Long Island and Rhode Island. In 1609, the English navigator Henry Hudson explored the harbor and purportedly landed at Coney Island. Adriaen Block followed in 1615 and is credited as the first European to determine that both Manhattan and Long Island are islands. Native American land deeds recorded by the Dutch from 1636 state that the Indians referred to Long Island as "Sewanhaka" ("Sewanhacky" and "Sewanhacking" were other spellings in the transliteration of Lenape). "Sewan" was one of the terms for wampum (commemorative stringed shell beads, for a while also used as currency by colonists in trades with the Lenape), and is
The Museum of the American Cocktail group of spirits experts, writers, and cocktail historians including David Wondrich, drink correspondent for "Esquire;" and Gaz Regan, among others. The Museum provides education in mixology through its exhibits, monthly seminars, publications, and events. Visitors are treated to the history of the cocktail and the way it has influenced music, theater, art, film, and politics around the world during its two-hundred-year history. The exhibit includes antique and vintage cocktail shakers, Prohibition-era literature, recorded music, bar tools, photographs, and cocktail memorabilia from the collections of the Museum's friends and founders. The Museum of the American Cocktail publishes a website, a monthly