The Yellow Kid
The Yellow Kid was a lead American comic strip character that ran from 1895 to 1898 in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Created and drawn by Richard F. Outcault in the comic strip Hogan's Alley, it was one of the first Sunday supplement comic strips in an American newspaper, although its graphical layout had been established in political and other, purely-for-entertainment cartoons. Outcault's use of word balloons in the Yellow Kid influenced the basic appearance and use of balloons in subsequent newspaper comic strips and comic books; the Yellow Kid is famous for its connection to the coining of the term "yellow journalism." The idea of "yellow journalism" was the sensationalized stories for the sake of selling papers, named from the "Yellow Kid" cartoons. Although a cartoon, Outcault's work aimed its humor and social commentary at Pulitzer's adult readership; the strip has been described as "... a turn-of-the-century theater of the city, in which class and racial tensions of the new urban, consumerist environment were acted out by a mischievous group of New York City kids from the wrong side of the tracks."
Mickey Dugan, better known as The Yellow Kid, was a bald, snaggle-toothed barefoot boy who wore an oversized yellow nightshirt and hung around in a slum alley typical of certain areas of squalor that existed in late 19th-century New York City. Hogan's Alley was filled with odd characters other children. With a goofy grin, the Kid habitually spoke in a ragged, peculiar slang, printed on his shirt, a device meant to lampoon advertising billboards; the Yellow Kid's head was drawn wholly shaved as if having been ridden of lice, a common sight among children in New York's tenement ghettos at the time. His nightshirt, a hand-me-down from an older sister, was white or pale blue in the first color strips; the character who would become the Yellow Kid first appeared on the scene in a minor supporting role in cartoon panel published in Truth magazine in 1894 and 1895. The four different black-and-white single panel cartoons were deemed popular, one of them, Fourth Ward Brownies, was reprinted on 17 February 1895 in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, where Outcault worked as a technical drawing artist.
The World published another, newer Hogan's Alley cartoon less than a month and this was followed by the strip's first color printing on 5 May 1895. Hogan's Alley became a full-page Sunday color cartoon with the Yellow Kid as its lead character. In 1896 Outcault was hired away at a much higher salary to William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal American where he drew the Yellow Kid in a new full-page color strip, violent and vulgar compared to his first panels for Truth magazine; because Outcault failed in his attempt to copyright the Yellow Kid, Pulitzer was able to hire George Luks to continue drawing the original version of the strip for the World and hence the Yellow Kid appeared in two competing papers for about a year. Luks's version of the Yellow Kid introduced a pair of twins and George dressed in yellow nightshirts. Outcault produced three subsequent series of Yellow Kid strips at the Journal American, each lasting no more than four months: McFadden's Row of Flats Around the World with the Yellow Kid – a strip that sent the Kid on a world tour in the manner of Nellie Bly A half-page strip which adopted the title Ryan's Arcade.
Publication of both versions stopped abruptly after only three years in early 1898, as circulation wars between the rival papers dwindled. Moreover, Outcault may have lost interest in the character when he realized he couldn't retain exclusive commercial control over it; the Yellow Kid's last appearance is most noted as 23 January 1898 in a strip about hair tonic. On 1 May 1898, the character was featured in a rather satirical cartoon called Casey Corner Kids Dime Museum but he was drawn as a bearded, balding old man wearing a green nightshirt which bore the words: "Gosh I've growed old in making dis collection."The Yellow Kid appeared now and in Outcault's cartoon strips, most notably Buster Brown. The two newspapers which ran the Yellow Kid, Pulitzer's World and Hearst's Journal American became known as the yellow kid papers; this was contracted to the yellow papers and the term yellow kid journalism was at last shortened to yellow journalism, describing the two newspapers' editorial practices of taking sensationalism and profit as priorities in journalism.
The Yellow Kid's image was an early example of lucrative merchandising and appeared on mass market retail objects in the greater New York City area such as "billboards, cigarette packs, cracker tins, ladies' fans, postcards, chewing gum cards, toys and many other products". With the Yellow Kid's merchandising success as an advertising icon, the strip came to represent the crass commercial world it had lampooned. Entertainment entrepreneur Gus Hill staged vaudeville plays based on the comic strip, his version of McFadden's Flats was made into films in 1927 and 1935. The Yellow Kid made an appearance in the Marvel Universe in the Joss Whedon-written Runaways story. In this take on the character, he exhibits superhuman powers. In the Ziggy of February 16, 1990, Ziggy points to a smiling old man seated next to him on a park bench and says, "No kidding... You were The Yellow Kid!" The Yellow Kid Awards are Italian comics awards presented by the Italian International Comics an
Child actor
The term child actor or child actress is applied to a child acting on stage or in motion pictures or television, but to an adult who began their acting career as a child. To avoid confusion, the latter is called a former child actor. Associated is teenage actor or teen actor, an actor who reached popularity as a teenager. Many child actors find themselves struggling to adapt. Lindsay Lohan and Macaulay Culkin are two particular famous child actors who experienced much difficulty with the fame they acquired at a young age. Many child actors become successful adult actors as well, a prime example of this being Jodie Foster, whose career includes such films like the 1976 film Taxi Driver, the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs and the 2007 film The Brave One. In the United States, the activities of child actors are regulated by the governing labor union, if any, state laws; some projects film in remote locations to evade regulations intended to protect the child. Longer work hours or risky stunts prohibited in California, for example, might be permitted to a project filming in British Columbia.
US federal law "specifically exempted minors working the Entertainment Business from all provisions of the Child Labor Laws." Any regulation of child actors is governed by disparate state law. Due to the large presence of the entertainment industry in California, it has some of the most explicit laws protecting child actors. Being a minor, a child actor must secure an entertainment work permit before accepting any paid performing work. Compulsory education laws mandate that the education of the child actor not be disrupted while the child is working, whether the child actor is enrolled in public school, private school or home school; the child does his/her schoolwork under the supervision of a studio teacher while on the set. Before the 1930s, many child actors never got to see the money they earned because they were not in charge of this money. Jackie Coogan earned millions of dollars from working as a child actor only to see most of it squandered by his parents. In 1939, California weighed in on this controversy and enacted the Coogan Bill which requires a portion of the earnings of a child to be preserved in a special savings account called a blocked trust.
A trust, not monitored can be problematic however as in the case of Gary Coleman who after working from 1974 sued his adoptive parents and former business advisor for $3.8 million over misappropriation of his trust fund. Some people criticize the parents of child actors for allowing their children to work, believing that more "normal" activities should be the staple during the childhood years. Others observe that competition is present in all areas of a child's life—from sports to student newspaper to orchestra and band—and believe that the work ethic instilled or the talent developed accrues to the child's benefit; the child actor may experience unique and negative pressures when working under tight production schedules. Large projects which depend for their success on the ability of the child to deliver an effective performance add to the pressure. Ethel Merman, who several times worked in long-running stage productions with child actors, disliked what she saw as their overprofessionalization - "acting more like midgets than children" - and disapproved of parents pushing adulthood on them.
The failure to retain stardom and success and the exposure at a young age to fame has caused many child actors to lead adult lives plagued by legal troubles and drug abuse. Examples include child cast members of the American sitcom Diff'rent Strokes Todd Bridges, Gary Coleman, Dana Plato. Plato was featured in several softcore pornography films, she was arrested twice for armed robbery and forging prescriptions, died in May 1999 from an overdose of prescription medication, deemed suicide. Coleman famously sued his parents for misuse of his trust fund and, although awarded over $1,000,000, filed for bankruptcy in 1999. After many charges of assault throughout the next years, Coleman died in May 2010. Bridges was plagued with many legal troubles as well as an addiction to cocaine. After breaking this habit, he traveled across the U. S. touring schools and warning about the dangers of drug abuse. He has since made several cameo appearances on multiple television programs; the popular television sitcom Full House made child stars out of the Olsen twins.
After the show, Sweetin went on to develop an addiction to methamphetamine, as well as alcoholism. She overcame this and wrote a memoir describing her experiences. Mary-Kate Olsen and Tracey Gold developed eating disorders, for which they were treated with intensive rehab. Anissa Jones, of Family Affair fame, overdosed on August 28, 1976 at age 18. Jonathan Brandis, who appeared in a number of films as a child and teenager, committed suicide in 2003 at the age of 27 due to reasons related to his lack of continued success into adulthood. Sawyer Sweeten, a child actor who portrayed Geoffrey Barone on the American sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, took his life in 2015 at the age of 19 after a period of depression. Drew Barrymore was notorious for her illegal and public antics beginning shortly after her first role in E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Barrymore admits to smoking cigarettes at age nine, drinking alcohol by the time she was eleven, smoking marijuana at the age of twelve, snorting cocaine at the age of thirteen.
At the age of fourteen, she attempted suicide. Another popular example today of child actors with post-success troubles would be Lindsay Lohan. Famous for her starring roles in The Parent Trap, Freaky Friday, Confessions of a Teenage Dr
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. Barbie is the figurehead of a brand of Mattel dolls and accessories, including other family members and collectible dolls. Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for over fifty years, has been the subject of numerous controversies and lawsuits involving parodies of the doll and her lifestyle. Mattel has sold over a billion Barbie dolls, making it the company's largest and most profitable line. However, sales have declined since 2014; the doll transformed the toy business in affluent communities worldwide by becoming a vehicle for the sale of related merchandise. She had a significant impact on social values by conveying characteristics of female independence, with her multitude of accessories, an idealized upscale life-style that can be shared with affluent friends.
Starting in 1987, Barbie has expanded into a media franchise, including animated films, television specials, video games, music. Ruth Handler watched her daughter Barbara play with paper dolls, noticed that she enjoyed giving them adult roles. At the time, most children's toy dolls were representations of infants. Realizing that there could be a gap in the market, Handler suggested the idea of an adult-bodied doll to her husband Elliot, a co-founder of the Mattel toy company, he was unenthusiastic about the idea, as were Mattel's directors. During a trip to Europe in 1956 with her children Barbara and Kenneth, Ruth Handler came across a German toy doll called Bild Lilli; the adult-figured doll was what Handler had in mind, so she purchased three of them. She gave one to her daughter and took the others back to Mattel; the Lilli doll was based on a popular character appearing in a comic strip drawn by Reinhard Beuthin for the newspaper Bild. Lilli was a blonde bombshell, a working girl who knew what she wanted and was not above using men to get it.
The Lilli doll was first sold in Germany in 1955, although it was sold to adults, it became popular with children who enjoyed dressing her up in outfits that were available separately. Upon her return to the United States, Handler redesigned the doll and the doll was given a new name, after Handler's daughter Barbara; the doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959. This date is used as Barbie's official birthday; the first Barbie doll wore a black and white zebra striped swimsuit and signature topknot ponytail, was available as either a blonde or brunette. The doll was marketed as a "Teen-age Fashion Model," with her clothes created by Mattel fashion designer Charlotte Johnson; the first Barbie dolls were manufactured in Japan, with their clothes hand-stitched by Japanese homeworkers. Around 350,000 Barbie dolls were sold during the first year of production. Louis Marx and Company sued Mattel in March 1961. After licensing Lilli, they claimed that Mattel had “infringed on Greiner & Hausser's patent for Bild-Lilli’s hip joint, claimed that Barbie was "a direct take-off and copy" of Bild-Lilli.
The company additionally claimed that Mattel "falsely and misleadingly represented itself as having originated the design". Mattel counter-claimed and the case was settled out of court in 1963. In 1964, Mattel bought Greiner & Hausser's copyright and patent rights for the Bild-Lilli doll for $21,600. Ruth Handler believed that it was important for Barbie to have an adult appearance, early market research showed that some parents were unhappy about the doll's chest, which had distinct breasts. Barbie's appearance has been changed many times, most notably in 1971 when the doll's eyes were adjusted to look forwards rather than having the demure sideways glance of the original model. Barbie was one of the first toys to have a marketing strategy based extensively on television advertising, copied by other toys, it is estimated that over a billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide in over 150 countries, with Mattel claiming that three Barbie dolls are sold every second. The standard range of Barbie dolls and related accessories are manufactured to 1/6 scale, known as playscale.
The standard dolls are 11½ inches tall. Barbie products include not only the range of dolls with their clothes and accessories, but a large range of Barbie branded goods such as books, apparel and video games. Barbie has had a media franchise starting in 1987, when she began appearing in a series of animated films. Barbie's direct-to-DVD animated films have sold over 110 million units worldwide, as of 2013. In addition, the brand has had two television specials and the Rockers: Out of This World and Barbie and the Sensations: Rockin' Back to Earth, as well as a hit song, "Barbie Girl" by Aqua, she is a supporting character in the Pixar films Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. Barbie has become a cultural icon and has been given honors that are rare in the toy world. In 1974, a section of Times Square in New York City was renamed Barbie Boulevard for a week; the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris at the Louvre held a Barbie exhibit in 2016. The exhibit featured 700 Barbie dolls over two floors as well as works by contemporary artists and documents that contextualize Barbie.
In 1986, the artist Andy Warhol created a painting of Barbie. The painting sold at auction at Christie's, London for $1.1 million. In 2015, The Andy Warhol Foundation teamed up with Mattel to create an Andy Warhol Barbie. Outsider artist Al Carbee took
American Pit Bull Terrier
The American Pit Bull Terrier is a purebred dog breed recognized by the United Kennel Club and American Dog Breeders Association, but not the American Kennel Club. It is a medium-sized, solidly-built, short-haired dog, whose early ancestors came from the British Isles; when compared with the English Staffordshire Bull Terrier, the American Pit Bull Terrier is larger by margins of 6–8 inches in height and 25–35 pounds in weight. The American Pit Bull Terrier varies in size. Males are about 18-21 inches in height and around 35-60 pounds in weight. Females are around 17-20 inches in height and 30-50 pounds in weight; the American Pit Bull has a short coat and smooth well-defined muscle structure. Its eyes are round to almond-shaped, its ears are small to medium in length half prick or rose in carriage; the tail is thick and tapers to a point. The coat is glossy, smooth and stiff to the touch. Any color, color pattern, or combination of colors is acceptable, both the ADBA and UKC do not recognize merle coloring.
Color patterns that are typical in the breed are tuxedo. Despite the legal status of the term "pit bull" and its popular concept, some conservative professional breeders of the American Pit Bull Terrier as well as some experts and supporters claim that the APBT is the only true "pit bull" and the only breed that would be denominated as such. Twelve countries in Europe, as well as Australia, Ecuador, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, have enacted some form of breed-specific legislation on pit bull-type dogs, including American Pit Bull Terriers, ranging from outright bans to restrictions and conditions on ownership; the state of New South Wales in Australia places restrictions on the breed, including mandatory sterilization. The breed is banned in the United Kingdom, in the Canadian province of Ontario, in many locations in the United States; until the mid-19th century the now extinct Old English Terriers and Old English Bulldogs were bred together to produce a dog that combined the gameness of the terrier with the strength and athleticism of the bulldog.
These dogs named Bull and Terriers were bred in the British Isles, arrived in the United States in the late nineteenth century where they became the direct ancestors of the American Pit Bull Terrier. In the United Kingdom, Bull-and-terriers were used in bloodsports such as bull baiting and bear baiting; these bloodsports were eliminated in 1835 when Britain introduced animal welfare laws. Since dogfights are cheaper to organize and far easier to conceal from the law than bull or bear baits, bloodsport proponents turned to pitting their dogs against each other instead. Dog fighting was used as a way to continue to test the quality of their stock. For decades afterwards, dog fighting clandestinely took place in small areas of America. In the early 20th century, pit bulls were used as catch dogs in America for semi-wild cattle and hogs, to hunt, drive livestock, as family companions; some have been selectively bred for their fighting prowess. Pit Bull Terriers fill the role of companion dogs, police dogs, therapy dog.
Pit Bull Terriers constitute the majority of dogs used for illegal dog fighting in America In addition, law enforcement organizations report these dogs are used for other nefarious purposes, such as guarding illegal narcotics operations, use against police, as attack dogs. In an effort to counter the fighting reputation of pit bull-type dogs, in 1996 the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals renamed pit bull terriers "St. Francis Terriers", hoping that people would be more to adopt them. 60 temperament-screened dogs were adopted until the program was halted, after several of the newly adopted pit bulls killed cats. The New York City Center for Animal Care and Control tried a similar approach in 2004, relabeling their pit bulls as "New Yorkies", but dropped the idea in the face of overwhelming public opposition; the UKC gives this description of the characteristics of the American Pit Bull Terrier: The essential characteristics of the American Pit Bull Terrier are strength and zest for life.
This breed is eager to brimming over with enthusiasm. APBTs have always been noted for their love of children; because most APBTs exhibit some level of dog aggression and because of its powerful physique, the APBT requires an owner who will socialize and obedience train the dog. The breed’s natural agility makes it one of the most capable canine climbers so good fencing is a must for this breed; the APBT is not the best choice for a guard dog since they are friendly with strangers. Aggressive behavior toward humans is uncharacteristic of the breed and undesirable; this breed does well in performance events because of its high level of intelligence and its willingness to work. The standard imposed by the ADBA and OFRNR considers the human aggression a disqualification factor; the APDR standard points out that "the temperament MUST be reliable with people". The ATTS conducts temperament testing since 1977 with several dog breeds, as of July 2018 has tested more than 900 APBTs. According to the tests conducted by ATTS, the APBTs has an 87.4% pass rate.
This compares to a pass rate 85.6% for the Golden Retriever, one of America's most popular dog breeds. However, the ATTS website does have a disclaimer: "The data presented on our web site is raw data.
Buster Brown suit
A Buster Brown suit was a popular style of clothing for young boys in the United States during the early 20th century. It was named after the comic strip character Buster Brown, created in 1902 by Richard Felton Outcault, it consisted of a belted, double-breasted tunic or jacket worn with a large round collar, floppy bow, shorts or knickerbockers. It was worn with a round straw hat and a haircut with bangs. Along with the sailor suit, the Eton suit, the Norfolk suit and the Fauntleroy suit, the Buster Brown suit is cited as one of the key looks in boys' clothing of the period; the suit was chosen by mothers for their sons against their children's wishes. It was perceived by mothers as a symbol of neatness and gentility but could lead to its wearer being mocked by other children and called a "sissy". Mark Rothko, who arrived in the United States as a child immigrant with his family in 1913, was deliberately dressed in a Buster Brown suit made in Daugavpils in order to camouflage both the family's poverty and their Russian-Jewish origins.
The Buster Brown suit was occasionally worn by older boys and men, such as the teenaged Eugene Bullard, a fan of the comic strip, who in the late 1900s purchased a Buster Brown suit with knickerbockers for Sunday best
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank Keaton, known professionally as Buster Keaton, was an American actor, film director, producer and stunt performer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a stoic, deadpan expression which earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked without interruption" on a series of films that make him "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies", his career declined afterward with a loss of artistic independence when he was hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, his wife divorced him, he descended into alcoholism. He recovered in the 1940s, revived his career to a degree as an honored comic performer for the rest of his life, earning an Academy Honorary Award. Many of Keaton's films from the 1920s remain regarded, such as Sherlock Jr; the General, The Cameraman, with The General viewed as his masterpiece. Among its strongest admirers was Orson Welles, who stated that The General was cinema's highest achievement in comedy, the greatest film made.
Keaton was recognized as the seventh-greatest film director by Entertainment Weekly, the American Film Institute ranked him in 1999 as the 21st greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. Keaton was born into a vaudeville family in Piqua, the small town where his mother, Myra Keaton, was when she went into labor, he was named "Joseph" to continue a tradition on his father's side and "Frank" for his maternal grandfather, who disapproved of his parents' union. Keaton changed his middle name to "Francis", his father was Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton, who owned a traveling show with Harry Houdini called the Mohawk Indian Medicine Company, which performed on stage and sold patent medicine on the side. According to a repeated story, which may be apocryphal, Keaton acquired the nickname "Buster" at about 18 months of age. Keaton told interviewer Fletcher Markle that Houdini was present one day when the young Keaton took a tumble down a long flight of stairs without injury. After the infant sat up and shook off his experience, Houdini remarked, "That was a real buster!"
According to Keaton, in those days, the word "buster" was used to refer to a spill or a fall that had the potential to produce injury. After this, Keaton's father began to use the nickname to refer to the youngster. Keaton retold the anecdote over the years, including a 1964 interview with the CBC's Telescope. At the age of three, Keaton began performing with his parents in The Three Keatons, he first appeared on stage in 1899 in Delaware. The act was a comedy sketch. Myra played the saxophone to one side, while Buster performed on center stage; the young Keaton would goad his father by disobeying him, the elder Keaton would respond by throwing him against the scenery, into the orchestra pit, or into the audience. A suitcase handle; the act evolved as Keaton learned to take trick falls safely. This knockabout style of comedy led to accusations of child abuse, arrest. However, Buster Keaton was always able to show the authorities that he had no bruises or broken bones, he was billed as "The Little Boy Who Can't Be Damaged", with the overall act being advertised as "The Roughest Act That Was Ever in the History of the Stage".
Decades Keaton said that he was never hurt by his father and that the falls and physical comedy were a matter of proper technical execution. In 1914, Keaton told the Detroit News: "The secret is in landing limp and breaking the fall with a foot or a hand. It's a knack. I started so young. Several times I'd have been killed. Imitators of our act don't last long, because they can't stand the treatment."Keaton claimed he was having so much fun that he would sometimes begin laughing as his father threw him across the stage. Noticing that this drew fewer laughs from the audience, he adopted his famous deadpan expression whenever he was working; the act ran up against laws banning child performers in vaudeville. According to one biographer, Keaton was made to go to school while performing in New York, but only attended for part of one day. Despite tangles with the law and a disastrous tour of music halls in the United Kingdom, Keaton was a rising star in the theater. Keaton stated that he learned to read and write late, was taught by his mother.
By the time he was 21, his father's alcoholism threatened the reputation of the family act, so Keaton and his mother, left for New York, where Buster Keaton's career swiftly moved from vaudeville to film. Keaton served in the American Expeditionary Forces in France with the United States Army's 40th Infantry Division during World War I, his unit remained intact and was not broken up to provide replacements, as happened to some other late-arriving divisions. During his time in uniform, he suffered an ear infection. In February 1917, Keaton met Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle at the Talmadge Studios in New York City, where Arbuckle was under contract to Joseph M. Schenck. Joe Keaton disapproved of films, Buster had reservations about the medium. During his first meeting with Arbuckle, he asked to borrow one of the cameras to get a feel for how it worked, he dismantled and reassembled it. With this rough understanding of the mechanics of the moving pictures, he returned the next day, camera in
Flushing, Queens
Flushing is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens in the United States. While much of the neighborhood is residential, Downtown Flushing, centered on the northern end of Main Street in Queens, is a large commercial and retail area and is the fourth largest central business district in New York City. Flushing's diversity is reflected by the numerous ethnic groups that reside there, including people of Asian, Middle Eastern and African-American ancestry, it is part of New York's Sixth Congressional District, located within Queens County. Flushing is served by five railroad stations on the Long Island Rail Road Port Washington Branch, as well as the New York City Subway's IRT Flushing Line, which has its terminus at Main Street; the intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue is the third busiest intersection in New York City, behind Times and Herald Squares. The neighborhood of Flushing is part of Queens Community Board 7 and the broader district of Flushing in Queens County.
The broader area is bounded by Flushing Meadows–Corona Park to the west, Kissena Boulevard to the east, the Long Island Expressway to the south, Willets Point Boulevard to the north. Flushing was inhabited by the Matinecoc Indians prior to colonialization and European settlement. On October 10, 1645, Flushing was established on the eastern bank of Flushing Creek under charter of the Dutch West India Company and was part of the New Netherland colony; the settlement was named after the city of Vlissingen, in the southwestern Netherlands, the main port of the company. However, by 1657, the residents called the place "Vlishing." "Flushing", the British name for Vlissingen, was used. Despite being a Dutch colony, many of the early inhabitants were British; the original name is derived from the Dutch word "fles" which means "bottle". Unlike all other towns in the region, the charter of Flushing allowed residents freedom of religion as practiced in Holland "without the disturbance of any magistrate or ecclesiastical minister."
However, in 1656, New Amsterdam Director-General Peter Stuyvesant issued an edict prohibiting the harboring of Quakers. On December 27, 1657, the inhabitants of Flushing approved a protest known as The Flushing Remonstrance; this petition contained religious arguments mentioning freedom for "Jews and Egyptians," but ended with a forceful declaration that any infringement of the town charter would not be tolerated. Subsequently, a farmer named John Bowne held Quaker meetings in his home and was arrested for this and deported to Holland, he persuaded the Dutch West India Company to allow Quakers and others to worship freely. As such, Flushing is claimed to be a birthplace of religious freedom in the New World. Landmarks remaining from the Dutch period in Flushing include the John Bowne House on Bowne Street and the Old Quaker Meeting House on Northern Boulevard; the Remonstrance was signed at a house on the site of the former State Armory, now a police facility, on the south side Northern Boulevard between Linden Place and Union Street.
In 1664, the English took control of New Amsterdam, ending Dutch control of the colony, renamed it the Province of New York. When Queens County was established in 1683, the "Town of Flushing" was one of the original five towns which the county comprised. Many historical references to Flushing are to this town, bounded from Newtown on the west by Flushing Creek, from Jamaica on the south by the watershed, from Hempstead on the east by what became the Nassau County line; the town was dissolved in 1898 when Queens became a borough of New York City, the term "Flushing" today refers to a much smaller area, for example the former Village of Flushing. Flushing was a seat of power as the Province of New York up to the American Revolution was led by Governor Cadwallader Colden, based at his Spring Hill estate. Flushing was the site of the first commercial tree nurseries in North America, the most prominent being the Prince and Parsons nurseries. A 14-acre tract of Parsons's exotic specimens was preserved on the north side of Kissena Park.
The nurseries are commemorated in the names of west-east avenues that intersect Kissena Boulevard. Flushing supplied trees to the Greensward Project, now known as Central Park in Manhattan. Well into the 20th century, Flushing contained many horticultural greenhouses. During the American Revolution, along with most settlements in present-day Queens County, favored the British and quartered British troops, though one battalion of Scottish Highlanders is known to have been stationed at Flushing during the war. Following the Battle of Long Island, Nathan Hale, an officer in the Continental Army, was apprehended near Flushing Bay while on what was an intelligence gathering mission and was hanged; the 1785 Kingsland Homestead the residence of a wealthy Quaker merchant, now serves as the home of the Queens Historical Society. During the 19th century, as New York City continued to grow in population and economic vitality, so did Flushing, its proximity to Manhattan was critical in its transformation into a fashionable residential area.
On April 15, 1837, the Village of Flushing was incorporated within the Town of Flushing. The official seal was the words, "Village of Flushing", surrounded by nondescript flowers. No other emblem or flag is known to have been used; the Village of Flushing included the neighborhoods of Flushing Highlands, Bowne Park, Murray Hill and Flushing Park. By the mid-1860s, Queens County had 30,429 residents; the Village of Co
