Origins
We are commissioning innovative light artists to create a series of projections, holograms and light sculptures of New York’s founders. Their eventful life stories will be projected around the park on buildings, fences, walls, air shafts, trees and the Hudson River.
Accompanied by lively recordings based on the experiences of the early settlers and the Munsee, Manhattan’s American Indians, Origins will provide visitors with a dynamic step back in time to the beginnings of New Amsterdam / early New York.
Downtown Manhattan, NYC
Coming Soon!
The indoor version of Origins will be on display in downtown Manhattan (NYC) starting in 2016/2017. Entrance will be at a fee, the location will be announced shortly. The walking tour takes 1 hour and will also be available online. There is still plenty of opportunity for refinements and additions. The outdoor version in Battery Park, featured in the Origins video, is still on our drawing board - please subscribe to our newsletter for updates about this celebration of New Amsterdam/New York's legacy.
Watch the NY Origins official trailer
Meet some of New York's founders
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American Indians (America)
The original settlers of ‘Mannahatta’, or ‘Manahatouh’ in the Munsee language: ‘the place where we get bows’.
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Henry Hudson (England)
Henry Hudson dropped anchor in NY Harbor early September 1609 with his ship ‘Halve Maen’ (Half Moon).
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Petrus Stuyvesant (Dutch Republic)
New Amsterdam’s one-legged, powerful and last Governor.
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Catalina Tricot (France/Wallonia)
Great-grandmother of over 1,000,000 Americans, with her Walloon husband Joris Rapalje.
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Asser Levy (Poland or Germany)
Jewish activist, merchant, butcher and a successful mediator.
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Griet Reyniers (Dutch Republic)
New Amsterdam’s notorious prostitute, wife of the Moroccan pirate Anthony van Salee, and related to the Vanderbilts.
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Adriaen van der Donck (Dutch Republic)
Lawyer, landowner, writer and activist, whose nickname ‘Jonker’ lives on in the name of the city of Yonkers.
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Jan Rodrigues (Dominican Republic)
New York’s first non-native American settler, who lived on Manhattan in the winter of 1613.
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Manuel (West coast of Africa)
Survivor of a public hanging, one of the first freed slaves in New York, and a pioneering farmer on what is now Washington Square Park.
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Margrieta van Varick (Dutch Republic)
A 17th century businesswoman. After her arrival in Flatbush (Brooklyn) with her minister husband Rudolphus in 1686, she set up a textile shop.
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Jacob Leisler (Germany)
An influential business- and political figure who was pardoned shortly after being executed by the British.
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Govert Loockermans (Belgium/Flanders)
From rags to riches: cook’s mate, clerc, very wealthy merchant, brewer, founding father of NYC.
