Saving New York site At-a-Glance:
Introduces the book, "New York Firefighting and the American Revolution" with an array of postcards illustrating the life and times of the colonial period. When you roll-over any postcard with your cursor, it will expand to a more detailed caption. Clicking on an expanded card will take you into an Appendix that has references, illustrations, tables, graphs and hard-working explanations. Also presented on the Main Page (below the fold as they say) are examples of some special elements of the web site, many of which are shown here for the first time. For example, clicking on the illustration of church ruins will take you to a view from Wall Street in 1776 of the intersection of Broadway and Rector Streets.
A complete detailed view and direct access to the website. Don't click anywhere, you're right here!
Presented here is the seminal commission that investigated the great New York Fire of 1776. It has graphical highlights of the report, a detailed overview of the testimony of forty sworn witnesses, a facsimile of the actual hand-written record, and a transcribed typed-text of the proceedings. It is one of the most important documents on this site, first published here in 2016, and was futher reviewed on NYU's Gotham Blog web site in 2021.
Provides a short summary, thumbnails and links to the many Illustrations on this site. Several links take you to multiple illustrations, such as the six Views of New Netherland. Many of the illustrations are presented here for the first time.
Provides a short summary, thumbnails and links to the many maps on this site. These maps are in two general categories - archival maps of the time such as the Stokes redraft of the circa 1660 Castello map, with new data highlighted on it; and maps of New York extrapolated from several archival maps before and after the map as presented, such as the Map of the 1778 Fire, which modifies the outdated Grim Map with shorelines from maps closer to but after 1778.
Provides a short summary, thumbnails and links to the many Graphs on this site. The links will often take you to more than a graph or two. Sometimes they link to pages with tables and Excel spreadsheets where further analysis was done. These spreadsheets have easily manipulable data to refine the story of what colonial America was like, e.g., the Census of 1703 with details of every household in the town.
Is a narrative section that tells the sometimes fantastic stories that were beyond the scope of the book that the author thought were too good to pass up. From the days of Thienhoven bringing his mistress back from Amsterdam oblivious to being met at the dock by his wife and three kids in 1650--to Aaron Burr in 1790s forming the shell of a water company to slip the first Republican-controlled bank into New York with the unwitting help of his soon-to-be-former friend, Mr. Federalist, Alexander Hamilton.
A page extolling Docema's projects before this most recent one, the website of Saving New York. Includes the short video of the "Making of Damrell's Fire" film.
Tells the story of how "New York Firefighting and the American Revolution" came to be, as it expanded from a chapter in an unfinished book to the extraordinary narrative and rich illustrations of the book with the added dimensions of the Saving New York website.
Uses the Table of Contents from the book as the stucture for a detailed outline with short summaries of the major parts of the book and links to the Web Appendices.
A short one page summary of the major narrative threads in the book - the total community dedication to firefighting and fire prevention of the Dutch period, the motivation for the acqusition of fire engines and formation of the FDNY, the effectiveness of the FDNY in the pre-Revolutionary period, the political pressures on the FDNY as the Revolution roils in, the FDNY in the Revolution and in its aftermath.
Reproduces the detailed and comprehensive bibliography from the book, listing the sources for the research done, many of which were primary such as the original Dutch and English colonial records, the minutes of the Common Council of the city, archival newspaper articles, and letters from major figures such as Washington and colonial governors.
A short two paragraph bio of the author with a 15 year-old picture. For the current picture, with depreciation clearly visible, you have to buy the book.
The collections of Web Appendices grouped by Parts of the Book.
Web Appendices 1-14 with a short summary of and links to each appendix. Definitive references and analyses covering the period 1640 to 1740.
Web Appendices 15-22 with a short summary of and links to each appendix. Definitive references and analyses covering the period 1741 to 1775
Web Appendices 23-30 with a short summary of and links to each appendix. Definitive references and analyses covering the period 1776 to 1783+.
Supplemental Web Appendices with summary and link to each. Illustrations of New Amsterdam; How the Glorious Revolution came to New York; surveys of historians on the culpability for the 1776 fires, and much more.
The film as originally broadcast on PBS in 2006, three vignettes on "The Making of Damrell's Fire and the WGBH presentation at Old South Church in Boston on John Damrell entitled "The Hero of the Great Boston Fire of 1872."
Full PBS Movie - Parts 1 & 2 - IMDb Rating 7.7/10 and behind the Scenes vignettes of the film Broadside.
Crucial Firefighting Moments of the Great New York Fire of 1776.
Roelantsen house, Newsham Engine, Trinity neighborhood.
NYC Fire Museum Trailer for the Permanent Exhibit, TV Coverage of the Permanent Exhibit and TV Coverage of the Original 2023 Exhibit.
1776 Panel Discussion on the fire that destroyed 20% of New York City on September 21, 1776, just days after the British occupation.