Open Questions
TimeWalk is built from primary sources, and there are gaps in those sources. The questions below are real — every one comes from work in progress on the wiki or in the Unreal Engine build. If you can resolve any of them, even partially, we want to hear from you.
How to contribute
- Open an issue on TimeWalkOrg/TimeWalkWiki and reference the question by its anchor (e.g.
#q-pearl-street-shoreline). - Or email the team via the contact link on timewalk.org.
- Even a citation in a footnote is useful — we can chase the rest.
Last updated: 2026-05-26
Topography and street layout
Was Pearl Street the 1660 shoreline?
Period: 1664 — New Amsterdam Status: Working hypothesis; needs confirmation against the Castello Plan and the Cryn Fredericks survey.
The current working assumption (per Wikipedia and the visible eastern edge on the Castello Plan) is that Pearl Street — Dutch Parelstraat — ran along the strand, and Water Street did not yet exist in 1660. The shoreline appears to have followed Pearl until landfill pushed the East River edge outward in later decades. We’d like a primary-source confirmation, ideally with the date Water Street was laid out.
What would resolve it: A citation to the Cryn Fredericks survey, an early Dutch deed referencing Pearl as the waterfront, or any 17th-century manuscript that names Water Street before c. 1680. Tracked at: New Amsterdam 1660 Overview
Was there any street lighting in 1660 New Amsterdam?
Period: 1664 — New Amsterdam Status: Working assumption: none.
Based on general histories of European street lighting, the wiki currently assumes New Amsterdam had no lamp posts or fixed exterior lighting in 1660 — only handheld lanterns and interior candlelight visible through windows. If anyone has evidence of a Dutch West India Company ordinance on lighting (analogous to Amsterdam’s 1669 Jan van der Heyden lantern system), it would change how we light the 1660 scene in UE5.
Cartography — provenance gaps
These maps are in the wiki and are being used as references, but their cartographer, publisher, or source institution is recorded as “Unknown.” Confirming any of them gives the entry citable provenance.
- Dukes Plan (1664) — cartographer unknown; commissioned for the Duke of York. Original survives where?
- Nicolls Map (1664) — cartographer unknown.
- De Manatus (1639) — attributed to Johannes Vingboons, but the chain of attribution would help.
- Goos Chart (c. 1656) — published by Pieter Goos; the underlying cartographer is unidentified.
- Velasco Map (1610) — attributed to Alonso de Velasco; we’d like to cite the attribution.
- Ville de Manathe ou Nouvelle-Yorc (c. 1672–74) — French source, cartographer unknown.
- Miller Plan (1695) — attributed to John Miller.
- Bowery Lane Map (c. 1760) — cartographer unknown.
- Fort Washington Map (manuscript, c. 1776) — British military, anonymous.
- New York Island and East Jersey (manuscript, 1777–80) — British military, anonymous.
- American Troop Positions (1776) — anonymous.
- Plan of the City and Environs of New York (c. 1776) — anonymous British source.
- Reconstructed maps with unknown originator: Lenape Trails 1609, Waterways 1609, Manhattan 1609 Height Map. These are modern reconstructions and we’d like to credit whoever drafted them.
What would resolve any of these: A catalog entry from LOC, NYPL, the British Library, BnF, or the Stokes Iconography; or a published map history identifying the engraver.
Buildings — sources beyond PostGIS
The 36 building pages currently in the wiki (e.g. Walton House, Bayards Sugar House, De Lancey Mansion) derive footprint, address, material, and floor count from the timewalk.1776_nyc_parcels_buildings PostGIS table. For most we have no secondary citation, no contemporary illustration, and no construction date.
What would resolve it: For any building, a period engraving or painting, an insurance survey, a probate inventory, a newspaper notice, or a citation to a specific page of Stokes’ Iconography would let us build it accurately in UE5 rather than from a footprint alone.
People — visual references
Alexander Hamilton in 1776 (age ~21)
Period: 1776 Status: No contemporary portrait exists. We are building a Metahuman.
Hamilton’s earliest known portrait is the 1806 Trumbull (age 51). For the 1776 build we need to extrapolate appearance backward 30 years from a single mid-life likeness, plus William Sullivan’s textual description. If anyone is aware of a sketch, silhouette, or letter describing Hamilton’s appearance during his King’s College / Hearts of Oak years (1773–1776), please surface it. Tracked at: Alexander Hamilton at 21 (1776)
Period coverage — stubs and gaps
Gilded Age Manhattan (1882) is a stub
Period: Gilded Age Manhattan (1882) Status: Placeholder.
We have a single reference (the HBO series). For 1882 to become a real period in TimeWalk, we need: ground-truth maps (Bromley, Sanborn, or the Viele Topographical Atlas), period photographs (Byron Company, MCNY collections), building-by-building Fifth Avenue / Madison Square material, and the elevated railway alignments. Help from a Gilded Age historian or NYC architectural archivist would be transformative.
Manhattan 1941 has no wiki page yet
Status: Listed as a development era on the site; no period page exists.
We’d like a period overview, key maps (1941 land-use maps, period subway/elevated maps, WPA-era surveys), and references for streetscape, signage, and vehicle distribution. Particularly useful: imagery just before US entry into WWII.
Boston 1776 is announced but has no wiki entries
Status: Promised on timewalk.live, no period or source pages yet.
We need a Boston 1776 period page with the canonical maps (Pelham 1777, Page 1775, Norman 1789 retrospective), key buildings (Old State House, Faneuil Hall, Old North Church, Beacon Hill triple), and event coverage (Siege of Boston, evacuation).
Sources — images still needing free/open replacements
A copyright audit (April 2026) flagged images that need replacement before the wiki can be fully open. Several are still pending. If any of the following are in your personal collection or you know a CC-licensed source, please share. Tracked at: Image Replacement Tracker
Still needed:
- Half Moon replica interior photo (CC or licensed)
- Lenape village illustration (CC or commissionable; we may need to commission)
- William Pitt Tavern, Portsmouth NH — period or CC photograph (replacing a Google Street View)
- Higher-quality Dyckman Farmhouse imagery under CC-BY-SA
- Glacier and Laurentide Ice Sheet visualizations from NASA / NOAA (in progress)
How we’ll handle responses
Every confirmed answer becomes a citation on the relevant wiki page, with credit to the contributor in the page’s source list. Material contributions (a previously unknown map, a transcribed manuscript, a high-quality reference photograph) are credited on the Acknowledgments page and listed in the wiki change log.