The Hatching Cat of Gotham

In the 1600s, the island of Manhattan comprised New Amsterdam and Harlem. These settlements were separated by wilderness inhabited by Native Americans and wild animals, including wolves. According to James W. Beekman, president of the New York Historical Society in 1869, as late as 1685 there was a proclamation granting the permission to hunt and kill the wolves found on the island. But by 1891, no one expected to see a wolf roaming Manhattan, especially on the Bowery in the crowded Lower East Side.