Flags of New York City the borough, blue and gold. The Borough of Manhattan unofficial flag is very similar to the New York City flag. The only difference from the City flag is the use of the seal of the Borough in place of the City Seal. The seal is similar to the city's, but circular in shape. It has two stars below and is encircled by the inscription "BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN" NOVEMBER 1, 1683. The date at the bottom is the date on which the Province of New York was divided into twelve counties by New York Governor Thomas Dongan, and it was created
New York City dominated by Tammany Hall, a political machine supported by Irish and German immigrants. Several prominent American literary figures lived in New York during the 1830s and 1840s, including William Cullen Bryant, Washington Irving, Herman Melville, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, John Keese, Nathaniel Parker Willis, and Edgar Allan Poe. Public-minded members of the contemporaneous business elite lobbied for the establishment of Central Park, which in 1857 became the first landscaped park in an American city. The Great Irish Famine brought a large influx of Irish immigrants, of whom over 200,000 were living in New York by 1860, upwards of a quarter of