The Enlightenment of Gotham: How Four Men Transformed New York City at the Start of the 19th Century

Beginning in 1802, four men – DeWitt Clinton, Samuel Latham Mitchill, David Hosack, and John Pintard – designed four temples of wisdom and a garden, which together embodied art, science, literature, philosophy, and history. These men set out to make New York a "first city" in every sense of the term, to capture the ethos of the Enlightenment, and, in so doing, to enlighten the citizens of Gotham.