 within the several Precincts and Lymitts of our 
 said Territories and Islands." 
 
 This grandiloquent grant disregarded the rights 
 of the Dutch over New Netherland, with whom 
 England was then at peace, and showed disrespect 
 for the charters of Massachusetts and Connecti- 
 cut, as well as ignored grants that had been 
 made to certain individuals in Maine and on 
 Long Island. 
 
 Under the leadership of one John Scott, "the 
 usurper," the English towns on Long Island re- 
 volted early in this year and "divers threats" 
 were heard of ill designs against New Amsterdam.
 
 io The Duke of York 
 
 A general provincial assembly or "landtdag" 
 was held at New Amsterdam to debate the state 
 of affairs and consider means of defense. While 
 these things were transpiring, the Duke of York 
 as Lord High Admiral of England, began to or- 
 ganize an expedition to put his patent in opera- 
 tion. A fleet of four war-ships was assembled 
 under the command of Col. Richard Nicolls, who 
 was appointed to be deputy governor of the Duke 
 of York's territories. With Nicolls were associated 
 as royal commissioners, Sir Robert Carr, Col. 
 George Cartwright and Samuel Maverick, to 
 secure the assistance of the New Englanders in 
 the reduction of the Dutch of New Netherland. 
 Information of the English designs was known in 
 Boston as early as May 18/28 and was communi- 
 cated to Stuyvesant by Captain Thomas Willett 
 on June 28th/July 8th. The burgomasters and 
 schepens at once resolved to put the city in a state 
 of defense. On July 25th/ August 4th, Stuyvesant 
 wrote to the Directors at Amsterdam that, owing 
 to constant rumors of an English invasion, his 
 government was "very circumspect, anxious and 
 watchful." He said:
 
 Military Defense n 
 
 "We keep the military force under our com- 
 mand as close together as possible, heighten the 
 walls of our fort, strengthen it with gabions and 
 make all arrangements for defense. It is not 
 our least anxiety, that we have so little powder 
 and lead on hand, there being only 2500 lbs in 
 the magazine and besides that not over 500 lbs 
 among the militia and inhabitants here and at 
 Fort Orange [Albany], as we are informed. You 
 can easily judge, that this supply will not last 
 long, for it is not more than two pounds of pow- 
 der for each man able to bear arms and then we 
 have nothing left for our artillery, if we have 
 to sustain an attack." 
 
 Reinforcements of ammunition and men were 
 drawn upon from other places in the province. 
 On August 18/28, the English squadron cast 
 anchor at Nyack Bay, below the Narrows, be- 
 tween New Utrecht and Coney Island. This 
 created a virtual blockade of the port and en- 
 abled the English to commit depredations on 
 shipping and at Staten Island. Stuyvesant who 
 had gone to Fort Orange was urged to return and 
 reached New Amsterdam on August 15/25, and 
 four days later despatched bearers to Col. Nicolls 
 to "desire and entreate" him concerning the
 
 12 Surrender Demanded 
 
 "meaning of their approach and continuing in 
 the Harbour . . . without giving any notice . . . 
 or first acquainting us w th their designe." This 
 was of course merely the language of an evasive 
 diplomacy. Nicolls replied on the following day 
 by a peremptory summons, requiring "a Surrender 
 of all such Forts, Townes, or places of strength," 
 which were "now possessed by the Dutch," and 
 expected an immediate answer at the hands of 
 the English deputies who had conveyed his mes- 
 sage. On August 22/September 1, Stuyvesant 
 wrote to the Directors at Amsterdam a letter in 
 which he told of the arrival of the English fleet, 
 said that Long Island was lost, New Amsterdam 
 was summoned to surrender, popular murmurs 
 and disaffection existed, and the loss of the country 
 was certain. Besides the depleted ammunition 
 there was a scarcity of grain. The bakers of the 
 city estimated that their united stock amounted 
 to only 975 skepels. On August 26/September 5, 
 Stuyvesant consented to treat with the invaders 
 and on the same day Nicolls accepted the proposal 
 for a treaty of surrender in order "to prevent the 
 effusion of blood, and to improve the good of the
 
 Articles of Surrender 13 
 
 Inhabitants." The articles of surrender were ar- 
 ranged by the joint Dutch and English commis- 
 sioners at Stuyvesant's "bouwery" or farmhouse 
 at eight o'clock in the morning of August 27/ 
 September 6, and promised the inhabitants who 
 wished to remain "liberty of their Consciences in 
 Divine Worship and Church Discipline." The 
 Dutch were also to "Enjoy their owne Customes, 
 concerning their Inheritances. ' ' This secured their 
 property rights. Article 16 provided, as follows: 
 
 "All inferior civill Officers and Magistrates 
 shall continue as now they are (if they please) 
 till the Customary time of New Eleccon, and 
 the new ones to be Chosen, by themselves, 
 provided that such new Chosen Magistrates 
 shall take the Oath of Allegiance to his Majesty 
 of England, before they enter upon their Office." 
 
 On August 29/September 8, the fort and town were 
 formally surrendered to Nicolls and on the same 
 day the city was named New York. This name 
 extended itself to the entire province, and Fort 
 Orange was named Albany in honor of another of 
 the titles of the proprietor. 
 
 On September 6/16, the burgomasters and
 
 14 Name of New York 
 
 schepens decided to apprise the Directors of the 
 West India Company at Amsterdam of what had 
 transpired. It had all happened, they said, 
 "through God's pleasure thus unexpectedly," on 
 account of the Company's "neglect and forget- 
 fulness " of its promises. On the same day we find 
 the earliest recognition of the name New York in 
 the records of the city court. Fort New Amster- 
 dam was renamed Fort James, after the Duke of 
 York. Perhaps the earliest use of this designa- 
 tion is found in a warrant of September 8/18. 
 On October 18/28 the oath of allegiance was pro- 
 claimed by Governor Nicolls, namely, to be "a 
 true subject to the king of Great Britain;" to be 
 obedient to the king, to the Duke of York, and to 
 such governors and officers as were appointed by 
 such authority. Objections arose to the taking 
 of this oath and during the squabble that ensued 
 Nicolls "finally departed with his secretary from 
 the meeting," and the meeting was adjourned. 
 Nicolls sought by explanation to allay the fears 
 of the Dutch. Two days later a general meeting 
 was again assembled and the matter was settled 
 amicably.
 
 The City Court 15 
 
 The burgomasters and schepens, having taken 
 the oath, continued in office. Pieter Tonneman, 
 the city schout, however, asked to be relieved from 
 his post in order to return to Holland. He was 
 succeeded by Allard Anthony on November 22/ 
 December 2, but continued to sit with the city 
 court until November 29/December 9, when he 
 communicated "in writing his retirement from 
 the Bench." 
 
 On November 24/December 4, the city fathers 
 approved a letter written by their president to 
 the Duke of York, in which they promised obedi- 
 ence and said they deemed themselves fortunate 
 that the Duke had provided them "with so gentle, 
 wise and intelligent a gentleman" for governor 
 as Col. Richard Nicolls, and that they were con- 
 fident "that under the wings of this valiant 
 gentleman" the city would "bloom and grow like 
 the Cedar on Lebanon." 
 
 The members of the city court before the sur- 
 render were, Pieter Tonneman, schout; Paulus 
 Leendertsen vander Grift and Cornells Steenwyck, 
 burgomasters; and Jacob Backer, Timotheus 
 Gabry, Isaac Grevenraet, Nicolaes de Meyer and
 
 1 6 Oath of Allegiance 
 
 Christoffel Hooghlant, schepens. By the six- 
 teenth article of capitulation, they were continued 
 in office, save that Tonneman resigned, as we 
 have seen, and Hooghlant did not sit after July. 
 That article stipulated that they should also 
 thereafter name and elect their successors. Under 
 the Dutch regime, they had been allowed only 
 to nominate a double number, whilst final selec- 
 tion, election and confirmation were reserved 
 by the director-general and council. On February 
 2, 1665 (old style), they proceeded according to 
 the new agreement and "elected and confirmed" 
 a new city court bench. This done, they sub- 
 mitted their action to Governor Nicolls, to learn 
 "if he had any objection to these persons." He 
 had not, and the board proclaimed the new bench 
 to the commonalty of the city at the City Hall; 
 whereupon the new members took the oath of 
 allegiance to English authority. The city bench 
 now consisted of Allard Anthony, continued as 
 sellout; Cornells Steenwyck, continued and ad- 
 vanced to presiding burgomaster; Oloff Stevensen 
 van Cortlandt, second burgomaster; Timotheus 
 Gabry, president of the schepens, and Joannes
 
 Change of Government 17 
 
 van Brugh, Joannes de Peyster, Jacob Kip and 
 Jacques Cousseau, new schepens. They con- 
 tinued in office until the form of government was 
 changed in June. 
 
 At a session of the schout, burgomasters and 
 schepens on June 13/23, 1665, Governor Nicolls 
 appeared in their midst and had the clerk of 
 Matthias Nicolls, the provincial secretary, read 
 the order signed by the governor on the previous 
 day, for the "Revocacon of y e Forme of Govern- 
 ment of New Yorke," as follows: 
 
 "Upon mature deliberacon and advice, I have 
 thought it necessary to Revoke and discharge, 
 And by these p'sents in his Ma"" name, do 
 Revoke and discharge the Forme and Ceremony 
 of Government, of this his Ma"" Towne of New 
 Yorke, under the name or Names, Style or 
 Styles, of Scout [sic] Burgomasters and Sche- 
 pens; As also, that for y e future Administracon 
 of Justice, by the Lawes Establish 't in these 
 the Territoryes of his Royall Highnesse, wherein 
 the welfares of all the Inhabitants and the Pre- 
 servacon of all their due Rights and Priviledges, 
 Graunted by the Articles of this Towne upon 
 Surrender under his Ma"" obedience, are 
 concluded; I do further declare, That by a 
 Particular Commission, Such Persons shall be
 
 18 Mayor and Aldermen 
 
 Authorized to putt the Lawes in Execucon, 
 in whose Abilityes, Prudence and good affec- 
 tion to his Ma"' 8 Service, and y e Peace and 
 happynesse of this Governm 4 , I have especiall 
 reason to put confidence, which Persons so 
 Constituted and appointed, shall bee knowne 
 and Call'd by y e Name and Style of Mayor, 
 Aldermen and Sheriffe, according to the Cus- 
 tome of England in other his Ma"" Corporacons. " 
 
 On the same day, June 12/22, Governor Nicolls 
 had appointed by commissions, for one year, 
 Thomas Willett to be Mayor; Thomas Delavall, 
 Oloff Stevensen van Cortlandt, Joannes van 
 Brugh, Cornells van Ruyven and John Laurence, 
 as aldermen ; and Allard Anthony, as sheriff, 
 
 "Giving and Granting, to them the said 
 Mayor and Aldermen, or any foure of them, 
 whereof the said Mayor or his Deputy, shall be 
 alwayes one, and upon equall Division of voyces, 
 to have alwayes the Casting and Desisive voyce, 
 full Power and Authority, to Rule and Governe 
 as well all the Inhabitants of this Corporacon, 
 as any Strangers, according to the General 
 Lawes of this Government, and such Peculiar 
 Lawes as are, or shall bee thought convenient 
 and necessary for the good and wellfare of this 
 his Ma"! s Corporacon ; As also, to appoint such
 
 Mayor and Aldermen 19 
 
 under Officers, as they shall judge necessary, for 
 the Orderly execution of Justice; And I do 
 hereby Strictly Charge & Command all Persons 
 to obey and Execute, from Time to Time, all 
 such Warrants, Orders and Constitutions, as 
 shall bee made by the said Mayor and Aldermen, 
 as they will Answer to the contrary at their 
 utmost Perills." 
 
 It will be noticed that this body consisted of 
 Englishmen and Dutchmen, of whom van Cort- 
 landt and Captain Joannes Pietersen van Brugh, 
 son-in-law of the well-known Anneke Jans, had 
 been burgomasters, whilst van Ruyven had held 
 high office in the Dutch provincial government, and 
 Anthony, formerly schout, was continued in the 
 new position of sheriff. On June 14/24, Governor 
 Nicolls appeared in the city court, accompanied by 
 Willett, the newly-appointed mayor, Delavall, van 
 Brugh and van Ruyven, who took their places on 
 the new bench. Burgomaster van Cortlandt, who 
 had also been named as an alderman, arose and 
 maintained that the abrogation of the old court 
 system at this time was "directly contrary to the 
 16^ Article made on the surrender" of the city, and 
 which stated that "All Officers and Magistrates"
 
 20 Installation 
 
 should continue as they were, if they were willing, 
 "till the time of election," when, and not till 
 then, "new ones" were "to be chosen by them- 
 selves." Nicolls replied, and correctly, too, that 
 the article was "not infringed in the least, as at 
 the election," in the preceding February, "other 
 new ones were chosen by the retiring Magistrates," 
 who had continued in office ever since. A con- 
 siderable debate ensued; but Governor Nicolls 
 was determined to proceed in conformity with his 
 instructions from the Duke of York, namely, "to 
 establish the government of this City conformable 
 to the custom of England," which was done on 
 this day. He declared he had "nothing to say 
 against the service of those retiring nor against 
 their demeanor;" he acknowledged as "good" 
 what they had "heretofore officially resolved and 
 concluded;" but avowed that he had "qualified 
 some English for the office on purpose," so that 
 litigants, "as well English as Dutch," might "be 
 better aided on both sides," and in the interest 
 of "the peace and quiet of the inhabitants." This 
 done, Governor Nicolls "installed" the mayor, 
 aldermen and sheriff, and administered the oath
 
 June 24, 1665 21 
 
 to them. After the oath was taken and "the 
 customary ringing of the bell three times," the 
 new court was "proclaimed to the Commonalty" 
 at the City Hall. In this manner the transition 
 from Dutch to English government in the city 
 of New York took place on June 14, 1665 (old 
 style), which corresponds with June 24th, in new 
 style, as we reckon now, and is the day we cele- 
 brate as the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary 
 of this significant event in the history of the 
 metropolis of the western hemisphere.
 
 II 
 
 HISTORY OF THE SEAL AND FLAG 
 By E. Hagaman Hall, L.H.D. 
 
 THE ARMS OF OLD AMSTERDAM 
 
 The old city of Amsterdam in Holland, after 
 which New Amsterdam was named, had a very 
 ancient coat-of-arms, the principal design of which 
 was incorporated in the seal of New Amsterdam 
 and frequently appears in the ornamentation of 
 the municipal buildings of the city. J The origin 
 of its symbols is interesting. In the year 1296, 
 when Amsterdam was only a fishing village pro- 
 tected by a castle, it was almost completely de- 
 molished as a punishment for participating in the 
 killing of Count Floris of Holland. But "in the 
 year 1342 she fell under the power of William, 
 Count of Holland, who honored her with several 
 
 1 The arms of New Netherland, New Amsterdam and New 
 York are repeated many times on the new Municipal Building. 
 
 22
 
 PLATE II 
 
 Seal of the Province of New Netherland 
 1623 
 
 Seal of the Province of New York 
 1669
 
 Arms of Amsterdam 23 
 
 prerogatives, and gave her new arms, to wit, gules, 
 on a pale sable three crosses argent" 1 — that is to 
 say, three white crosses upon a vertical black bar 
 in the middle of a red field. 
 
 That the white saltire crosses in the arms of old 
 and New Amsterdam were not conventionalized 
 windmills, as is sometimes supposed, appears 
 from the following quotation translated from the 
 Medalische Historie der Republyk van Holland, by 
 Peter Mortier, 1690: 
 
 "Since William Count of Henegouwen and 
 Holland, in order to rebuild in Holland the 
 devastated City of Amsterdam, had given her 
 many liberties in order to retrieve her fallen 
 powers and furnish her everywhere with walls, 
 gates and canals in greater degree than ever, he 
 has made a present to the Amsterdammers of 
 three crosses on the field of the City's arms — a 
 sign that he has freed her of much misery and 
 cross." 2 
 
 The crest of the arms of Amsterdam, an imperial 
 crown, was granted by Emperor Maximilian in 
 
 1 Histoire Metallique des X VII Provinces des Pays-Bas . . . 
 by Gerard van Loon, 1732, quoted in The Civic Ancestry of New 
 York City and State, by Edward Seymour Wilde. 
 
 a Translation in Wilde's Civic Ancestry.
 
 24 Seal of New Netherland 
 
 1 48 1 (or 1488) in recognition of the services of 
 Amsterdam in the reduction of Rotterdam and 
 Woerden. The coat-of-arms of Amsterdam is 
 shown in Plate I. 
 
 To recall a few of the many connections between 
 Amsterdam and New Netherland it may be men- 
 tioned that Henry Hudson who discovered the 
 Hudson River in 1609 was hired by the Amsterdam 
 Chamber of the East India Co.; that the first 
 charter for trading here was granted in 1614 to 
 merchants of Amsterdam and Hoorn; that the 
 ship which brought Peter Minuit and his company 
 to Manhattan in 1626 to make a permanent settle- 
 ment sailed from Amsterdam; and that the ship 
 which carried to Amsterdam the news of the 
 purchase of Manhattan Island from the Indians 
 was called the Arms of Amsterdam. 
 
 SEAL OF NEW NETHERLAND 
 
 The first local governmental seal by which 
 transactions in New Amsterdam were attested 
 was the seal of New Netherland, for there was no 
 city seal prior to 1654. This seal is interesting
 
 Seal of New Netherland 25 
 
 because it supplies one of the devices used in the 
 present city seal. It consists of a shield upon 
 which, "in bend," — to use an heraldic term 
 meaning "diagonally," — is represented a beaver, 
 surrounded by what appears to be a string of 
 wampum. The crest is a count's coronet between 
 single stars, the province having the armorial rights 
 of a countship. Around the shield is the legend 
 Sigillum Novi Belgii, meaning "seal of New 
 Belgium" (or New Netherland). The whole is 
 surrounded by a wreath. Impressions of this 
 seal may be seen at the New York Historical 
 Society, and a drawing of it will be found in 
 Plate II. 
 
 The Beaver, which is perpetuated in the present 
 city seal, represents the chief commodity upon 
 which the original commerce of New Netherland 
 and New Amsterdam was founded. At that time, 
 Holland competed with the other European nations 
 in the fur-trade, the chief source of which was 
 northern Europe. The discovery of a new source 
 of supply, from which furs could be secured cheaply, 
 was one of the principal inducements which led 
 to commerce with New Netherland before and
 
 26 Trade in Beaver Skins 
 
 after its permanent settlement. The beaver skin, 
 like wampum, was also used in the Dutch and 
 early English periods as money, a "beaver" in 
 1658 being reckoned as 16 guilders and a "half 
 beaver" as 8 guilders. In 1680, according to the 
 journal of the Labadists, Dankers and Sluyter, a 
 beaver was reckoned at 5 guilders Holland money 
 or 25 guilders in seawant (wampum). 
 
 An idea of the proportions which the trade in 
 beaver skins attained in the first ten years of 
 chartered trading may be gained from the fact 
 that two ships returning to Holland in 1624 took 
 4,000 beaver and 700 otter skins which sold for 
 25,000 to 27,000 guilders. In 1625, 5,295 beavers 
 and 463 otters returned to the importers 35,825 
 guilders. 1 On November 4, 1626, the ship 
 Arms of Amsterdam arrived at Amsterdam with 
 news of the purchase of Manhattan Island 
 and the planting of New Amsterdam, and also 
 carried 7,246 beaver, 853^ otter, 81 mink, 36 wild 
 cat (lynx) and 34 rat skins. 2 De Laet's Jaerlyck 
 Verhael, which varies the figures slightly, says that 
 
 1 De Laet's Jaerlyck Verhael. 
 
 * Schaghen letter, facsimile and translation in Wilson's 
 Memorial History of New York, I, 159-160.
 
 Beaver Street 27 
 
 7,258 beavers and 857 otters, etc., received in 
 1626 sold for 45,050 guilders. By 1671, the prov- 
 ince of New York furnished "full 80,000 beavers 
 a year" 1 and the late Harry V. Radford, in a 
 history of the Adirondack beaver, 2 estimated that 
 there were probably many million beavers in the 
 province at that time. There were beavers on 
 Manhattan Island when it was settled by the 
 Dutch, and Beaver Street (formerly the Bever 
 Paatje and Bever Graft) marks the site of a little 
 stream where we may conclude they had built a 
 beaver dam. The intelligence and industry of 
 these little animals, their ingenuity as house- 
 builders and their amphibious character make 
 them eloquent symbols of the city of New York. 
 So far as we know, the use of the beaver in the 
 arms of New Netherland, New Amsterdam and 
 New York City is unique in heraldry. 
 
 The words Novi Belgii in the legend of the seal 
 of New Netherland recall the time when the 
 Belgian and Dutch Netherlands were politically 
 
 1 Montanus, Doc. Hist, of N. Y., IV, 120-121. 
 
 2 Annual Reports, N. Y. State Forest, Fish and Came Commission 
 for 1904-5-6, pages 389-418. This article may be consulted for 
 bibliography of the beaver.
 
 28 Seal of New Amsterdam 
 
 united, and also that earlier period when Caesar, 
 referring to the peoples of Gaul, wrote: Horum 
 omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae, — of all these, the 
 Belgae are the bravest. 
 
 SEAL OF NEW AMSTERDAM 
 
 In 1653, New Amsterdam secured, after many- 
 petitions and remonstrances, a form of municipal 
 government, and on December 24, of that year, 
 the Burgomasters and Schepens asked the West 
 India Co., for "a City seal different from the seal 
 of the Province." 1 On May 18, 1654, tne Direc- 
 tors of the Company wrote to Stuy vesant : 
 
 "We have decreed that a seal for the City of 
 New Amsterdam shall be prepared and for- 
 warded." 2 
 
 The vessel by which the seal was sent from 
 Holland sailed in July, 1654, and on December 8 of 
 that year "the Director General delivered to the 
 presiding Burgomaster, Mart. Cregier, the painted 
 
 1 Records of New Amsterdam, Fernow, I, 145. 
 ^Records of New Amsterdam, I, 145, 219; Docs. Rel. Col. Hist. 
 N. Y., XIV, 262, 266.
 
 Seal of 1654 29 
 
 coat-of-arms, with the seal of New Amsterdam and 
 the silver signet which were sent by the Directors 
 in the ship Peartree." 1 
 
 The seal of 1654 contains reminiscences of the 
 coat-of-arms of old Amsterdam and the seal of 
 New Netherland. It consists of a shield charged 
 with a pale or vertical band in the center, upon 
 which are arranged in a vertical row the three 
 saltire crosses which appear in the arms of the 
 mother city. On each side of the pale is a narrow 
 vertical band which does not appear in the arms of 
 Amsterdam. The crest of the new arms is a 
 beaver, taken from the seal of New Netherland. 
 Above the crest are a mantle and a small escut- 
 cheon bearing the monogram G. W. C, standing 
 for Geoctroyeerde West Indische Compagnie, or 
 Chartered West India Company. Below the 
 coat-of-arms is the legend Sigillum Amstelo- 
 damensis in Novo Belgio, meaning " seal of Amster- 
 dam in New Belgium" (New Netherland). The 
 whole is surrounded by a wreath. A drawing of 
 this seal is shown in Plate I. 
 
 1 Vanderkemp's translation of Dutch records at Albany in 
 O'Callaghan's Doc. Hist. N. Y., Ill, 397.
 
 30 From Dutch to English 
 
 Mr. Wilde, in The Civic Ancestry of New York 
 City and State, makes a reasonable conjecture as 
 to the coloring of the arms, when he suggests that 
 the shield is red, the pale black, and the crosses 
 white, as in the arms of Amsterdam, and that the 
 vertical bands separating the black pale from the 
 red color on each side are of gold or silver, to 
 comply with the rule of heraldry (violated in the 
 arms of Amsterdam) which requires that color 
 shall not be placed on color or metal on metal. 1 
 The mantling, it is believed, is a tri-color of orange, 
 white and blue, in the order named, reading from 
 the top downward, the colors of the mantle having 
 the same significance as those of the official City 
 flag mentioned hereafter. 
 
 SEAL OF NEW YORK, 1 669 
 
 On August 29/September 8, 1664, articles of 
 capitulation were signed by the Dutch and Eng- 
 lish and New Amsterdam was surrendered to 
 
 1 In water-marks on paper which was evidently made in 
 Amsterdam and which was used in the early official records of the 
 City of New York now in the City Clerk's office, this heraldic error 
 in the arms of Amsterdam is corrected as it is in the arms of New 
 Amsterdam.
 
 Name of New York 31 
 
 the English. On September 7 (says a letter 
 to the West India Co.), the inhabitants were 
 ordered "not to call this place otherwise than 
 New York, on the Island of Manhattans, in 
 America. " r The new name of the city was given 
 in honor of James, Duke of York, to whom the 
 province had been patented by King Charles II. in 
 March, 1664. r It is derived from the name of the 
 old city of York in England, the significance of 
 which is explained hereafter. 
 
 For nine months the Dutch form of govern- 
 ment by Schout, Burgomasters and Schepens 
 continued. On June 12/22, 1665, Governor 
 Nicolls signed a proclamation in which he 
 said: 
 
 "Upon Mature deliberacon & advice, I have 
 thought it necessary to Revoke & discharge, and 
 by these Presents in his Majesties Name, do 
 revoke and discharge the fforme and Ceremony 
 of Government of this his Majesties Towne of 
 New Yorke, under the name or names, style or 
 styles of Schout, Burgomasters & Schepens," 
 and that the new government "shall bee knowne 
 
 1 Documents Rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., II, 415. 
 
 2 Colonial Laws of N. Y. I, 1-5.
 
 32 Mayor and Aldermen 
 
 and called by the Name & Style of Mayor 
 Aldermen & Sherriffe, according to the Custome 
 of England in other his Majesties Corporacons. " ■ 
 
 In accordance therewith the Mayor and Alder- 
 men were formally installed on June 14/24, 1665. 
 
 It was not, however, until 1669 that the city 
 had its first seal under the English regime, and, 
 by an interesting coincidence, it was granted by 
 the Duke of York on the Fourth of July (old 
 style) . It was authorized as follows a : 
 
 "James Duke of Yorke and Albany, Earl of 
 Ulster, Lord high Admirall of England and 
 Ireland, Constable of Douer Castle, Lord 
 Warden of the Cinque Ports, and Gouern' 
 of Pourtsmouth &ca. 
 
 "Whereas I have thought fit to appoint two 
 Seales to be made, the one for the Province and 
 the other for the Corporation of New Yorke 
 (:which I haue sent unto you by M r . Thomas 
 de Lauall) and to Direct that they shall be made 
 use of uppon all Publicq Concernments, both 
 of the Province & Corporation afores? : These 
 are to authorize & require You, that from and 
 after YoF receipts the said Seales, you Cause 
 
 1 Colonial Laws of New York, I, ioo-ioi. 
 
 ■ Records of New Amsterdam, Fernow, VI, 199-200.
 
 Mayor and Aldermen 33 
 
 the same and no others to be made use of uppon 
 all occasions, for Sealing of Warrants, Writs, 
 Executions, Pattents, Graunts, and all other 
 Publicq Acts and Instruments, W c . h any Wayes 
 Concerne either the Province or Corporation of 
 New Yorke respectively, For W c . h this shal be 
 Yof Warrant: Given under my hand and Seale 
 at St: James this 4th of July 1669. 
 
 "James." 
 "To Collonell Francis Louelace my Governf of 
 New Yorke 
 "By Command of his Roy: Highnesse 
 
 "M:Wren." 
 
 The foregoing command and the proceedings 
 attending the presentation of the corporate 
 insignia are recorded in the minutes of the 
 Mayor's Court held at New York, October 5, 
 1669, as follows 1 : 
 
 "Capt n Louelace appearing in Court, and 
 declared that he Was Commanded by his honn? 
 the Govern^ to Present to the Worshipp 1 ? 
 MayT & Aldermen of this Corporation, a Letter 
 from his honnour, with a Seal for the Corpora- 
 tion, with a Silver Mace, and Seven Gownes for 
 the Mayor Aldermen & Sherif, sent from his 
 
 1 Records of New Amsterdam, VI, 196, gives the date of the 
 session Oct. 5; but page 199 dates the document itself October 6. 
 3
 
 34 Seal of 1669 
 
 Royall Highnesse to his honny the Gov? for to 
 be presented to this Court; W c . h said Letter 
 from his honn? being opened and Read in open 
 Court, jnthimating as followeth : — 
 
 "M r Mayor, and You the rest of the 
 Aldermen — 
 
 "As a Perticular Testimony of his R. High- 
 nesse grace and fauour to this his Citty of New 
 Yorke, I am Commanded to present you from 
 him, this Present Viz: a Publicq Seale for the 
 Corporation, a Silver Mace, and Gownes both 
 for the Mayor & Aldermen, and although he 
 esteemes somme of these, but as the Gayety 
 and Circumstantial part of Government, Yet 
 you may be assured, as to What is more essential 
 and Substantiall, itt shall receaue all encourage- 
 ment and hartey assistance from him, and I must 
 further add, that haveing the honn' to be his 
 Govern- General in these parts, I doe assure 
 You that Wherein I may, any Way be Servicable 
 to You, I shal Cheirefully apply my mind to it, 
 who professe no higher Cogitations then what 
 shal tend to My Royal Masters Intrest, and 
 the Publicq Welfare of those Comitted to my 
 Charge; Iff therefore You Will Consider of 
 Somme Methode for the better regulation of 
 Y- Corporation and present it to me, What I 
 find reasonable and practicable, I shall Will- 
 ingly allow of, and What appeares above my 
 Strength I shal with the best Convenience trans- 
 mit ouer to Receive his R: H: assent, from
 
 Seal of 1669 35 
 
 Whome I doubte not, but you will have such 
 Satisfaction, as is agreable to Yo- Necesseties 
 and desires, I haue no more, but to Wish You 
 all happinesse and an assurance that I am 
 "Yo- afectionate friend and Servant 
 
 "Fran: Louelace. 
 Fort James the 6 th of Octofr 1669." 
 
 The design of the provinical seal above referred 
 to is well known. It consists of the arms of 
 the house of Stuart, surrounded by the garter 
 with the motto Honi soil qui mal y pense, above 
 which is the ducal coronet, all of which is 
 encircled by the legend Sigill: Provinc: Nov: 
 Eborac: as shown in Plate II. 
 
 The design of the city seal of 1669 is not cer- 
 tainly known. As the beaver, which appeared in 
 the seal of New Amsterdam, also appears in the 
 seal of 1686, it seems reasonable to infer that it was 
 included in the intermediate seal of 1669; and if 
 the English seal of 1669 represented the symbol of 
 the commodity upon which the Dutch commerce 
 was principally founded, it seems likely that it 
 also included the emblems of the industry which 
 was the foundation of their own prosperity,
 
 36 Seal of 1686 
 
 namely, the windmill and flour barrels. 1 If the 
 seal had a crest, it would be natural that a ducal 
 coronet should surmount the arms of the Duke of 
 York's own city, as it formed the crest of the arms 
 of the provincial seal of the same year. In other 
 words, it would not be surprising if the city seal 
 of 1669 was similar to the small seal which was in 
 use in 1687 2 and which is shown on Plate III; but 
 this is purely conjecture, and must so remain until 
 an authentic description or impression of the seal 
 of 1669 can be found. 
 
 SEAL OF 1686 
 
 On November 9, 1683, the Common Council 
 petitioned Governor Dongan to confirm by char- 
 ter the rights previously granted to the city, 
 including that of a common seal; and on April 27, 
 
 1 "From the first settlement of the government," say the Com- 
 mon Council Minutes (I, 142), New York was the staple for bolt- 
 ing flour and making biscuit for exportation. The industry was 
 therefore well established in 1669. 
 
 2 Mr. Wilde, in a footnote on page 43 of his Civic Ancestry 
 of New York, by a reference to No. 5 of the Paulding seals in the 
 New York Historical Society, which is identical with the upper 
 seal shown in Plate III, implies his belief that it is in fact the 
 seal of 1669, but does not actually say so. Mr. Victor H. Paltsits 
 is of the opinion that the two seals are not identical.
 
 Dongan Charter 37 
 
 1686, was granted the famous charter which pro- 
 vided, among other things: 
 
 "That the said Mayor Aldermen and Com- 
 onalty of the said Citty of New Yorke and 
 their Successo's shall and may for ever here- 
 after have one Comon Seale to Serve for the 
 Sealing of all and Singular their Affaires and 
 Businesses touching or Concerning the said 
 Corporacon. And it shall and may be Lawfull to 
 and for the said Mayor Aldermen and Comonal- 
 tye of the said Citty of New Yorke and their 
 Successors as they shall see Cause to breake 
 Change Alter and new make their said Comon 
 Seale when and as often as to them it shall 
 seem Convenient." 1 
 
 About three months later, namely, on July 24, 
 1686, a new seal — the first adopted by the city 
 itself pursuant to charter rights — was presented to 
 the Common Council and approved. The minutes 
 of the Common Council read as follows: 
 
 1 The record of the petition of Nov. 9, 1683, is in the printed 
 Common Council Minutes, I, 104. The charter is printed in 
 vol. I, p. 186. Colonial Laws of New York and on pp. 290-305 
 of the Common Council Minutes. On p. 296 of the latter is the 
 reference to the seal. The original parchment charter is deposited 
 in the N. Y. Public Library. The original provincial record is in 
 the office of the Secretary of State at Albany, in the original 
 engrossed Liber I of Patents, pp. 278-309.
 
 38 Seal of 1686 
 
 "The Mayor Presented the New Seale of this 
 Citty with this inscription, Sigillum Civitat 
 Novi Which is agreed upon and ordered to be 
 the Comon Seale of this Citty and to Remaine 
 in the Custody of the mayor for the time 
 being." 
 
 In the original manuscript volume of the Com- 
 mon Council Minutes from which the foregoing 
 quotation is made, there is a blank space after the 
 word Novi. In the original rough draft of these 
 minutes which is preserved in the Records Room 
 of the City Clerk in the Municipal Building, the 
 word Novi (apparently written originally Nov.) 
 is followed by the word Eboracen, an abbrevia- 
 tion of Eboracensis. It was probably not copied 
 into the formal volume of minutes because of the 
 uncertainty whether the form "Eboracensis" or 
 "Eboraci" should be used. 
 
 The earliest known impression of this seal is 
 upon a grant dated September 1, 1687, by which 
 the city conveyed to Conraed Ten Eyck a lot of 
 land 24 by 95 feet in size on the original water-front 
 opposite what is now No. 75 Pearl Street. The 
 document is signed by N. Bayard, Mayor, and is
 
 PLATE III 
 
 Seal of the City of New York, i686, 
 with Ducal Coronet 
 
 Seal of the City of New York, 1686, 
 with Imperial Crown
 
 Description of Seal 39 
 
 attested by the "common Seale of said citty. "* 
 It is in possession of Mr. Frank Wessells Demarest 
 of East Orange, N. J. 
 
 From this impression the seal may be described. 
 It is oval in shape, measuring 2ts inches in length 
 1 1 inches in width. In the center is a shield 
 charged saltire-wise with the sails of a windmill. 
 Between the sails in chief is a beaver; in the corre- 
 sponding position in base a beaver; and between 
 the sails on each flank a flour barrel. The dexter 
 supporter is a sailor, resting his left hand upon the 
 shield. His right hand holds a cross-staff which 
 extends above his right shoulder and from the 
 same hand depends a lead-line. The sinister 
 supporter is an Indian, wearing a head-dress of 
 many feathers, his right hand resting upon the 
 shield, his left holding by the middle a one-piece 
 bow the lower end of which rests upon the ground. 
 The supporters stand upon a horizontal branch, 
 which may be laurel, and beneath which is the date 
 1686. The crest is a ducal coronet. Upon a 
 ribbon surrounding the lower part of the coat-of- 
 
 1 A copy of this grant is printed in the New York Evening Post 
 of January g, 191 5.
 
 40 Van Cortlandt Arms 
 
 arms is the legend: Sigill: Civitat: Novi: Eborace. 
 The seal is reproduced in Plate III. 
 
 The Windmill was not a new device in heraldry 
 at the time of the adoption of this seal. The 
 coat-of-arms of the Van Cortlandt family, as 
 recorded in the Hall of Records in Amsterdam, 
 Holland, and brought to this country in 1637, 
 exhibited the sails of a windmill saltire-wise, with 
 a star in each of the four interspaces which are 
 occupied by the beavers and barrels in the New 
 York City coat-of-arms and with a fifth star in the 
 center at the junction of the sails. The coat-of- 
 arms of Olof Stevensen van Cortlandt may be seen 
 thus depicted in Bolton's History of Westchester 
 County (I, 100,) and Wilson's Memorial History 
 of New York (I, 394, 463). As Van Cortlandt was 
 one of the leading citizens and a Burgomaster of 
 New Amsterdam at the time of the surrender to 
 the English, was one of the six Commissioners who 
 met the English deputies and arranged the terms 
 of capitulation, and took a leading part in the 
 affairs of the renamed city of New York in which 
 he was living in 1686, one is tempted to think that 
 the idea of the windmill as an heraldic device in the
 
 The Windmill 41 
 
 city seal may have been suggested by the Van 
 Cortlandt arms. Windmills naturally remind one 
 of Holland, where they are used in such numbers to 
 pump water from the lower ditches to the higher, 
 and for milling purposes, 1 but it does not neces- 
 sarily follow that the windmill in the city coat-of- 
 arms is a Dutch windmill. Windmills were and 
 still are used in England; and they were used in 
 New Amsterdam and New York. The first mill 
 erected in New Amsterdam in 1626 was a horse- 
 mill, built by Francois Molemaecker, over which 
 was a spacious room for religious worship 2 ; but 
 the principal sources of mechanical power on the 
 Island of Manhattan before the era of steam 
 were wind and water. Only one or two streams 
 on Manhattan Island had volume enough to run 
 mills; but there were several windmills. One of 
 the earliest, which excited the amazement of the 
 Indians, stood in what is now Battery Place just 
 west of Broadway. In views of New Amsterdam 
 from the south it appears over the southwest 
 
 1 Modern motors are being introduced into Dutch windmills 
 and the characteristic sails are beginning to disappear, thus 
 robbing the landscape of a picturesque feature. 
 
 3 Wassenaer's Historisch Verhael.
 
 42 The Flour Barrels 
 
 bastion of the fort. Its location is indicated on the 
 so-called Duke's plan of 1664. Other windmills 
 were located on a hill south of Maiden Lane and 
 west of Pearl Street 1 ; near Church and Cortlandt 
 Streets 2 ; on the northwest side of Park Row about 
 where the Municipal Building stands 3 ; near the 
 corner of Oliver Street and the New Bowery 4 ; and 
 on the west side of the Bowery between Canal and 
 Hester Streets. s There were many others. The 
 significance of the windmill in the city arms is 
 to be interpreted in connection with the flour 
 barrels. 
 
 The Flour Barrels symbolize the industry upon 
 which the prosperity of New York in the early 
 English regime chiefly depended. Soon after the 
 English took New York, the city was granted the 
 staple right of bolting flour. When the Common 
 Council in 1683 petitioned for the confirmation 
 
 1 Picture of Smith's Vly in Early Times, Valentine's Manual, 
 1861. 
 
 2 Rev. John Miller's plan of 1695. 
 
 3 Nicolls map of about 1665; Lyne survey or Bradford map, 
 1 73 1. This is possibly one of the two windmills which appear 
 in the illustrations accompanying the journal of the Labadists, 
 Dankers and Sluyter, 1680. 
 
 * Montressor map 1775. 
 
 s Holland map 1757; Ratzer map 1766.
 
 Exportation of Flour 43 
 
 by charter of privileges enjoyed since 1665, it 
 enumerated among other things the following : 
 
 "Noe fflower was to be bolted or packed or 
 biskett made for Exportacon butt in the Citty 
 of New York being for the encouragm* of 
 trade and keepeing up the Reputacon of New 
 York flower which is in greater request in the 
 West Indies and the only support and mainten- 
 nance of the Inhabitants of this Citty and if not 
 confirmed to them will mine and depopulate 
 the same." 1 
 
 In consequence of that privilege "the Citty 
 hath been much increased with Inhabitants, by 
 the Manufactories of ye Said Flower, bread, and 
 Cask,&c." 2 
 
 From the above quotation it appears that the 
 manufacture of flour barrels as well as flour was a 
 leading occupation of the inhabitants. 
 
 The Beavers in the seal of 1686 have the histori- 
 cal significance of the same device in the earlier seals. 
 
 The Indian, forming the sinister supporter, is 
 represented as a bald-headed individual in the 
 
 1 Docs. Rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., Ill, 338. Common Council Minutes, 
 I, 104. 
 
 2 Supreme Court of Judicature, Lyndall vs. Schuyler, October, 
 1692.
 
 44 The Indian 
 
 absurd woodcut in the Documentary History of 
 New York, volume IV, page 396. In the seal 
 itself, the Indian wears a head-dress of many 
 feathers like the war-bonnet of the Plains Indians. 
 In the seal of 191 5, this figure has been made to 
 conform to authentic descriptions of the Indians 
 about Manhattan. The Manhattan Indians, who 
 were coastal Algonquins, and the interior Indians, 
 the Iroquois, had linguistic and other differences, 
 but they had some customs in common. One 
 was the way in which the men dressed their hair. 
 Dominie Megapolensis, writing of the Mohawks 
 in 1644, says: 
 
 "The men have a long lock of hair hanging 
 down, some on one side of the head and some 
 on both sides. On top of their heads they have 
 a streak of hair from the forehead to the neck 
 about the breadth of three fingers and this they 
 shorten until it is about two or three fingers 
 long and it stands right on end like a cock's 
 comb or hog's bristles. On both sides of this 
 cock's comb they cut all the hair short except 
 the aforesaid locks . . . and here and there 
 small locks." 1 
 
 1 Narratives of New Netherland, Jameson, 173.
 
 The Indian 45 
 
 And David Pietersen de Vries, writing in 1642, 
 says: 
 
 "I will state something of the nations about 
 Fort Amsterdam. . . . The Indians . . . have 
 black hair with a long lock which they braid 
 and let hang on one side of the head. The hair 
 is shorn on top of the head like a cock's comb. " ■ 
 
 This custom is excellently illustrated in con- 
 temporary pictures of the Virginia Indians, who 
 were Algonquins like the Manhattan Indians. 2 
 These Indians are represented with only one, two 
 or three feathers in their hair when they have any, 
 and not with the war-bonnet of the western Indians. 
 
 In the seal of 1686, the Indian is correctly repre- 
 sented with a one-piece bow (technically called 
 a self -bow), but in the modern seal lately in use 
 and in other delineations of it, the bow is a com- 
 pound or double-curved bow with a straight 
 handle in the middle. The eastern Indians did 
 
 1 Narratives of New Netherland, Jameson, 217. 
 
 3 Etchings by De Bry in Harlot's Relation, 1590, based on 
 drawings made by John White in Virginia. Picture of Capt. John 
 Smith taking the King of the Pamunkey Indians prisoner in 1608 
 in Smith's General History of Virginia, etc. Picture of the attire 
 of the Susquehanna Indians on Smith's map of Virginia.
 
 4 6 The Sailor 
 
 not use the compound bow, 1 and in the standard 
 seal of 19 1 5 it is restored to the single-curved 
 form as in the seal of 1686 and as authenticated in 
 the illustrations of Algonquin types mentioned in 
 the foot-note on the preceding page. 
 
 The Sailor, forming the dexter supporter, has 
 been misunderstood and misrepresented more 
 than any other feature of the seal. Dr. E. B. 
 O'Callaghan, in the Documentary History of 
 New York, III, 398 (copied in Valentine's Manual, 
 1 85 1, 420), says: 
 
 "Supporters, two Indian chiefs proper; the 
 one on the dexter side holds a war club in his 
 right hand, the one on the sinister holds in his 
 left hand a bow. In the dexter corner over the 
 Indian's head is a cross patriarchal, as emblem- 
 atic of the Gospel to which he is subject. " 
 
 When one sees the naked, manikin-like figure 
 of the dexter supporter represented in the wood- 
 cut accompanying O'Callaghan's description, he 
 is not surprised at this misreading of the device. 
 In the original seal, the figure is a very decently 
 clothed sailor, wearing knee-breeches. The object 
 
 1 Hand-book of American Indians, Hodge, Bureau of Ethnology.
 
 The Cross-Staff 47 
 
 in his right hand is not a war club but a lead-line 
 for sounding the depth of the water; and the 
 double-cross above him is not a patriarchal cross 
 but a cross-staff, a navigating instrument. In 
 the patriarchal cross, the upper crosspiece is 
 shorter than the lower, while in the seal the upper 
 is longer than the lower. The Art Commission 
 Associates also received the suggestion that the 
 cross was the emblem of the Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, but upon 
 inquiry in New York and London, it was learned 
 that the Society never used such an emblem. In 
 the technical description of navigating instru- 
 ments in Capt. John Davis's Seaman's Secrets, 
 1607, reprinted in volume 59 of the publications 
 of the Hakluyt Society, the double cross-staff is 
 illustrated as it appears in the seal, with the longer 
 crosspiece (transom, or transversary) farthest 
 away from the eye. * The cross-staff is frequently 
 depicted in old portraits and maps, as in Mon- 
 tanus' engraving of Columbus and in the vignette 
 
 1 For fuller description of the cross-staff and the manner of its 
 use, see Annual Report of the American Scenic and Historic Pres- 
 ervation Society for 1910, pp. 276-278.
 
 48 The Crown 
 
 on the West Indische Paskaert by Anthony 
 Jacobsz. (circ. 1641), which is reproduced in 
 volume I of Documents Relating to the Colonial 
 History of New York. The latter is particu- 
 larly suggestive, as the sinister supporter in this 
 vignette, like the dexter in the seal of 1686, is a 
 man holding a sounding lead, while the dexter sup- 
 porter is a man "taking the sun" with a cross- 
 staff. 1 As Henry Hudson used the cross-staff 
 and by its means first ascertained the latitude 
 of the entrance to New York harbor, 40 30', the 
 restoration of this device in the seal of 191 5 is par- 
 ticularly interesting. 
 
 The Crown, forming the crest of the seal of 
 1686, on the Ten Eyck land grant of 1687, is a 
 ducal coronet. This is surprising, because in 1685 
 the Duke of York ascended the throne as James 
 II. At a date not known at the present writing, 
 the crest on the seal was properly changed to an 
 imperial crown, showing the distinguishing arches 
 rising from the circlet and supporting the orb and 
 cross. The Manuscript Section of the New York 
 
 1 The triple cross-staves in this vignette are erroneously de- 
 picted with the smallest cross-pieces farthest from the eye.
 
 Date of Seal 49 
 
 State Library can give no light on the question of 
 the date of the change from the ducal coronet to 
 the imperial crown owing to the fact that all the 
 seals which appeared on documents in the New 
 York Colonial Manuscripts or other manuscripts 
 in the collection were so melted by heat at the 
 time of the fire in the Capitol in 191 1 that even 
 on documents which otherwise were fairly well 
 preserved the impressions of the seals are entirely 
 lost. But the change was made at least as early 
 as 1 701, for a beautiful impression of the seal with 
 the imperial crown may be seen at the New York 
 Historical Society on a document dated October 
 1, 1 701, certifying that Thomas Evans had been 
 made a freeman of the City. This impression is 
 so sharp that it even shows the row of buttons on 
 the sailor's jacket. 1 
 
 The Date, 1686, in the seal of that year is self- 
 explanatory. This date was retained until after 
 
 1 It is a curious fact that while the woodcut accompanying 
 O'Callaghan's description of the seal in the Documentary History 
 of New York, III, 398, shows an imperial crown, his printed 
 description calls it a ccronet. As he could not have mistaken 
 the crest in his illustration for a coronet, except through igno- 
 rance, one wonders whether he did not write his description from 
 an earlier example which exhibited the coronet.
 
 50 Origin of the Name 
 
 the Revolution, but then fell into disuse as having 
 no special significance. In designing the standard 
 form of seal in 191 5, the Art Commission Asso- 
 ciates thought that in inserting a date, it was 
 better to use a date which possessed some capital 
 meaning, and therefore adopted the date 1664, 
 the year in which the City was first named New 
 York. 
 
 The Name of New York, which appears in the 
 Latin form in the legend of the seal, has an interest- 
 ing origin. Through the Duke of York it comes 
 from the old cathedral City of York in England. 
 The word is derived from two ancient roots, ure or 
 euor, meaning water, and ac meaning place. 
 Euor-ac, contracted to York, means "place at the 
 water." The old City of York is situated on the 
 Ouse River, which was anciently the Ure, a name 
 now applied to one of its tributaries. New York, 
 therefore, is a transplanted place-name with un- 
 usual propriety of meaning. In some languages 
 the letters u, v and b are interchangeable under 
 certain circumstances owing to well-known phy- 
 siological causes and phonetic rules. 1 Thus 
 
 1 Familiar examples are Havana, Habana; and Servia, Serbia.
 
 Seal used in 1687 51 
 
 Euor-ac, or Evor-ac, becomes Ebor-ac, and with 
 the Latin termination urn, we have Eboracum. 
 
 SMALL SEAL OF THE PERIOD 
 
 We have referred on page 48 preceding to the 
 inexplicable ducal coronet on the first seal of 1686. 
 Another mystery is presented by the existence of 
 another "common seal" of the City with ducal 
 coronet at the same time as the impression of the 
 seal of 1686 on the Ten Eyck land grant of 1687. 
 It is a round seal, about 1^ of an inch in diameter. 
 Upon a shield are the windmill, beavers and barrels 
 as in the larger seal. Above the shield is a ducal 
 coronet, and on each side is some scroll-like man- 
 tling. It has no legend or motto. The earliest 
 impression of this seal known to the writer is on 
 the certificate of allegiance of Johannes Kipp in 
 the New York Historical Society, dated Septem- 
 ber 8, 1687. Other impressions are upon a land 
 grant to Anna Maria Van Home, signed by Mayor 
 Abraham De Peyster, and dated April 21, 1692, 
 in the possession of the New York Title Guarantee 
 & Trust Co.; and warrants signed by Mayors 
 Ebenezer Willson (1709), Caleb Heathcote (171 1) 
 and John Johnston (17 19) in the Records Room of
 
 52 Mayor Heathcote 
 
 the City Clerk in the Municipal Building. Our 
 illustration (Plate III) is from a very sharp impres- 
 sion on the Heathcote document. The document 
 begins as follows: 
 
 " City of ) ™ Caleb Heathcote Esq r Mayor 
 
 New York J of the City of New York To 
 
 Samuell Bayard Esq r Alderman 
 
 of the Dock Ward of the said 
 
 City Greeting:" 
 
 Then follows an order to summon the electors 
 of the ward to choose a Constable in place of 
 David Lyell who refused to serve ; and it concludes : 
 
 " Given under my hand and the Common Seal 
 of the said City the sixteenth day of October 
 in the tenth year of her Majesties Reign Anno 
 Dom. 1711. 
 
 Caleb Heathcote." 
 
 It is not known when and under what circum- 
 stances this seal came into existence. Between the 
 granting of the seal of 1669 and the year 1687, 
 when we find this other seal in use, there is record 
 of the making of only one City seal, namely, that 
 of 1686 with the legend. If this were the seal of 
 1669 still continued in use, the problem would be 
 solved, but that cannot now be established. That
 
 Mayoralty Seal 53 
 
 the use of both seals was officially recognized is 
 evidenced by the fact that on April 24 and again 
 on October 15, 1691, the Common Council fixed 
 the Mayor's fees for affixing the seals at "Six 
 shill. for Euery great Seale and three Shillings for 
 a small Seale, " and on October 14, 1689, ex-Mayor 
 Stephen Van Cortlandt was directed by the Com- 
 mon Council to deliver to the High Constable "y e 
 Citys Charter and also y e City Seales" — showing 
 that there were more seals than one. 
 
 THE MAYORALTY AND OTHER SEALS OF 1 735 
 
 In 1735, the Common Council had trouble with 
 Mayor Paul Richard in regard to the custody of the 
 common seal of the City. The Mayor refused to 
 surrender the seal, and on July 8, 1735, the Council 
 appointed a committee to seek legal counsel as 
 to the proper steps to be taken "for Breaking the 
 said seal now in the hands of the Said Mayor or 
 declaring the same void, and for making a New 
 seal for the use of this Corporation." On July 22 
 the committee reported that the Corporation had 
 full power to determine who should keep the seal ; 
 whereupon the Common Council minutes continue :
 
 54 Mayoralty Seal 
 
 "M r Mayor having Consented to deliver 
 the seal of this Corporation to the Common 
 Clerk of this Corporation for the use of the 
 Said Corporation, it is Ordered that A seal be 
 forthwith made and delivered to M r Mayor; 
 which Seal is to be Called the seal of the Office 
 of Mayorality of the City of New York, that the 
 Said Seal be Round somthing larger than a 
 Dollar, the City Arms to be Engraved thereon, 
 and that the Motto be (City of New York Seal 
 of Mayorality) and that M r Le Roux make the 
 same with all Expedition." 
 
 The Mr. Le Roux referred to was an Alderman 
 and a goldsmith. On September 16, 1735, the 
 Common Council approved his bill amounting 
 to £5:9:3. The original bill, on file in the Records 
 Room of the City Clerk in the Municipal building, 
 reads as follows* 
 
 " The Corpor tn of New York to Charles Le 
 Roux Dr. 
 To 3 O z 5 d silver in one Seale for the 
 
 offis of Mayoralty £1:9:3 
 
 To engraving the Seale 4 : - : - 
 
 £5:9:3 
 p d Charles Le Roux 
 Sept. 16, 1735."
 
 Seal of 1784 55 
 
 The action of the Common Council in July led 
 to further controversy, the particulars of which 
 may be found at pages 263-266, 272, 288-290, 
 295, 303-304, of volume IV of the printed Minutes. 
 The law of July 8 was repealed and on October 
 2 3> I 735> a new law was adopted "declaring to 
 what uses the seal of this corporation, the seal of 
 the Mayor's Court, and the seal of the mayoralty 
 of this City shall be put unto." There were now 
 three well-established seals with different names 
 for prescribed uses. 
 
 THE SEAL OF 1 784 
 
 The British evacuated New York on November 
 2 5> x 783, and steps were at once taken to reor- 
 ganize the City government. On December 15, 
 1783, a Board of seven Aldermen and as many 
 Assistants was elected, and on February 7, 1784, 
 Mayor James Duane was installed. On March 16 
 following the Common Council passed an ordi- 
 nance entitled "A Law for altering and directing 
 the uses of the public Seales of this City" and 
 directed its publication in one of the newspapers
 
 56 The Eagle as a Crest 
 
 of the city. 1 The law appears in a rare copy of 
 The New York Packet and the American Advertiser 
 of April 8, 1784, in the New York Public Library 
 as follows: 
 
 "A Law for altering and directing the Uses 
 of the Public Seals of this City. 
 
 "Be it ordained by the Mayor, Aldermen and 
 Commonalty of the city of New York, in Com- 
 mon Council convened, and it is hereby or- 
 dained by the authority of the same, That the 
 Seal, commonly called the City Seal, the Seal, 
 commonly called the Seal of the Mayor's Court, 
 and the Seal commonly called the Seal of the 
 Mayoralty, be respectively altered in the follow- 
 ing manner, That is to say, That the device, 
 on the said seals respectively, in representation 
 of an Imperial crown be defaced, and that 
 instead thereof, the crest of the arms of the 
 state of New York, that is to say, a representa- 
 tion of a semi-globe, with a soaring eagle thereon, 
 be inserted, and that the Mayor be authorized 
 to cause the said seals respectively to be altered 
 accordingly. 
 
 "And be it further ordained by the authority 
 aforesaid, That the said first beforementioned 
 
 1 The proceedings of the Common Council from Feb. 10, 1784, 
 to June 24, 1789, are printed in the Annual Reports of the American 
 Scenic and Historic Preservation Society for 1912, 1913, 1914 and 
 1915.
 
 Custody of the Seal 57 
 
 Seal be, and remain in the custody and keeping 
 of the Clerk of this city, and that the same be 
 put and affixed to all grants, leases, freedoms, 
 warrants and other instruments and writings 
 which shall, from time to time be made, granted 
 or issued, by order of the Common Council or 
 otherwise, provided for by the charter of the 
 city, and to freedoms granted by order of the 
 Mayor's Court, and that the said seal be not put 
 or used to any other purpose whatsoever. 
 
 "That the said small seal commonly called 
 the Seal of the Mayor's Court also be and remain 
 in the custody and keeping of the said Clerk, 
 and be put and affixed to all process, issuing out 
 of the said Court, and the Court of General 
 Sessions of the Peace, and to no other purpose 
 whatsoever. 
 
 "And the said Seal, commonly called the 
 Seal of Mayoralty, be and remain in the custody 
 and keeping of the Mayor of the said city for 
 the time being, and that the same may, by 
 the said Mayor, or by the said Mayor, or 
 Court of Aldermen of the said city for the 
 time being, be put and affixed to all such writ- 
 ings and instruments, depositions, affidavits, 
 examplifications, testimonials, protests, and 
 other matters and things as are usual and 
 customary to be certified under the public seal 
 of any Mayoralty, for the better attesting of 
 the truth of the matters and things thereby 
 certified."
 
 58 Adoption of the Seal 
 
 At the meeting of the Common Council on 
 September I, 1784, the Mayor produced the new 
 seals as thus recorded: 
 
 " M r Mayor pursuant to the Ordinance of this 
 Corporation in that case made & provided pro- 
 duced to the Board the Corporation, the Mayor- 
 alty & the Mayors Court Seals altered agreeable 
 to the Directions of the said Ordinance, 
 which said Seals being respectively examined 
 & approved of by the Board it was thereupon 
 Ordained determined and declared that the 
 said Seals respectively be adopted as the public 
 Seals of this City & that the old Seals be broken 
 by the Clerk in presence of M r Mayor and 
 the said Old Seals were respectively broken 
 accordingly." 
 
 At the same meeting the bill of Andrew Billings 
 for making the seals, amounting to £15:10, was 
 approved for payment. The original bill, pre- 
 served among the documents in the Records Room 
 of the City Clerk, reads as follows: 
 
 " The Hon ble The Corporation of the City of 
 New York 
 
 To And w Billings Dr. 
 To making and Engraving 
 1784 the Greate Seal of the Cor- 
 
 Aug* 30 poration £7 : 9:4
 
 PLATE IV 
 
 Seal of the City of New York 
 1784 
 
 Seal of the Mayoralty 
 1784
 
 Bill for the Seal 59 
 
 To making and Engraving 
 
 the Seal of Mayoralty 6:10:8 
 
 To making and Engraving 
 the Seal of the Mayors 
 Court 1:10:0 
 
 15:10:0 
 
 Errors Excepted 
 
 Andrew Billings" 
 
 A fine impression of this seal at the New York 
 Historical Society (see Plate IV) shows a shield 
 bearing the windmill, beavers and flour barrels; 
 the dexter supporter a sailor in long trousers 
 holding a lead-line; the sinister supporter an In- 
 dian with full feathered headdress, holding a 
 double-curved bow (which the Algonquin In- 
 dians did not use); the crest, a flying eagle ris- 
 ing to the dexter; the date 1686; and the legend 
 Sigillum Civitat. Nov. Eborac. On each side of the 
 crest, rising from the corners of the shield, is a 
 spray or branch bearing some kind of flower or 
 fruit. The cross-staff is omitted over the sailor. 
 
 The Eagle and hemisphere are taken, as stated 
 in the ordinance, from the arms of the State which 
 were adopted March 16, 1778 (chapter 12). That
 
 60 The Crest 
 
 act, however, did not describe the arms, and when 
 they were described by chapter 59 of the laws of 
 1909 (chapter 57 of the Consolidated Laws) the 
 hemisphere was interpreted as a two-thirds globe. 
 The description of 1909 reads: 
 
 "Crest: On a wreath azure and or, an Ameri- 
 can eagle proper, rising to the dexter from a 
 two thirds globe terrestrial, showing the north 
 Atlantic ocean with outlines of its shores." 
 
 The adoption of the eagle in the State arms 
 antedated the first suggestion of an eagle in the 
 National arms by four years, William Barton 
 having suggested the latter in 1782. ■ The source 
 of this emblem in the State arms is not known. 
 The eagle has occupied a prominent place in the 
 mythology, symbolism and heraldry of both the 
 Old and New Worlds from time out of mind. 
 The Romans carried it before their armies; 
 Charlemagne adopted it as an emblem after his 
 coronation in 800; and it was a familiar device 
 in later heraldry. It symbolized divinity, empire, 
 power, freedom, rising aspirations and other 
 noble conceptions. The eagle, phcenix and other 
 
 1 History of the Seal of the United States, by Gaillard Hunt, 
 1909.
 
 The Eagle 61 
 
 birds used in ancient devices could not have 
 escaped the attention of Americans when they 
 came to design American coats-of-arms, and it is 
 suggested by Mr. Wilde in his Civic Ancestry of 
 New York, that a phoenix on a globe in a Dutch 
 medal may have been the source of the idea which 
 was given an American adaptation. It is an 
 interesting fact, however, that there is — or was, 
 in 1 86 1, — preserved in the Royal Museum in 
 Amsterdam, an ancient New York token, bearing 
 on the obverse an eagle with wings displayed, 
 rising to the dexter, and the legend "New Yorke 
 in America." An electrotype copy is in the Yale 
 University numismatic collection. The token 
 bears no date, but the spelling of "New Yorke" 
 indicates a pre-Revolutionary date and Mr. F. P. 
 Brewer, in the Historical Magazine for October, 
 1 86 1 (p. 294), attributes it to the period between 
 1700 and 1706. But probably the compelling 
 reason for the adoption of the eagle by the State 
 of New York in 1778, by the United States in 1782 
 and by the City of New York in 1784 was that the 
 eagle is native to America and by its strength, 
 daring and vision, suggests power, independence
 
 62 The Eagle 
 
 and perspicacity. Furthermore, if the European 
 eagle was prominent in European heraldry, the 
 American eagle also had its place in American 
 heraldry before and at the time of the coming of 
 the white man to this continent ; for the American 
 Indians had a system of military, tribal and family 
 designation "comparable with the heraldic system 
 of Europe" 1 and the eagle was depicted on the 
 body, totem poles, baskets, pottery and wigwams 
 and by all the methods of art expression known 
 to the aborigines. In New York State, where the 
 eagle is bred, it was represented in the tribal 
 pictography of the Iroquois 2 and probably of the 
 coastal tribes. The eagle was universally vener- 
 ated by the natives and occupies a large place in 
 their religious ceremonies to this day. Its feathers 
 are highly prized not only for ceremonial purposes 
 but also for personal adornment, as appears from 
 the head decoration of the coastal tribes and the 
 elaborate war-bonnet of the Plains Indians. A 
 tail of twelve war-feathers is said to be worth a 
 pony among the latter. 
 
 1 Handbook of American Indians. Hodge, Bureau of 
 Ethnology. 
 
 3 Doc. Hist. N. Y.,I, page 4 and illustrations.
 
 Standard Design 63 
 
 As the city fathers of 1784 saw no incongruity 
 in associating the American eagle with the pre- 
 Revolutionary date of 1686 in their amended 
 seal, the city fathers of 191 5 have had no hesita- 
 tion on account of the eagle crest in setting back 
 the date on the standardized seal a few years 
 farther to the historic year 1664 in which the City 
 of New York was baptized with its present name. 
 
 VARIATIONS IN REPRESENTATIONS 
 
 The compelling reason for the Art Commis- 
 sion's recommendation of a standard design for the 
 City seal was that both in times past and at the 
 present time no fixed design has been adhered to 
 in the delineation of the City arms. In woodcuts 
 of the beaver these animals sometimes appear 
 like dogs and sometimes like pigs with pointed 
 snouts. The Indian is represented with a western 
 war-bonnet on his head (seal of 1686), or bald- 
 headed (woodcut of same), or with a cluster of 
 feathers like a rooster's tail (Mayor's Passport, 
 Corporation Manual, 1870). His apron follows 
 the styles of different tribes at different times. His 
 bow is the long one-piece bow, and also the double-
 
 64 Diverse Designs 
 
 curved bow. He shifts uneasily from the sinister 
 side to the dexter side, and when he gets tired he 
 sits down (Diagram of Aldermen's Chamber, 1854, 
 in Corporation Manual). The dexter supporter 
 is equally unreliable in his conduct and more 
 uncertain as to nationality and occupation. The 
 learned Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan took him for an 
 Indian, and in the great medallion inlaid in the 
 pavement on the south side of the Soldiers and 
 Sailors Monument in Riverside Park he is repre- 
 sented as a farmer holding a spade; but the con- 
 sensus of public opinion is that he is a sailor. At 
 times he is naked as if for a plunge overboard 
 (O'Callaghan's wood-cut) ; but that he has a 
 generous wardrobe is evident from the fact that 
 he wears knee-breeches (1686), longer "pants" 
 (1784), close-fitting trousers (1854) an ^ long white 
 sailor's trousers which roll up at the bottom 
 (1870). In the '5o's and '70's, he has a coat with 
 rolling lapels, waistcoat, necktie and stove-pipe 
 hat. Beginning with a smooth face so far as can 
 be learned, in the '6o's he wore side-whiskers 
 (Manual title-page) and now sometimes ap- 
 pears provided with ample chin whiskers. He
 
 Diverse Designs 65 
 
 exchanges places with the Indian from time to 
 time, strikes different aesthetic attitudes (letter- 
 head of the Board of Aldermen) and keeps the 
 Indian company in sitting down occasionally 
 (Mayor's Passport, Manual, 1870). He also 
 keeps progress with the times in nautical science. 
 He discards the old cross-staff (or what was 
 equally useless in navigation, the patriarchal cross) 
 and contents himself for a while with the lead-line ; 
 but as time goes on he acquires a sextant, and in 
 order that he may not again be taken for an Indian, 
 he is represented with an anchor and ships, which 
 surely indicate his nautical character. The eagle, 
 too, is restless on his perch, as perhaps is to be 
 expected of a liberty loving eagle. In 1784 he is 
 rising to the dexter, as required by law, but in 
 the 19th century he mounts in the other direction. 
 Generally he looks where he is going, but occasion- 
 ally he looks backward to see if he is being followed, 
 as has been his habit of late years (present City 
 seal). Just after the Revolution, some flowers 
 sprang up around the eagle (seal of 1784), but 
 with the increasing population of the City the 
 opportunities for gardening have grown less and
 
 66 The Official Flag 
 
 the flowers have disappeared, together with the 
 old date 1686 which was retained for a while in 
 the same seal. 
 
 This review of the vagaries in the representa- 
 tion of the City arms might be extended almost 
 indefinitely with examples from official seals, 
 letterheads, interior and exterior decorations of 
 public buildings, policemen's badges and buttons, 
 door-knobs in the court rooms, lamp-posts, etc.; 
 but enough has been said to enable the reader to 
 appreciate the motives of the Art Commission 
 Associates in recommending a standard design 
 in their report to the Art Commission on January 
 9, 1915. 
 
 THE OFFICIAL FLAG 
 
 The reasons for the recommendation of an 
 official City Flag are set forth in the report of the 
 Art Commission Associates dated January 9, 1915. 
 
 With respect to the perpendicular arrangement 
 of the colors of the flag it may be added that the 
 flag is not an imitation of the flag of the Nether- 
 lands, the Dutch East India Company or the 
 Dutch West India Company, but a new flag,
 
 Municipal Colors 67 
 
 embodying the historic colors of the Netherlands 
 arranged in a distinctive way. The perpendicular 
 arrangement follows that of the ensign of the old 
 City of Amsterdam, in which the municipal colors 
 - — red, black and red (with three white saltire 
 crosses on the black) — are so arranged; also of 
 the old flag of the City of Paris which was of two 
 colors, red and blue, arranged perpendicularly. 1 
 (At present Paris has no other flag than the 
 French tri-color.) The order of the arrangement 
 of the municipal colors of New York also follows 
 the practice, exemplified in the French, Belgian 
 and other tri-colors, of placing the darkest bar 
 next to the staff. The placing of the City arms 
 upon the flag follows in this respect not only the 
 unofficial city flag formerly in use but also other 
 precedent. 
 
 1 Mr. Louis Annin Ames, president of Annin & Co., flag makers.
 
 Ill 
 
 ART COMMISSION ASSOCIATES 
 
 REPORT ON THE 
 
 RESTORATION OF THE ANCIENT CORPORATE SEAL 
 
 AND THE 
 
 ADOPTION OF AN OFFICIAL FLAG 
 
 New York, January 9th, 1915. 
 
 To the Art Commission 
 
 of the City of New York. 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 At the annual meeting of the Art Commission 
 Associates held in January last the undersigned 
 were appointed a committee to consider and report : 
 
 1. An accurate rendering of the corporate 
 
 seal of the City. 
 
 2. A suitable design for a flag to be adopted 
 
 as the official colors of the City of New 
 York. 
 
 68
 
 Design of the Seal 69 
 
 As to the design of the City seal your Committee 
 report that it has been their endeavor only to 
 secure an accurate and artistic rendering of the 
 seal of the City as heretofore adopted and now in 
 use, in order to establish a well authenticated and 
 properly executed standard. At the present time 
 there is no standard of design for the City seal, 
 and while the seals now in use in the Mayor's 
 office and in the City departments conform in 
 general character, scarcely any two of them are 
 exactly alike and most of them are inaccurate 
 and highly inartistic in execution. For the sake 
 of consistency the seal wherever used should be 
 absolutely uniform in design. It should also be 
 as nearly accurate historically as possible and 
 should be designed and executed with the highest 
 artistic skill and with reference to its use not only 
 as an imprint on official documents but as an archi- 
 tectural feature when carved on municipal build- 
 ings. In the latter aspect the need for a carefully 
 studied and officially recognized design is of in- 
 creasing importance in view of the greater promi- 
 nence which is now given to the seal as an emblem 
 and ornament upon buildings erected by the City.
 
 70 Dongan Charter 
 
 An examination of the records enabled your 
 Committee to obtain photographs of early impres- 
 sions of the first City seal of which we have any 
 exact information, adopted after the City came 
 into the possession of the British in 1664 and took 
 the name "New York." The Dongan Charter of 
 April 2J, 1686, gave authority to the Mayor, 
 Aldermen and Commonalty and their successors 
 "as they shall see cause to break, change, alter 
 and new make their said Common Seal when and 
 as often as to them shall seem convenient" {Co- 
 lonial Laws of New York, 1: 186). Mr. Victor H. 
 Paltsits, formerly State Historian, is authority for 
 the statement that the seal so granted, known as 
 the "Seal of 1686," was the first City seal depend- 
 ing upon charter rights. At a meeting of the 
 Common Council held on July 24, 1686, the 
 Mayor presented "the New Seale of this City" 
 (Minutes Com. Coun., I: 179), and of this seal 
 Martha Lamb says in her History of New York 
 (I: 318): 
 
 "It was richer and more elaborate than the 
 old Dutch city seal ; but it preserved the beaver, 
 with the addition of a flour barrel and the arms
 
 Model of the Seal 71 
 
 of a windmill, signifying the prevailing com- 
 merce and industry." 
 
 The design of the seal of 1686 was modified in 1784 
 by the substitution of the eagle in place of the 
 royal crown as a crest, and has been reproduced 
 with this alteration, and the insertion of the date 
 "1664" in place of "1686." 
 
 The Committee have also been so fortunate as 
 to secure the services of Mr. Paul Manship, the 
 well-known sculptor, to execute a model of the 
 seal from the photographs above mentioned. In 
 this model, which is submitted herewith, all the 
 details of the original seal are rendered with his- 
 toric accuracy and fine artistic feeling, and your 
 Committee feel that Mr. Manship has performed 
 an important public service in thus preserving both 
 the design and the spirit of the ancient seal of the 
 City in a form which is available for use as a seal 
 in the literal sense of the term and also as an 
 imprint and architectural ornament. 
 
 Your Committee therefore recommend that the 
 model so executed be adopted as the official design 
 of the City seal, that it be cast in bronze or other
 
 72 Former Flag 
 
 permanent form and kept in the Mayor's office, 
 and that all representations of the seal impressed 
 or printed on City documents or carved on City 
 buildings hereafter shall be required to conform to 
 this design . 
 
 As to the City flag your committee beg to 
 report that the flag now in use consists of a white 
 field bearing the seal of the City in dark blue. An 
 exhaustive examination of the City records, how- 
 ever, has failed to disclose any resolution or other 
 official action adopting the design of a flag for the 
 City, nor has it been possible to determine when 
 the present flag came into use ; though resolutions 
 have been passed from time to time by the Board 
 of Aldermen directing the making of new City 
 flags. In view of the fact that the present flag is 
 not distinctive and has neither historical associa- 
 tion nor artistic merit to commend it and that there 
 appears to be no authority for its use except the 
 mere fact of usage, your Committee are of the 
 opinion that the City may properly and advan- 
 tageously direct its discontinuance and adopt for 
 the official flag a design which shall possess both 
 historic association and artistic merit and which
 
 Historic Colors 73 
 
 shall also be readily distinguishable from other 
 flags in general use. 
 
 Considered historically the colors which na- 
 turally suggest themselves are those which first 
 floated over the Island of Manhattan, viz.: the 
 orange, white and blue of the Dutch West India 
 Company — which were also the colors of the United 
 Provinces of the Netherlands in 1609 when Henry 
 Hudson discovered the river named after him and 
 when in 1626 New Amsterdam was settled by the 
 Dutch. The origin of the Dutch flag is set forth 
 in a history entitled Oorsprong der Nederlandsche 
 Vlag" by J. C. Dejonge, published at Amsterdam 
 in 1 83 1, from which the following translation is 
 made: 
 
 "The Netherlands are not indebted to an 
 alien prince for their famous flag, but the origi- 
 nator of the same is the Prince of Orange, that 
 William I, beyond all praise, who is also the 
 founder of the freedom of his people. This flag 
 consisted of the colors of the Prince and what 
 these colors were is shown by the commands of 
 the admiralty of Zealand, published in 1587, 
 which specifies the same as orange, white and 
 blue. Already in 1 582, at the time of the arrival 
 of the Duke of Anjou, the Netherlands possessed
 
 74 Prince of Orange 
 
 / 
 
 their own flag, and this was the insignia or livery 
 of William the Silent; orange, white and blue, 
 a flag borne by all the ships of the young repub- 
 lic in its warfare against Spain. The cry 
 1 Oranje boven ' proves that the orange was the 
 topmost color." 
 
 Another work on De Nederlandsche Vlag by C. 
 De Waard, published at Groningen in 1900, es- 
 tablishes the fact that prior to 1630 all flags used 
 by the Dutch were orange, white and blue, and 
 from the same authority it appears that a dark 
 blue rather than a light blue was the shade in use. 
 
 We are also informed by Professor Alexander 
 Smith, the head of the Department of Chemistry 
 in Columbia University, that the blue from indigo, 
 whether imported from India or Egypt or extracted 
 from the plant known as "woad, " which was cul- 
 tivated throughout Europe, was the only fast dye 
 of blue color which was known in 1626 when New 
 Amsterdam was founded. This amounts to a 
 demonstration that the blue of the original Dutch 
 flag must have been of pure indigo, a sample of 
 which has very kindly been furnished by Professor 
 Smith, and the blue bunting in the specimen flag
 
 Indigo Blue 75 
 
 herewith submitted has been specially dyed for the 
 purpose and exactly matches the sample. As to 
 the correct shade of orange, there has been no 
 question, and it is believed that the colors in the 
 specimen flag are all exact reproductions of those 
 of the Dutch flag of 1626. 
 
 In the opinion of your committee, the combina- 
 tion of colors represented in the original Dutch flag 
 has everything to commend it for adoption by the 
 City, viz., historical association extending back 
 to the very beginning of the settlement of New 
 Amsterdam; artistic and decorative quality; and 
 originality sufficient to distinguish it from flags in 
 use by other cities or countries. As a matter of 
 arrangement it seems desirable and in accordance 
 with usage that the colors should be placed in 
 perpendicular bars rather than horizontal stripes, 
 the blue being nearest to the flag-staff. It also 
 seems fitting that the seal of the City in blue should 
 be superimposed upon the middle, or white bar of 
 the flag. 
 
 Your committee therefore recommend the 
 adoption by the City as its official flag, and as a 
 substitute for the flag now in use, a flag combining
 
 76 Proposed Flag 
 
 the colors orange, white and blue, arranged in 
 perpendicular bars of equal dimensions, and bear- 
 ing the seal of the City in blue upon the middle or 
 white bar, the colors to conform as nearly as pos- 
 sible to those of the flag of the United Netherlands 
 in 1626, as shown in the sample herewith sub- 
 mitted. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 John B. Pine 
 I. N. Phelps Stokes 
 R. T. H. Halsey 
 Francis C. Jones 
 
 Committee.
 
 IV 
 
 ART COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF 
 NEW YORK 
 
 At a meeting of the Art Commission of the City 
 of New York held at the City Hall on the 8th day 
 of February, 1915, a report was submitted by a 
 committee of the Art Commission Associates "On 
 the restoration of the ancient corporate seal, and 
 the adoption of an official flag" by the City 
 of New York and it was thereupon unanimously 
 
 Resolved that the Art Commission accept the 
 report of the Art Commission Associates "On 
 the restoration of the ancient corporate seal and 
 the adoption of an official flag" by the City of 
 New York and heartily approve the recommen- 
 dations therein contained; and 
 
 Resolved that the report be printed and that 
 copies be sent to the Mayor and other members of 
 the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, and 
 to the Board of Aldermen; and 
 
 77
 
 78 Resolutions 
 
 Resolved that the Art Commission recommend : 
 
 1. The adoption by the City of the model of 
 the corporate seal of the City herewith submitted, 
 as the official design of such seal, the same to be 
 cast in bronze or other permanent form and kept 
 in the safe in the Mayor's office, and the adoption 
 of proper ordinances or other regulations requiring 
 that hereafter all representations of the seal 
 whether impressed or printed on City documents 
 or publications or carved on City buildings shall 
 be in exact conformity with such official design. 
 
 2. The adoption by the City as its official flag, 
 and as a substitute for the flag now in use, a flag 
 containing the colors orange, white, and blue 
 arranged in perpendicular bars of equal dimensions 
 (the blue being nearest to the flag staff), bearing 
 the seal of the City in blue upon the middle or 
 white bar, the colors to conform as nearly as 
 possible to those of the flag of the United Nether- 
 lands in use in 1626. 
 
 John A. Mitchell, 
 
 Secretary.
 
 THE MEANING OF THE SEAL AND FLAG 
 
 At a public hearing before a Committee of the 
 Board of Aldermen held in the Aldermanic Cham- 
 ber on March 22, 191 5, Mr. John B. Pine as 
 chairman of a special committee appointed by 
 the Art Commission Associates gave the following 
 explanation of the report of the Committee: 
 
 The design for a City seal recommended by the 
 Art Commission represents a conscientious effort 
 to restore the ancient corporate seal of the City so 
 far as that is possible. It is in no sense a new- 
 design and any criticism that it is not beautiful 
 or that it does not meet heraldic requirements is 
 irrelevant. No doubt a more beautiful seal could 
 be designed but we regard it as of far more import- 
 ance to perpetuate the seal which was adopted by 
 the Common Council in 1686 and which ever since 
 that date has been used by the City with but slight 
 
 .79
 
 80 Model of the Seal 
 
 modification as the symbol of its corporate entity. 
 In the model which we now submit Mr. Paul 
 Manship has given his services to our Committee, 
 and has furnished a reproduction which preserves 
 both the form and spirit of the old seal. The 
 original crest was a ducal crown, in recognition of 
 the Duke of York, but in 1784 the present crest 
 consisting of "a semi-dome with a soaring eagle 
 thereon " was substituted by the Common Council. 
 The original seal bears the date 1686 when it was 
 presented to the City by the then Mayor, but we 
 have taken the liberty of substituting the date 
 1664 when the City passed under English control 
 and was named "New York." 
 
 The original die of the seal has long since been 
 lost or destroyed but the design now offered has 
 been made from photographs of impressions taken 
 from it and can therefore claim to be authentic. 
 Its details have been carefully studied from con- 
 temporary documents, and record the historic 
 development of the City. The beavers which 
 appear on the shield preserve the characteristic 
 feature of the coat-of-arms granted to the New 
 Netherlands by the States General of Holland.
 
 Standard Design 81 
 
 The windmill and flour barrels were added in 
 1686 as signifying the then prevailing commerce 
 and industry. The costume and head-dress of the 
 Indian conform to early descriptions and drawings 
 of the tribe of the Manhattans, a branch of the 
 Mohicans, living on Manhattan Island; and the 
 sailor who appears as a supporter on the left 
 of the shield is in the costume of an English sailor 
 of the period, having in his hand a sounding line, 
 and over his shoulder a "cross-staff," the imple- 
 ment by which the early navigators determined 
 their latitude. 
 
 The general characteristics of this seal have 
 been preserved from the date of its adoption to the 
 present time, but so far as can be ascertained there 
 has never been a standard design, and as the result 
 a wide diversity exists in the imprints of the seal 
 appearing on the official publications of the City 
 and its departments. Scarcely any two of such 
 imprints are alike and many of them misrepresent 
 the seal in important particulars. 
 
 It will no doubt be conceded that the seals in use 
 by the City and its departments should be uni- 
 form in design, and it is for the purpose of estab-
 
 82 An Official Flag 
 
 lishing a standard, which shall be historically 
 accurate, and which shall preserve both the design 
 and spirit of the ancient seal of the City, that the 
 Art Commission recommend the adoption of the 
 model now submitted. 
 
 Up to the present time the City of New York 
 has never possessed an official flag in any true sense 
 of the term. The flag which has been displayed 
 on the City Hall, consisting of a white field bearing 
 the seal of the City, was never formally adopted by 
 the City authorities and had no distinctive char- 
 acteristic or historic association, while the flag 
 used by the Mayor and known as the "Mayor's 
 Flag" only represents the Mayor in his official 
 capacity. We feel that the City should have a 
 flag which is distinctively our own, which shall tell 
 the story of the City's origin and growth. 
 
 At our suggestion, the Art Commission have 
 recommended for adoption as the official flag of 
 the City of New York the colors which first floated 
 over the Island of Manhattan nearly three hundred 
 years ago when a little band of Dutchmen with a 
 courage and an enterprise which have never been 
 surpassed braved the dangers of unknown seas
 
 The Dutch Founders 83 
 
 and landed on these shores. It is to the cour- 
 age and the enterprise of this handful of men 
 that the City of New York owes its beginning, and 
 it is largely the love of civil liberty and the ideals 
 of democratic government which these men 
 brought with them that have made New York 
 the great city which it is to-day. We ask you to 
 commemorate this service and to embody these 
 ideals in the official flag of the City. 
 
 In our report we have explained in detail the 
 investigation which we have made to ascertain 
 the history of the flag and the exact colors used 
 by the United Netherlands and the Dutch West 
 India Company in 1626 as shown by historical 
 authorities, which we have had translated from 
 the Dutch, and to verify the colors by the best 
 scientific opinion. There was no question that 
 these colors were orange, white and blue, but as 
 to the particular shade of blue there was some 
 uncertainty. This we have removed by proving 
 that the only fixed blue dye in use in 1626 was a 
 pure indigo blue, whether made from woad or 
 from the indigo plant, and the blue bunting in the 
 specimen flag which we submit was especially dyed
 
 84 Original Colors 
 
 for the purpose, a pure indigo blue. In the orange 
 we have followed the distinctive color of the Prince 
 of Orange, the defender of the liberty of the 
 Netherlands. We believe that the flag now pro- 
 posed accurately represents the original colors. 
 In the flag of Henry Hudson and Peter Stuyvesant 
 the colors were arranged in horizontal stripes, but 
 we have placed them in perpendicular bars as 
 being more distinctive and as affording a better 
 opportunity for displaying the City seal. In our 
 flag the colors are Dutch, the arms are English, 
 the crest is distinctively American, but the flag 
 as such is the flag of the City, which has grown 
 from these beginnings to be the home of all nations, 
 the great cosmopolitan city of the world, The City 
 of New York 
 
 Chiefly, however, we urge you to adopt the flag 
 of orange, white and blue as the flag of The City 
 of New York for the sake of its meaning, as em- 
 blematic of the courage and independence which 
 repelled the tyranny of Spain and founded the 
 Dutch Republic, and which gave to New York 
 as its birthright free government, free speech, free 
 commerce, free schools, and free religion. This
 
 Page of History 85 
 
 flag is no mere decoration. It is a page of history 
 and its colors perpetuate a great tradition. It 
 stands for liberty and law. It represents the basic 
 idea of civil government which the founders 
 brought to us and which is our priceless heritage. 
 The suggestion made by the Chairman of your 
 Committee, Mr. Curran, that the ordinances re- 
 establishing the City seal and adopting the flag 
 shall take effect on the two hundred and fiftieth 
 anniversary of the installation of the present City 
 government, is a happy inspiration. No more 
 appropriate date could be selected, and it should 
 be commemorated in a manner worthy of the event.
 
 VI 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF 
 ALDERMEN 
 
 March 23, 1915. 
 
 Report of the Committee on Rules, in favor of 
 adopting an Ordinance to re-establish the 
 Corporate Seal of The City of New York. 
 
 The Committee on Rules, to which was referred 
 on March 16, 191 5 (Minutes, page 1594), a recom- 
 mendation by the Art Commission to re-establish 
 the corporate seal of The City of New York, re- 
 spectfully 
 
 reports: 
 
 That, at a public hearing, the proposed change 
 was urged by the same citizens as are mentioned 
 in the report on the city flag (page 89) . Great care 
 has been taken to have all representations made on 
 the model for the seal submitted to be historically 
 authentic and correct, and it is now believed that 
 
 86
 
 Report on the Seal 87 
 
 the seal proposed will contain all those features 
 to which any historic authority is attached. The 
 ordinance herewith submitted will enforce the use 
 of one design on all City documents. The Com- 
 mittee recognizes the labor attached to this work, 
 particularly the research involved, and compli- 
 ments the Committee in charge upon the result 
 thereof. 
 
 It recommends that the accompanying ordinance 
 be adopted. 
 
 [Then follows the ordinance as adopted on this 
 date.] 
 
 Henry H. Curran, Frank J. Dotzler, John 
 Diemer, F. H. Wilmot, O. Grant Esterbrook, 
 Frank L. Dowling, C. Augustus Post, Committee 
 on Rules. 
 
 Alderman Curran moved the adoption of said 
 ordinance. 
 
 The President, then in the chair, put the ques- 
 tion whether the Board would agree to accept said 
 report and adopt said ordinance. 
 
 Which was unanimously decided in the affirma- 
 tive by the following vote :
 
 88 
 
 Roll Call 
 
 AFFIRMATIVE — ALDERMEN 
 
 Bartscherer 
 
 Duggan 
 
 Mullen (Frank) 
 
 Bedell 
 
 Dujat 
 
 Mullen (Jas. F.) 
 
 Benninger 
 
 Ferguson 
 
 Nugent 
 
 Boschen 
 
 Ferrand 
 
 O'Rourke 
 
 Bosse 
 
 Eagan 
 
 Ottes 
 
 Brush 
 
 Fink 
 
 Pendry 
 
 Burden 
 
 Gaynor 
 
 Post 
 
 Burns 
 
 Hannon 
 
 Pouker 
 
 Carberry 
 
 Hogan 
 
 Quinn 
 
 Carroll 
 
 Jacobson 
 
 Reardon 
 
 Chorosh 
 
 Kenneally 
 
 Robitzek 
 
 Cole 
 
 Kenney 
 
 Rosenblum 
 
 Colne 
 
 Kochendorfer 
 
 Schmelzel 
 
 Cunningham 
 
 Lein 
 
 Schweickert 
 
 Curran 
 
 Levy 
 
 Squiers 
 
 Delaney 
 
 McCourt 
 
 Stapleton 
 
 Diemer 
 
 McGarry 
 
 Stevenson 
 
 Dixson 
 
 McNally 
 
 Taylor 
 
 Donnelly 
 
 Milligan 
 
 Trau 
 
 Dostal 
 
 Molen 
 
 Weil 
 
 Dotzler 
 
 Moore (Chas. 
 
 J.) Wendel 
 
 Dowling 
 
 Moore (Jesse 
 
 D.) Wilmot
 
 Report on the Flag 89 
 
 and President Connolly, President Mathewson, 
 by John G. Borgstede, Commissioner of Public 
 Works; President Pounds, by Edmund W. Voor- 
 hies, Commissioner of Public Works; President 
 Marks; the Vice-Chairman; the President— 72. 
 
 Report of the Committee on Rules, in favor 
 of adopting an Ordinance establishing an 
 Official Flag for The City of New York. 
 
 March 23, 1915. 
 The Committee on Rules, to which was referred 
 on March 16, 19 15 (Minutes, page 1594), a recom- 
 mendation, by the Art Commission on the adoption 
 of a City flag, respectfully 
 
 reports: 
 
 That the Art Commission, through Messrs. 
 John B. Pine, I. N. Phelps Stokes and Francis C. 
 Jones, and Assistant Secretary Adams, together 
 with Mr. V. H. Paltsits of the New York Public 
 Library (former State Historian); Mr. Guy Van 
 Amringe, for the Saint Nicholas Society, and Dr. 
 Edward Hagaman Hall, for the American Scenic
 
 9° Report on the Flag 
 
 and Historical Preservation Society, appeared 
 before the Committee and advocated the adoption 
 of the design presented by the Art Commission, 
 which is also endorsed by the Colonial Dames of 
 the State of New York. The Committee believes 
 that a City flag is a distinctive advance in the 
 cultivation of civic pride, and that the one recom- 
 mended is most appropriate, and it therefore 
 recommends that the accompanying ordinance be 
 adopted. 
 
 [Then follows the ordinance as adopted on this 
 date.] 
 
 Henry H. Curran, Frank J. Dotzler, John 
 Diemer, F. H. Wilmot, O. Grant Esterbrook, 
 Frank L. Dowling, C. Augustus Post, Committee 
 on Rules. 
 
 Alderman Curran moved the adoption of said 
 ordinance. 
 
 The President, then in the chair, put the ques- 
 tion whether the Board would agree to accept said 
 report and adopt said ordinance. 
 
 Which was unanimously decided in the affirma- 
 tive by the following vote:
 
 Roll Call 
 
 9i 
 
 AFFIRMATIVE— ALDERMEN 
 
 Bartscherer 
 
 Duggan 
 
 Mullen (Frank) 
 
 Bedell 
 
 Dujat 
 
 Mullen (Jas. F.) 
 
 Benninger 
 
 Ferguson 
 
 Nugent 
 
 Boschen 
 
 Ferrand 
 
 O'Rourke 
 
 Bosse 
 
 Eagan 
 
 Ottes 
 
 Brush 
 
 Fink 
 
 Pendry 
 
 Burden 
 
 Gaynor 
 
 Post 
 
 Burns 
 
 Hannon 
 
 Pouker 
 
 Carberry 
 
 Hogan 
 
 Quinn 
 
 Carroll 
 
 Jacobson 
 
 Reardon 
 
 Chorosh 
 
 Kenneally 
 
 Robitzek 
 
 Cole 
 
 Kenney 
 
 Rosenblum 
 
 Colne 
 
 Kochendorfer 
 
 Schmelzel 
 
 Cunningham 
 
 Lein 
 
 Schweickert 
 
 Curran 
 
 Levy 
 
 Squiers 
 
 Delaney 
 
 McCourt 
 
 Stapleton 
 
 Diemer 
 
 McGarry 
 
 Stevenson 
 
 Dixson 
 
 McNally 
 
 Taylor 
 
 Donnelly 
 
 Milligan 
 
 Trau 
 
 Dostal 
 
 Molen 
 
 Weil 
 
 Dotzler 
 
 Moore (Chas. 
 
 J.) Wendel 
 
 Dowling 
 
 Moore (Jesse 
 
 D.) Wilmot
 
 92 Report of Committee 
 
 and President Connolly, President Mathewson, 
 by John G. Borgstede, Commissioner of Public 
 Works; President Pounds, by Edmund W. Voor- 
 hies, Commissioner of Public Works; President 
 Marks; the Vice-Chairman; the President — 72. 
 
 Report of the Committee on Rules in favor of 
 revising the Ordinances approved on April 6, 
 1915, re-establishing the Corporate Seal of 
 The City of New York and establishing an 
 Official City Flag. 
 
 April 27, 191 5 
 The Committee on Rules, to which was referred 
 on April 13, 1 91 5 (Minutes, page 147), An Ordin- 
 ance amending an Ordinance relating to the adop- 
 tion of an official flag by The City of New York, 
 approved April 6, 1915, respectfully 
 
 reports: 
 
 The ordinances providing for the adoption of an 
 official flag by The City of New York and the re- 
 establishment of the original corporate seal of the
 
 June 24, 1 91 5 93 
 
 City which were adopted by the Board of Aldermen 
 on March 23, 191 5, and approved by the Mayor 
 on April 6, 19 1 5, have received almost universal 
 commendations from the press and from the 
 organizations and individuals particularly inter- 
 ested, and the designs so adopted have been gen- 
 erally accepted with strong expressions of approval. 
 
 Certain typographical errors which have been 
 discovered in the printing of the ordinances render 
 it necessary that these errors should be corrected, 
 and it has been suggested that several slight 
 changes be made in the wording. Attention has 
 been called to the fact that, owing to the change 
 of the calendar from the old style to the new style, 
 the date June 12th, old style, is now June 24th 
 under the new style. 
 
 It has also been suggested that when the design 
 for the seal is used on the City flag or for architec- 
 tural or ornamental purposes, the legend "Sigil- 
 lum Civitatis Novi Eboraci," is superfluous and 
 detracts from the design, and might therefore well 
 be omitted. The proposed changes involve no 
 material alteration in the design of the flag and 
 seal as previously recommended and adopted, but,
 
 94 Ordinances Revised 
 
 in the opinion of your Committee, are desirable. 
 
 Your Committee therefore recommend the 
 adoption of the following substitute ordinances. 
 
 Henry H. Curran, Frank J. Dotzler, John 
 Diemer, F. H. Wilmot, O. Grant Esterbrook, 
 Frank L. Dowling, C. Augustus Post, Committee 
 on Rules. 
 
 Then follow the proposed ordinances which were 
 adopted in the form of an amendment to Chapter 
 I, Article 2, of the Code of Ordinances of The 
 City of New York, as printed in Chapter VII.
 
 VII 
 
 CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHAPTER I. ARTICLE 2. 
 
 §2. City Seal. a. Description. The corporate 
 seal of The City of New York, as adopted by the 
 common council on July 24, 1686, with the altera- 
 tion adopted by the common council on March 
 16, 1784, is hereby re-established, and the follow- 
 ing device is hereby adopted as the device of said 
 seal, to wit: 
 
 Arms: Upon a shield, saltire-wise, the sails of 
 a windmill. Between the sails, in chief a beaver, 
 in base a beaver, and on each flank a flour 
 barrel ; 
 
 Supporters: Dexter, a sailor, his right arm 
 
 bent, and holding in his right hand a plummet; 
 
 95
 
 96 City Seal 
 
 his left arm bent, his left hand resting on 
 the top of the shield; above his right shoulder 
 a cross-staff. Sinister, an Indian of Man- 
 hattan, his right arm bent, his right hand 
 resting on the top of the shield, his left hand 
 holding the upper end of a bow, the lower 
 end of which rests on the ground. Shield and 
 supporters resting upon a horizontal laurel 
 branch; 
 
 Date: Beneath the horizontal laurel branch 
 the date 1664, being the year of the capture 
 of New Amsterdam by the English and the 
 first use of the name of the City of New 
 York; 
 
 Crest: Upon a hemisphere, an American eagle 
 with wings displayed; 
 
 Legend: Upon a ribbon encircling the lower 
 half of the design the words "Sigillum Civitatis 
 Novi Eboraci"; 
 
 The whole encircled by a laurel wreath. 
 
 b. Design. The following design is hereby 
 adopted as the official and standard design of such 
 corporate seal :
 
 Custody of Seal 
 
 97 
 
 c. Execution and custody of. The city clerk 
 
 shall cause to be executed and cast in bronze a 
 
 model of the foregoing design as the standard 
 
 corporate seal of the city and shall keep the same 
 
 in his custody. The city clerk shall also cause the 
 
 said design to be engraved in accurate conformity 
 
 therewith upon metal as the seal of the city and 
 
 shall keep and affix the same, as provided in §31 
 
 of the charter; and he shall also provide in the 
 
 same manner for all other officers of the city who 
 
 are required or authorized by law to have or use 
 
 the corporate seal of the city. 
 7
 
 98 Use of the Seal 
 
 d. Date of effect and use of. On and after 
 June 24, 1 91 5, the said seal shall be used for all 
 requisite purposes and all representations of the 
 seal of the city impressed or printed on and after 
 said date on documents, publications or stationery 
 issued or used by or in the name or under the 
 authority of the city or of any borough or depart- 
 ment thereof, or carved, or otherwise represented 
 on buildings or structures owned by the city; or 
 otherwise officially portrayed shall be in exact 
 conformity with the aforesaid standard design 
 without alteration or addition, except that the 
 legend "Sigillum Civitatis Novi Eboraci" may be 
 omitted when the design is used on the city flag or 
 for architectural or ornamental purposes . The seals 
 now in use by the city clerk and by any other city 
 officers shall be defaced and cancelled on said date 
 by the city clerk and shall remain in his custody. 
 
 § 3. Official City Flag. The following design 
 is hereby adopted as the design of the official flag 
 of the city and as a substitute for the flag now in 
 use, to wit : 
 
 A flag combining the colors orange, white and 
 blue, arranged in perpendicular bars of equal
 
 City Flag 99 
 
 dimensions (the blue being nearest to the flagstaff) 
 with the standard design of the seal of the city 
 in blue upon the middle, or white bar, omitting the 
 legend "Sigillum Civitatis Novi Eboraci," which 
 said colors shall be the same as those of the flag of 
 the United Netherlands in use in the year 1626. 
 
 § 4. Mayor's Flag. The official flag of the 
 mayor shall be the same in design as the official flag 
 of the city, except that upon the middle or white bar 
 there shall be above the design of the seal in a semi- 
 circle, five blue five-pointed stars, typifying the five 
 boroughs of the city ; the dimensions of such flag 
 shall be thirty-three inches by forty-four inches. 
 
 § 5. Flags and decorations on City Hall. All 
 power and authority to display flags or other 
 decorations on, in or about the City Hall, or other 
 public buildings within the City Hall park, is 
 hereby vested in the mayor, unless otherwise 
 ordered by the board of aldermen, by a vote of a 
 majority of all the members elected to the board. 
 
 Adopted by the Board of Aldermen, April 27, 
 
 1915. 
 Approved by the Mayor, May 1, 1915.
 
 The Seal of The City of New York 
 
 Cancelled by Ordinance on 
 
 June 24, 19 15
 
 ANNIVERSARY COMMITTEE 
 Appointed by the Mayor 
 
 George McAneny, 
 
 Chairman 
 Mrs. Robert Abbe 
 John Quincy Adams 
 Cyrus Adler 
 Louis Annin Ames 
 Frank L. Babbott 
 Willard Bartlett 
 Howard R. Bayne 
 Daniel M. Bedell 
 Gerard Beekman 
 Henry L. Bogert 
 George C. Boldt 
 Reginald Pelham Bolton 
 John H. Boschen 
 Robert H. Bosse 
 Elmer E. Brown 
 Arnold W. Brunner 
 William D. Brush 
 George W. Burleigh 
 Howard Russell Butler 
 Nicholas Murray Butler 
 Beverly Chew 
 Joseph H. Choate 
 
 Thomas W. Churchill 
 Theodore W. Compton 
 Maurice E. Connolly 
 Robert Grier Cooke 
 Mrs. Maria Duane 
 
 Bleecker Cox 
 Henry H. Curran 
 Gherardi Davis 
 Vernon M. Davis 
 Robert W. de Forest 
 John Diemer 
 Frank L. Dowling 
 William Duggan 
 Edward Eichhorn 
 O. Grant Esterbrook 
 John S. Gaynor 
 Cass Gilbert 
 Edward Hagaman Hall 
 R. T. H. Halsey 
 James Hamilton 
 A. Augustus Healy 
 Mrs. A. Barton Hepburn 
 Charles G. Hine 
 Oscar Igstaedter 
 
 IOI
 
 102 Anniversary Committee 
 
 Henry P. Johnston 
 William A. Johnston 
 Francis C. Jones 
 Robert D. Kohn 
 George F. Kunz 
 Henry M. Leipziger 
 Goodhue Livingston 
 Seth Low 
 
 Charles J. McCormack 
 St. Clair McKelway 
 Mrs. James Allen Mac- 
 
 donald 
 Marcus M. Marks 
 Douglas Mathewson 
 Richard W. Meade 
 Sidney E. Mezes 
 Adolph S. Ochs 
 Victor Hugo Paltsits 
 William H. Pendry 
 John B. Pine 
 Hyman Pouker 
 Lewis H. Pounds 
 Frederic B. Pratt 
 Ralph E. Prime 
 Ralph Pulitzer 
 Leo L. Redding 
 William C. Reick 
 Ogden M. Reid 
 
 Philip Rhinelander 
 
 T. J. Oakley Rhinelander 
 
 Herman Ridder 
 
 Elihu Root 
 
 Theodore Rousseau 
 
 Henry W. Sackett 
 
 Mrs. Russell Sage 
 
 Arthur F. Schermerhorn 
 
 F. Augustus Schermer- 
 horn 
 
 Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler 
 
 Patrick J. Scully 
 
 Frederick H. Stevenson 
 
 Edward W. Stitt 
 
 I. N. Phelps Stokes 
 
 Mrs. William C. Story 
 
 Charles W. Stcughton 
 
 Charles H. Strong 
 
 Mrs. Edward N. Town- 
 send, Jr. 
 
 Guy Van Amringe 
 
 Mrs. Schuyler Van Rens- 
 selaer 
 
 Cabot Ward 
 
 Harry W. Watrous 
 
 Jacob A. Weil 
 
 Alfred T. White 
 
 William G. Willcox
 
 PLATE VI 
 
 >DOQDOV10i2Q^S3000QiQrQ] 
 
 IN COMMEMORATION OF 
 THE 
 
 OF THE ESTABLISHMENT ON 
 
 JUNE- 24 • 1663 
 
 OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT UNDER 
 
 THE MAYOR AND BOARD OF ALDERMEN 
 
 OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 AS SUCCESSORS IN OFFICE TO 
 
 THE BURGOMASTERS AND SCHEFENS 
 
 OF THE CITY OF NEW AMSTERDAM 
 
 Bronze Tablet in the City Hall
 
 Anniversary Committee 103 
 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 
 George F. Kunz, George W. Burleigh, 
 
 Chairman Secretary 
 
 Richard W. Meade, Treasurer 
 
 John Quincy Adams 
 Frank L. Babbott 
 Reginald Pelham Bolton 
 Henry H. Curran 
 Gherardi Davis 
 Frank L. Dowling 
 Edward Hagaman Hall 
 Francis C. Jones 
 
 Henry M. Leipziger 
 Victor Hugo Paltsits 
 John B. Pine 
 Henry W. Sackett 
 Edward W. Stitt 
 Guy Van Amringe 
 Alfred T. White
 
 tl*5 
 
 
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