Wikipedia:NYC400
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
As New York City marks its official 400th birthday in 2025, earlier this year Wikimedia New York City called on New Yorkers and everyone else who loves this city to nominate 400 impactful New Yorkers and NYC neighborhoods that deserve a place on Wikipedia but aren’t yet featured or need to be updated.
By the end of the campaign we received over 1,000 submissions from the public and partner organizations! With the help of a jury from institutions including the Museum of the City of New York, The New York Times, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYU, and more we’ve identified 400 neighborhoods and New Yorkers that reflect New York City’s incredible history and future.
Nominations were encouraged from all boroughs and time periods, including a wide range of neighborhoods in New York City, and also from original Indigenous homelands and settlements as part of Lenapehoking.
NYC 400 Jury Panel
Thank you to everyone who submitted nominations for the Wikimedia NYC 400 campaign.
We’d like to sincerely thank and credit our jury panel members, who devoted their time and energy to reviewing submissions.
- Eve Washington (The New York Times)
- Eric Sanderson (New York Botanical Garden)
- Gabriel Magraner (The Latinx Project at New York University)
- Jinelle Thompson (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
- Kamau Ware (Black Gotham Experience)
- Stephanie Hill-Wilchfort (Museum of the City of New York)
- Xavier Robles Armas (The Latinx Project at New York University)
- Zenzele Johnson (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Next steps: Let's create or make updates to these pages!
We’re excited to share below the final 400 selections that best reflect the diversity, history, and cultural richness of New York City.
Congratulations to all the winning nominees!
Wikimedia NYC is now calling on everyone to create or make updates to these pages, and also spread the word (and the love) for this project.
Wikimedia NYC 400 Contest
Wikipedians are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC 400 contest! Participate by uploading photos to Wikimedia Commons about anything or anyone on the Wikipedia:NYC 400 list. The contest deadline is December 31st, 2025, and winners will be announced at our Wikipedia Day 2026 celebration on January 25th, 2026.
For more contest details, see: https://400nyc.org
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Manhattan
Staten Island
Brooklyn
The Bronx
People, places, and things
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Chief Oratam | Lenape chief who had a significant role in the relations between the Dutch West India Company and the Native Americans |
| Mayor David Dinkins | politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993 |
| Rosetta Gaston ("Mother Gaston") | African-American community activist in Brownsville |
| Dr. John Louis Flateau | writer, activist, scholar, and professor at Medgar Evers College |
| Joris Rapelje and Catalina Trico | husband-and-wife duo among the earliest settlers in New Netherland |
| Adriaen van der Donck | lawyer and landowner in New Netherland |
| Mary Perot Nichols | former columnist and city editor of The Village Voice, served twice as head of the Municipal Broadcasting System (WNYC) |
| Sonny Payne | jazz drummer, best known for his work with Count Basie and Harry James |
| Tiger Hood | photographer and street golfer |
| "Major” Jimmy Prince | former owner of Major Markets, Coney Island's oldest butcher shop, |
| Marty Bromberger | retired accountant active in Coney Island community |
| Ryan Castalia | recycling leader and executive director of Sure We Can |
| Brian Lindo | food and lifestyle content creator based in New York |
| Our Times Press | African-American owned news-and-views newspaper published in Brooklyn |
| Andrew Dolkart | professor of historic preservation at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation |
| Henri Ghent | curator, art critic, and founding director of the Brooklyn Museum's Community Art Gallery |
| John Bernd | experimental choreographer and dancer and an associate director of Performance Space 122 |
| Jocelynne Rainey | leader in New York City's nonprofit sector |
| Jules T. Allen | photographer, author, and educator known for his photographs of African-American culture |
| Ariana Faye Allensworth | artist |
| Charles Alston | painter, sculptor, illustrator, muralist and teacher who lived and worked in Harlem |
| Candida Alvarez | artist and professor known for her paintings and drawings |
| Francisco Alvarado-Juárez | artist |
| Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze | artist |
| Hatch Billops Archive | collection of research materials on African American visual and performing arts assembled by Camille Billops and James V. Hatch |
| Salome Asega | Director of NEW INC, the New Museum's cultural incubator for creative practitioners working across art, design, and technology |
| Alice Attie | visual artist and published poet |
| Ellsworth Augustus Ausby | African-American visual artist and educator known for his abstract work and experimentation with supports and surfaces |
| Ellen Banks | painter and multimedia artist |
| Alvaro Barrington | multidisciplinary artist |
| Chloë Bass | conceptual artist who works in performance and social practice |
| Dorothy Robinson Homer | librarian and first African-American to head the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library |
| Ira Jeffries | African-American author, playwright, and journalist who founded the Kaleidoscope Theater Company |
| The Cultural Museum of African Art (CMAA) | collection of 3,000 African artifacts housed at the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation |
| Natalie Van Vleck | visual artist and the founder of Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust |
| Christophe Cherix | curator and soon-to-be director of Museum of Modern Art |
| Clemence Randolph | playwright |
| Kwesi Abbensetts | photographer |
| Nina Chanel Abney | painter |
| Niv Acosta | dancer, choreographer, and artist |
| Manuel Acevedo | Bronx-based multidisciplinary artist |
| Cey Adams | founding creative director of Def Jam Recordings |
| Black Reconstruction Collective | architecture collective |
| Africa's Out | charitable organization located in Brooklyn founded by artist and activist Wangechi Mutu |
| OlaRonke Akinmowo | interdisciplinary artist and founder of The Free Black Women's Library |
| Elia Alba | multidisciplinary artist |
| Salimah Ali | photographer working in portraiture, documentary photography, and photo journalism |
| Basil Alkazzi | painter |
| Suhaly Bautista-Carolina | Chief of Public Programs & Partnerships at the American LGBTQ+ Museum |
| Kimberly Becoat | contemporary mixed media artist |
| Perfecto Sanchez | Iraq War veteran and entrepreneur |
| Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Irene Sorrough | Army lieutenant colonel who helped devise a gender-neutral system of work assignments for the Army |
| Natasha Norie Standard | shoe designer |
| Leslie Fields-Cruz | Executive Director of Black Public Media (BPM) |
| Florence Malone | actress |
| Florence Reutti | actress |
| Madeline Foy | actress |
| Miriam Lehmann-Haupt | actress |
| Marjorie Peterson | actress |
| Olive Stanton | stage actress in the original cast of The Cradle Will Rock |
| Antonio d'Angola | adopted son of Reytory Angola |
| Jacob Barsimon | one of the earliest Jewish settlers at New Amsterdam |
| Deborah Moody | founder of Gravesend, Brooklyn, and is the only woman known to have started a village in colonial America |
| Richard Nicolls | English military officer and colonial administrator who served as the first governor of the Province of New York |
| Sachem Wyandanch | sachem of the Montaukett |
| Quashawam | Montaukett sunksqua (female sachem) and daughter of Wyandanch |
| Mary Leisler | daughter of Jacob Leisler, spouse of Jacob Milborne who later married Abraham Gouverneur |
| John Bowne | Quaker and an English settler residing in New Netherland |
| Rose Smith | film editor and actress |
| Florence Tarlow | stage and screen actress who performed at avant-garde theaters in New York City |
| Paulette Rubinstein | actress and script writer |
| Bathsheba Garnett | actress |
| Alice Denham | model, author, and former adjunct professor of English at City University of New York |
| Marjorie Ward Marshall | actress |
| Tee Collins | African-American animator who created several animated skits for Sesame Street before founding his own studio in New York |
| Jack Brusca | painter active in the Downtown Arts Scene |
| Charity Bailey | pioneer in the field of children's music who served as the music director for the Little Red School House |
| Loring Eutemey | graphic designer and illustrator who began his career at Push Pin Studios and later worked in the art department of Atlantic Records |
| Nanette Rohan Bearden | fashion model, dancer, and founder of the Nanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Theatre and wife of Romare Bearden |
| Meg Barber | New York University's women's basketball head coach |
| Tyler Cordell | Associate Head Coach of Columbia women's basketball team |
| Jelani Anglin | community organizer and entrepreneur |
| Jon Haggins | fashion designer, cabaret performer, and travel journalist |
| Howard Bennett | Harlem community leader and the founder of the National Citizens Committee for a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday |
| Lucille Roberts | businesswoman and entrepreneur who founded the Lucille Roberts chain of health clubs |
| Reytory (or Dorothy) Angola | Black woman from New Amsterdam |
| Chief Meantinnemin | alias Taponsagh, chief of the Marsepingh in 1660 |
| Charles Denson | photographer and executive director of the nonprofit Coney Island History Project |
| Lydia de Meyer and Hillegond van Ruyven | two women who negotiated the surrender of New Netherland |
| Morty Manford | lawyer, activist in the early days of the gay rights movement, and son of Jeanne Manford (co-founder of PFLAG) |
| Ray Alvarez | owner and operator of Ray's Candy Store |
| Arnaldo (Arnie) Segarra | activist |
| CBGB | music club |
| Sarah Kaufman | urban planner and academic; see Draft:Sarah Kaufman (academic) |