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Murray Hill, Manhattan

Murray Hill is a neighborhood on the east side of Manhattan in New York City. Murray Hill is generally bordered to the east by the East River or Kips Bay and to the west by Midtown Manhattan, though the exact boundaries are disputed. Murray Hill is situated on a steep glacial hill that peaked between Lexington Avenue and Broadway. It was named after Robert Murray, the head of the Murray family, a mercantile family that settled in the area in the 18th century.

The Murray farm was formed before 1762 and existed until at least the early 19th century. Through the 19th century, Murray Hill was relatively isolated from the rest of New York City, which at the time was centered in Lower Manhattan. Murray Hill became an upscale neighborhood during the 20th century. Today, it contains several cultural institutions such as the Morgan Library & Museum, as well as missions and consulates to the nearby United Nations headquarters. The neighborhood also contains architectural landmarks, some of which are in the Murray Hill Historic District, a city and national historic district.

Murray Hill is part of Manhattan Community District 6, and its primary ZIP Codes are 10016 and 10017. It is patrolled by the 17th Precinct of the New York City Police Department.

Geography
Murray Hill derives its name from Robert Murray (1721–1786), an Irish-born merchant, whose family had a large estate in what is now the modern-day neighborhood. The modern neighborhood was once an abrupt, steep-sided mound of glacial till typical of Manhattan Island's still-unmodified post-glacial terrain. It was described by one author as a "hill of the rudest and most heterogeneous mixture of stone and gravel and boulders, cemented together into a matrix of almost impenetrable density existed, crowning the underlying schist... It had a natural rise from 34th Street, sinking towards 42nd Street and reaching from Lexington Avenue to Broadway." The hill still exists, with an incline from 31st to 35th Streets, as well as a decline north of 37th Street.

During the 19th century, modern-day Murray Hill was "uptown" with the city ending with the reservoir at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street covering what today is the New York Public Library Main Branch and Bryant Park. To the north was for the most part farmland. A stream called t'Oude Wrack (Dutch for "Old Wreck") ran across the area, emptying into Sunfish Pond, located at the present-day Park Avenue South and 31st Street in Kips Bay. The stream originated at what is now Broadway and 44th Street in the middle of Times Square. A glue factory polluted Sunfish Pond heavily during the 1820s; it was infilled in 1839 after most of its water was used to extinguish a fire at the New York House of Refuge.

Boundaries
According to the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association (formerly the Murray Hill Committee), the neighborhood encompasses the 10016 zip code—bounded by 27th Street to the south, 40th Street to the north, Fifth Avenue to the west, and the East River to the east. By this definition, Murray Hill overlaps with Rose Hill, which is also known as Curry Hill and Little India. This section of Murray Hill was formerly also known as Little Armenia.

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has described Murray Hill's boundaries as roughly 34th Street on the south, 40th Street on the north, Fifth Avenue on the west, and Third Avenue on the east. The city's Planning Department has described the boundaries as roughly 34th Street on the south, 40th Street on the north, Madison Avenue on the west, and Second Avenue on the east. Manhattan Community Board 6—of which Murray Hill is part—has defined the boundaries as 34th Street to the south, 40th Street to the north, Madison Avenue to the west, and the East River to the east. This definition explicitly excludes Tudor City, just north of 40th Street between First and Second Avenues, which the community board's chairman said in 2021 "is considered its own neighborhood".

For its entry on Murray Hill, the American Institute of Architects' AIA Guide to New York City uses the area bounded by 32nd Street to the south, 40th Street to the north, Madison Avenue to the west, and Third Avenue to the east. In AIA Guide, Murray Hill abuts Midtown to the north and west, Kips Bay to the east, and Rose Hill to the south. Robert A. M. Stern's book New York 1960 defined the area as being bounded precisely by 34th Street to the south, 42nd Street to the north, Fifth Avenue to the west, and Third Avenue to the east.

The New York Times states that commonly used boundaries of Murray Hill are 34th Street to the south, 42nd Street to the north, Madison Avenue to the west, and the East River to the east. Additionally, "the younger, more bar-centric area south of the neighborhood in the upper 20s and lower 30s" is sometimes held to be part of Murray Hill. Times architectural critic Herbert Muschamp, writing in 1997, said the Zagat Survey defined all of the area bounded by East 30th and 40th Streets between the East River and Fifth Avenue as part of Murray Hill. Summarizing the conflicting boundaries, Muschamp said that a then-recent survey of residents found many were unable to distinguish Murray Hill by its name.

History
What is now Midtown Manhattan was first settled by the Munsee Native Americans. With European colonization in the 17th century, the site was called Belmont and was part of the common lands of New York City.

18th century
Robert Murray (1721–1786) moved from Philadelphia to New York City in 1753. During that decade, he became a prosperous merchant, purchasing three vessels and obtaining an ownership stake in another. Murray had a townhouse on Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan, which was close to his wharf on the East River at Wall Street, as well as to his retail store.

Creation of Murray estate
By the late 1750s, Murray was relatively successful and wished to build his own mansion. Before 1762, Murray had leased some land in a sparsely populated portion of Manhattan island for use as for his large house and farm. Murray's house was built on a since-leveled hill at what is today Park Avenue and 36th Street. The hill was named Inclenberg, or "fire beacon hill" in Dutch, referencing the fact that settlers of New Amsterdam used fire beacons to give notice of armed Native American groups. The Murray farm's total area was just under 30 acre. The farm began a few feet south of modern-day 33rd Street and extended north to the middle of the block between 38th and 39th Streets. At the southern end, the plot was narrow, but at the northern end it extended from approximately Lexington Avenue to a spot between Madison and Fifth Avenues.

The great square house, west of the Eastern Post Road, was approached by an avenue of mixed trees leading from the road. It was flanked on three sides by verandas and contained apartments on either side of a large hall. The mansion was at approximately the present location of Park Avenue and 37th Street. Near the house were a barn, kitchen, and stable. The Murray farm was bounded to the north by Thomas Bridgen Atwood's farm, which was on the western side of the Eastern Post Road between modern-day 38th and 41st Streets, and to the east by Jacobus Kip's farm, along the eastern side of the same road from 28th to 39th Street extending to the East River.

The site overlooked the East River and Kips Bay. Like the other grand projects created by distinguished residents upon Manhattan's prominent rises of ground, the Murray house was used for purposes other than farming. According to historians Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, while some of these farms were for-profit enterprises, "their primary purpose—besides providing refuge from epidemics—was to serve as theaters of refinement". One descendant wrote that Robert Murray "entertained at various times almost every foreigner of distinction who came to the American shores". Early in 1773, and again in 1774, advertisements for the Inclenberg estate were circulated, positioning the house and farm as a summer mansion.

American Revolution and late century

During the American Revolutionary War, Mary Lindley Murray is credited with delaying William Howe and his army during General Washington's retreat from New York following the British landing at Kip's Bay, September 15, 1776. The most common version of the story is that Mrs. Murray invited the officers to tea and succeeded in delaying the British troops for a period sufficient to allow a successful American retreat. The Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage said she saved American independence by detaining Lord Howe long enough to permit Israel Putnam to pass up the Greenwich road from the city and join the forces of George Washington in the north end of the island, before Howe was able to overtake him. The 3,500 men led by Washington were able to escape safely. James Thacher, a surgeon with the Continental Army, wrote in his journal: "It is a common saying among our officers that Mrs. Murray saved this part of the American army."

According to later scholarship, the Murrays did not have such a large influence on the landing at Kip's Bay than was portrayed in contemporary sources. One contemporary rumor posited that Mrs. Murray and her two daughters had used "feminine wiles" to convince the officers to stop by for tea. However, later scholarship stated that Howe had ordered his troops to stand down until all the British Army troops had landed at Kips Bay. According to these writers, it was unlikely that Mrs. Murray would have known that Putnam was escaping on Manhattan's west side, given that the farm was on the island's east side. Furthermore, Robert Murray traded with both Continental and British Army soldiers. Nevertheless, the Murrays' actions during the war inspired at least two Broadway shows. The Daughters of the American Revolution placed a plaque in 1926 near the site of the Murray mansion, commemorating the family's wartime actions.

From 1776 to 1783, when the British Army occupied New York, British soldiers often visited Inclenberg. After the end of British occupation, the Murray family was associated with unpatriotic acts during the war, and one son, Lindley Murray, moved to England. Robert Murray died in 1786 and bequeathed different portions of his estate to his five children. His daughter Susannah was bequeathed the farm, along with some lots in Gold Street in Lower Manhattan. Her husband Gilbert Colden Willett, once a Loyalist general in the Revolutionary War, jointly ran Willett & Murray with Susannah's uncle John Murray. Willett bought the farm from the New York City government in 1799 for 907 pounds. His business shuttered the next year and, as part of the bankruptcy settlement, John Murray bought the farm from the Willetts.

Initial development
John Murray and his wife Hannah Lindley had four children. After John Murray's death in 1808, Hannah Lindley and their children moved into Inclenberg. Two of their children, Mary and Hannah, did not marry and instead lived in apartments that were specifically created for them at the estate. In the winter of 1808 during the embargo that closed New York Harbor, a work relief program kept out-of-work dock workers busy reducing the height of Murray Hill. Between twenty and forty feet were sliced off its summit and used for fill. Around that time, the area was subdivided into a regular street grid with the enactment of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811. Under the plan, what is now Third Avenue was opened between 1815 and 1821.

John Murray's children confirmed title to the land in 1816, and Mary and Hannah Murray were given the responsibility of renting out the Murray farm. In 1818, they ran advertisements for the farm, which was only 3.5 mi from the developed portions of Manhattan. A fire destroyed Inclenberg in 1835 and the lots were split up. The route of the Eastern Post Road from 23rd to 31st Street was closed in April 1844, and the section of the road from 31st to 42nd Street was closed in June 1848.

In 1833 the railroad cut was begun, to carry the New York and Harlem Rail Road through Murray Hill; the route under the most prominent obstacle in its right-of-way was opened on May 1, 1834. The locomotives, which had met the horse-cars that ran through the city's streets at the station at 27th Street, could pass the reduced hill. By an act of 1850 the city permitted to roof over the cut for the passage of steam locomotives. This Park Avenue Tunnel, enlarged and relined, has been devoted to automobile traffic since 1937.

Row houses and later development
In mid-century, the rich temporarily, and the upper middle class more permanently, filled the brownstone row houses that filled Murray Hill's streets. The Brick Presbyterian Church followed its congregation; after selling its site facing City Hall Park, it rebuilt in 1857 closer to its congregation, on the smoothed brow of Murray Hill, at Fifth Avenue and 37th Street. However, when J. P. Morgan built his conservative brownstone free-standing mansion in 1882 on Madison Avenue at 36th Street (later part of The Morgan Library & Museum), it was considered a fashionable but slightly old-fashioned address, as the rich were filling Fifth Avenue with palaces as far as Central Park. Instead stylish merchandising was changing the neighborhood; Madison Square Park, at this time considered a part of Murray Hill, was bordered by the fashionable ladies' shops of the day on Fifth Avenue.

In 1925, the architectural firm Margon & Glaser designed the Griffon, a residential building at 77 Park Avenue and 39th Street. The Griffon which was converted into a condominium in 1969 and is known for its stunning lobby as well as its oversized apartment layouts with original details and fireplaces. The Griffon is included in the NRHP's Murray Hill historic district.

Late 20th century
For much of the 20th century, Murray Hill was a quiet and rather formal place, with many wealthy older residents. In 1905, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt lived close by Franklin's mother Sara Roosevelt in the Murray Hill neighborhood.

Since the late 1990s, many young people in their twenties have moved to the area from the suburbs of New York. As reported in The New York Times in 2011, "...recent college graduates can find themselves among fellow alumni, meet up for familiar drinking rituals and flock to the frozen-yogurt shops and sushi bars that help them stay fit and find a mate for the next stage of life". On weekends, the raucous restaurant-and-bar scene along Third Avenue, beyond the traditional eastern limits of Murray Hill, particularly reflects this change. In the late 1990s, Murray Hill began to attract an influx of young college graduates, leading to a "work-hard, play-hard" atmosphere, which has since been referenced in several media sources such as The New York Times and New York Post. Though housing in the neighborhood is slightly cheaper than in fashionable nearby parts of Manhattan, prices for apartments here rose greatly during the boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s—as much as 500 percent in a decade.

The eastern part of Murray Hill, between FDR Drive and First Avenue from 34th to 41st Streets, formerly contained industrial uses including a Coca-Cola bottling plant, Consolidated Edison's Kips Bay Generating Station, the Kips Bay Brewing Company, and Con Edison's Waterside power plant. In the 1980s some of these blocks were rezoned to allow for residential development, which led to the construction of the Rivergate, Manhattan Place, and Horizon high-rise apartment buildings. Con Edison's lots were placed for sale in 1999. The billionaire developer Sheldon Solow purchased the blocks between 38th and 41st Streets in 2000 and demolished the sites in anticipation of the construction of a multi-building complex. However, these plans stalled with the financial crisis of 2007–2008, and the land lay unused. Solow later sold the 35th–36th Streets plot, and the American Copper Buildings were built on that site, opening in 2017–2018. , the 38th–41st Streets plot was still unused, but Solow intended to construct a four-building condo and office complex on that site.

Demographics
For census purposes, the New York City government classifies Murray Hill as part of a larger neighborhood tabulation area called Murray Hill-Kips Bay. Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Murray Hill-Kips Bay was 50,742, a change of 2,323 (4.6%) from the 48,419 counted in 2000. Covering an area of 334.93 acres, the neighborhood had a population density of 151.5 PD/acre. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 66.6% (33,818) White, 4.8% (2,423) African American, 0.1% (55) Native American, 16.2% (8,233) Asian, 0% (16) Pacific Islander, 0.4% (181) from other races, and 2% (1,008) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.9% (5,008) of the population.

The entirety of Community District 6, which comprises Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town, had 53,120 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 84.8 years. This is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are adults: a plurality (45%) are between the ages of 25–44, while 22% are between 45 and 64, and 13% are 65 or older. The ratio of youth and college-aged residents was lower, at 7% and 12% respectively.

In 2017, the median household income in Community District 6 was $112,383, though the median income in Murray Hill individually was $117,677. In 2018, an estimated 10% of Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town residents lived in poverty, compared to 14% in all of Manhattan and 20% in all of New York City. One in twenty-five residents (4%) were unemployed, compared to 7% in Manhattan and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 42% in Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 45% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation,, Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town are considered to be high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying.

Structures
The neighborhood is home to St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral, Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University, the Morgan Library & Museum, Scandinavia House–The Nordic Center in America, The Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, and a historically notable private institution, the Union League Club of New York. Just outside Murray Hill's western border is the Art Deco skyscraper at 10 East 40th Street. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has designated several buildings in Murray Hill as landmarks, including 2 Park Avenue, 275 Madison Avenue, the Daily News Building, the Madison Belmont Building, and the Socony–Mobil Building.

The Whitney Museum of American Art opened a branch gallery at the Philip Morris headquarters opposite Grand Central Terminal in April 1983; it closed in January 2008, after 25 years. In addition, for around fifty years, the neighborhood had been home to National Review, the conservative journal of opinion founded by William F. Buckley, Jr., most of that time at 150 East 35th Street and 215 Lexington Avenue at 33rd Street. 150 East 35th Street was purchased by Yeshiva University.

Historic district
In 2002, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission created the Murray Hill Historic District. The original district consists of 71 rowhouses, three apartments, a church, and an office within two non-contiguous areas. The district was extended in 2004 to encompass 12 additional buildings in two areas, one of which directly abuts both of the original historic district areas. The expanded city historic district includes properties on both sides of 35th through 38th Streets between Park and Lexington Avenues.

The National Park Service also added the Murray Hill Historic District to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, with 88 contributing and 12 non-contributing properties. The NRHP district was extended in 2013 with another 150 contributing and 21 non-contributing buildings. The NRHP district's expansion includes several structures built in the 1940s and 1950s, as well as rowhouse with facade modifications. The expanded NRHP district includes about 16 blocks bounded by Madison Avenue, 34th Street, Third Avenue, and 40th Street.

Economy
The defense contractor L3 Technologies has its headquarters in Murray Hill. Sumitomo Corporation operates its New York Office, the headquarters of the corporation's United States operations, in the same building as the headquarters of L-3. Industries supported by the office include Aerospace and Defense, Agricultural Commodities, Agrochemicals, Business Investment, Chemicals, Fertilizer, Information Technology, Latin American Operations, Living Related Products, Media and IT Venture Group, Meat Products, Presidio Venture Partners, Ship, Real Estate, Transportation Systems and Equipment, and Tubular Products. China Airlines operates its New York branch office on Third Avenue.

When United Parcel Service expanded to the East Coast and began operations in New York City in 1930, it moved its corporate headquarters from Los Angeles to the floors above its main hub at 331 East 38th Street in Murray Hill. The headquarters remained at the site until 1964 when the company moved into a new facility in Hell's Kitchen.

In 1959, the United States Olympic Committee purchased 57 Park Avenue—the former Adelaide L. T. Douglas House—to serve as its headquarters, which it called Olympic House. The committee moved its headquarters from New York City to Colorado Springs in 1978.

American Airlines opened its headquarters at 633 Third Avenue in 1975. Three years later, American announced that it would move its headquarters to a site at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport the following year, in an act that New York City mayor Ed Koch called a "betrayal" of New York City.

For more than 60 years, the offices of William F. Buckley Jr.'s journal of opinion, National Review, were located in the neighborhood, at 150 East 35th Street and then at 215 Lexington Avenue. In 2017 the magazine relocated to West 44th Street.

Diplomatic missions

Due to the proximity of the headquarters of the United Nations and the availability of old mansions, many countries operate diplomatic missions and consulates in Murray Hill, including:
 * The Consulate-General of Australia in New York at 150 East 42nd Street (10017).
 * The Consulate-General of Brazil in New York at 225 East 41st Street (10017).
 * The Consulate-General of Finland in New York at 605 Third Avenue (10158).
 * The Consulate-General of Mexico in New York, at 27 East 39th Street (10016).
 * The Consulate-General of the Republic of Poland in New York, at 233 Madison Avenue (10016).
 * The Consulate-General of New Zealand in New York, at 295 Madison Avenue (10017).
 * The Consulate-General of Romania in New York, at 200 East 38th Street (10016).
 * The Consulate-General of Saint Lucia in New York, at 630 Third Avenue (10017.)
 * The Consulate-General of Switzerland in New York, at 600 Third Avenue (10017).
 * The Consulate-General of Uruguay in New York, at 633 Third Avenue (10017).
 * The Consulate-General of Uzbekistan in New York, at 630 Third Avenue (10017).

Missions to the United Nations in Murray Hill include:

 * Afghanistan
 * Armenia
 * Australia
 * Austria
 * Azerbaijan
 * Benin
 * Burkina Faso
 * Central African Republic
 * Chad
 * China
 * Republic of the Congo
 * Cuba
 * East Timor
 * El Salvador
 * Fiji
 * Finland
 * Guatemala
 * Guinea
 * Holy See
 * Indonesia
 * Iran
 * Japan
 * Lesotho
 * Liechtenstein
 * Lithuania
 * Malta
 * Federated States of Micronesia
 * Namibia
 * Nauru
 * New Zealand
 * Romania
 * Rwanda
 * Saint Kitts and Nevis
 * Saint Lucia
 * Serbia
 * Slovenia
 * Switzerland
 * Suriname
 * Thailand
 * Trinidad and Tobago
 * Togo
 * Uruguay
 * Uzbekistan

Police and crime
Murray Hill and Turtle Bay are patrolled by the 17th Precinct of the NYPD, located at 167 East 51st Street. The 17th Precinct and neighboring 13th Precinct ranked 57th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. The high per-capita crime rate is attributed to the precincts' high number of property crimes. , with a non-fatal assault rate of 35 per 100,000 people, Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town's rate of violent crimes per capita is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 180 per 100,000 people is lower than that of the city as a whole.

The 17th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 80.7% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct reported 0 murders, 13 rapes, 63 robberies, 91 felony assaults, 80 burglaries, 748 grand larcenies, and 26 grand larcenies auto in 2018.

Fire safety
Murray Hill is served by the New York City Fire Department (FDNY)'s Engine Company 21 fire station, located at 238 East 40th Street.

Health
, preterm births and births to teenage mothers in Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town are lower than the city average. In Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town, there were 78 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 1.5 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide), though the teenage birth rate was based on a small sample size. Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town have a low population of residents who are uninsured. In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 3%, less than the citywide rate of 12%, though this was based on a small sample size.

The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town is 0.0102 mg/m3, more than the city average. Twelve percent of Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town residents are smokers, which is less than the city average of 14% of residents being smokers. In Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town, 10% of residents are obese, 5% are diabetic, and 18% have high blood pressure—compared to the citywide averages of 24%, 11%, and 28% respectively. In addition, 7% of children are obese, compared to the citywide average of 20%.

Ninety-one percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which is higher than the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 90% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", more than the city's average of 78%. For every supermarket in Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town, there are 7 bodegas.

The nearest hospitals are the Bellevue Hospital Center and NYU Langone Medical Center, located in Kips Bay. In addition, Beth Israel Medical Center is located in Stuyvesant Town.

Post offices and ZIP Codes
Murray Hill is located in two primary ZIP Codes. The area south of 40th Street is located in 10016, while the area north of 40th Street is in 10017. There are also three smaller ZIP Codes for individual buildings: 10158 (605 Third Avenue), 10165 (One Grand Central Place), and 10168 (Chanin Building). The United States Postal Service operates three post offices in Murray Hill:
 * Murray Hill Station – 115 East 34th Street
 * Murray Hill Annex Station – 205 East 36th Street
 * Tudor City Self-Service – 5 Tudor City Place

Education
Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town generally have a higher rate of college-educated residents than the rest of the city. College-educated residents comprise 82% of those age 25 and older, while 15% are high school graduates or have some college education, and 3% have less than a high school education. By contrast, 64% of Manhattan residents and 43% of city residents have a college education or higher. The percentage of Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town students excelling in math rose from 61% in 2000 to 80% in 2011, and reading achievement increased from 66% to 68% during the same time period.

Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is lower than the rest of New York City. In Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town, 8% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per school year, less than the citywide average of 20%. Additionally, 91% of high school students in Murray Hill and Stuyvesant Town graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%.

Schools
The New York City Department of Education operates local public schools. P.S. 116, Mary Lindley Murray School, and P.S. 281, The River School, are the neighborhood elementary schools. The entrances to P.S. 116 on 33rd Street are divided into "Boys'" and "Girls'" doors. Each entrance features decorative carvings of male and female students, respectively, engaged in reading and scientific activities. P.S. 281 opened in 2013 and is located on 35th Street adjacent to the American Copper Buildings.

Murray Hill residents are also zoned to I.S. 104, the Simon Baruch School, located in the Gramercy Park neighborhood.

Libraries and higher education
The New York Public Library (NYPL)'s Kips Bay branch is located at 446 Third Avenue. The two-story branch opened in 1972 and was designed by architect Giorgio Cavaglieri as a replacement for the St. Gabriel's and Nathan Straus branches, which had been torn down to make way for construction of the Queens–Midtown Tunnel and Kips Bay Towers, respectively.

The neighborhood is also home to the CUNY Graduate Center, which shares the former B. Altman & Company Building with Oxford University Press. Yeshiva University's Beren Campus is located in Murray Hill, which includes buildings for the university's Stern College for Women and Syms School of Business.

Parks and recreation
Manhattan Community District 6, which includes Murray Hill, has the lowest ratio of public park space per capita of all community districts in the borough and also ranks second to last among all community districts in New York City with regards to the percentage of district land that is parkland.

St. Vartan Park occupies the block bounded by First and Second avenues and East 35th and 36th streets. The 2.76 acre park originally opened in 1906 as St. Gabriel's Park and was renamed St. Vartan Park in 1978.

Robert Moses Playground, located on the east side of First Avenue between East 41st and 42nd streets, was created in 1941 in exchange for taking a part of St. Gabriel's Park for the construction of the Queens–Midtown Tunnel. It lies opposite Trygve Lie Plaza, located on the west side of First Avenue between East 41st and 42nd streets, which was created in 1948 as part of the widening of First Avenue for the development of the United Nations headquarters.

Parks along the East River in Murray Hill include the East River Esplanade Park from 36th to 38th streets and Waterside Pier from 38th to 41st streets; both of which form part of the East River Greenway.

Transportation
Murray Hill is served by the New York City Subway's at 33rd Street. It is also served by MTA Regional Bus Operations' routes. Metro-North Railroad service is available at nearby Grand Central Terminal and Long Island Rail Road service is also available at Grand Central Madison.

Murray Hill is served by various NYC Ferry and SeaStreak ferry services at the East 34th Street Ferry Landing. The ferry landing is adjacent to the East 34th Street Heliport.

Telephone exchange
For the most part of the 20th century the name "Murray Hill" was used by New York Telephone as a telephone exchange for residents living on the East Side of Manhattan, served from the East 37th Street exchange building. Though the entire city was covered by area code 212 until the 1980s, most neighborhoods at the time would be grouped together by a particular exchange name. Other municipalities in the United States would also use MUrray or MUrray Hill as an exchange name. The first two letters in MUrray (capitalized to indicate that they should be dialed) would be followed by five digits to make up a telephone number, such as MUrray Hill 5-9975 (the Ricardos' number on I Love Lucy). This was the way most telephone numbers were given until AT&T switched to all-number calling by the late 1970s to early 1980s. Nevertheless, the name MUrray Hill is still applicable, as many East Side phone numbers in area code 212 still begin with 68, which corresponds to MU on the telephone keypad.

title: Murray Hill, Manhattan


text:
SoHo, Manhattan

SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and has also been known for its variety of shops ranging from trendy upscale boutiques to national and international chain store locations. The area's history is an archetypal example of inner-city regeneration and gentrification, encompassing socioeconomic, cultural, political, and architectural developments.

The name "SoHo" derives from the area being "South of Houston Street", and was coined in 1962 by Chester Rapkin, an urban planner and author of The South Houston Industrial Area study, also known as the "Rapkin Report". The name also recalls Soho, an area in London's West End.

Almost all of SoHo is included in the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District, which was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1973, extended in 2010, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978. It consists of 26 blocks and approximately 500 buildings, many of them incorporating cast-iron architectural elements. Many side streets in the district are paved with Belgian blocks.

SoHo is part of Manhattan Community District 2 and its primary ZIP Codes are 10012 and 10013. It is patrolled by the 1st and 5th Precincts of the New York City Police Department.

Boundaries
Because of the nature of neighborhoods in New York City, different sources will often give different boundaries for each one. In the case of SoHo, all sources appear to agree that the northern boundary is Houston Street, and the southern boundary is Canal Street, but the location of the eastern and western boundaries is disputed.

In 1974, shortly after SoHo first came into existence, The New York Times described the boundaries as "stretching from Houston to Canal Streets between West Broadway and Lafayette Street" – a definition it continued to hold to in 2016 – but The Encyclopedia of New York City reports that SoHo is bounded by Crosby Street on the east, and Sixth Avenue to the west. These are the same boundaries shown by Google Maps. However, the AIA Guide to New York City gives the western boundary of SoHo north of Broome Street as being West Broadway, and New York magazine gives the eastern boundary as Lafayette Street and the western boundary as the Hudson River.

The map at the Community Board 2 profile page on New York City's official website has "SOHO" written near Broadway in the space roughly equidistant between Houston Street and Canal Street.

In the 1990s, real estate agents began giving an adjacent neighborhood below West Houston Street various appellations, with no general agreement on whether it should be called (or included as part of) West SoHo, Hudson Square or the South Village. The AIA Guide calls that neighborhood "An intersection of brick and glass, searching for an identity", and refers to the western section of it as "The Glass Box District". Unlike Hudson Square, the South Village has traditionally appeared on maps of Community District 2, centered near the intersection of Houston Street and Avenue of the Americas. The more recent map of Community District 2 contains both the South Village and Hudson Square, with the latter written in the area below Houston Street, between Hudson Street and the Hudson River.

Historic District
The SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District is contained within the zoned SoHo neighborhood. Originally ending in the west at the eastern side of West Broadway and to the east at the western side of Crosby Street, the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District was expanded in 2010 to cover most of West Broadway and to extend east to Lafayette and Centre Streets. The boundary lines are not straight, and some block-fronts on West Broadway and Lafayette are excluded from the District.

Early years
During the colonial period, the land that is now SoHo was part of a grant of farmland given to freed slaves of the Dutch West Indies Company, and the site of the first free Black settlement on Manhattan island. This land was acquired in the 1660s by Augustine Hermann, and then passed to his brother-in-law, Nicholas Bayard. The estate was confiscated by the state as a result of Bayard's part in Leisler's Rebellion, but was returned to him after the sentence was annulled.

In the 18th century natural barriers – streams and hills – impeded the growth of the city northward into the Bayard estate, and the area maintained its rural character. During the American Revolution, the area was the location of numerous fortifications, redoubts and breastworks. After the war, Bayard, who had suffered financially because of it, was forced to mortgage some of the property, which was divided up into lots, but even then there was very little development in the area, aside from some manufacturing at Broadway and Canal Street.

Serious development of the area did not begin until the Common Council, answering the complaints of landowners in the area, drained the Collect Pond, which had once been an important source of fresh water for the island, but which had become polluted and rank and a breeding ground for mosquitoes. A canal was built to drain the pond into the Hudson, and the canal and pond were both later filled in using earth from nearby Bayard's Hill. Once Broadway was paved and sidewalks were built there and along Canal Street, more people began to make their homes there, joining earlier arrivals such as James Fenimore Cooper.

Commerce, entertainment, and decline
By the mid-19th century, the early Federal- and Greek Revival-style homes were replaced by more-solid structures of masonry and cast iron, and along Broadway, large marble-skinned commercial establishments began to open, such as Lord & Taylor, Arnold Constable & Company and Tiffany & Company, as well as grand hotels such as the St. Nicholas and the Metropolitan. Theatres followed in their wake, and Broadway between Canal and Houston Streets became a lively theater and shopping district and the entertainment center of New York; as usual with such areas, it was home to many brothels as well, and the side streets off of Broadway became the city's red-light district. As this change in character drove out the middle-class, their place was taken by small manufacturing concerns, including cabinet-makers and the lumberyards that supplied them, brass and copper firms, makers of china and glassware, locksmiths, snuff manufacturers and book publishers.

This dramatic shift in the nature of the neighborhood continued to drive out residents, and between 1860 and 1865 the Eighth Ward, which included the SoHo area, lost 25% of its population. After the Civil War and the Panic of 1873, in the 1880s and 1890s, large manufacturers began to move into the area, especially textile firms, and the area became the mercantile and wholesale dry-goods trade center of the city, and was the subject of significant real-estate speculation. This phase came to an end by the close of the 19th century, and as the center of the city continued to move uptown, the quality of the area declined.

After World War II, the textile industry largely moved to the South, leaving many large buildings in the district unoccupied. In some buildings they were replaced by warehouses and printing plants, and other buildings were torn down to be replaced by gas stations, auto repair shops and parking lots and garages. By the 1950s, the area had become known as Hell's Hundred Acres, an industrial wasteland, full of sweatshops and small factories in the daytime, but empty at night. It would not be until the 1960s, when artists began to be interested in the tall ceilings and many windows of the empty manufacturing lofts, that the character of the neighborhood began to change again.

Cast-iron architecture
SoHo boasts the greatest collection of cast-iron architecture in the world. Approximately 250 cast-iron buildings stand in New York City, and the majority are in SoHo. Cast iron was initially used as a decorative front over a pre-existing building. With the addition of modern, decorative facades, older industrial buildings were able to attract new commercial clients. Most of these facades were constructed during the period from 1840 to 1880. In addition to revitalizing older structures, buildings in SoHo were later designed to feature the cast iron.

An American architectural innovation, cast iron was cheaper to use for facades than materials such as stone or brick. Molds of ornamentation, prefabricated in foundries, were used interchangeably for many buildings, and a broken piece could be easily recast. The buildings could be erected quickly; some were built in four months. Despite the brief construction period, the quality of the cast-iron designs was not sacrificed. Bronze had previously been the metal most frequently used for architectural detail. Architects found that the relatively inexpensive cast iron could provide intricately designed patterns. Classical French and Italian architectural designs were often used as models for these facades. Because stone was the material associated with architectural masterpieces, cast iron, painted in neutral tints such as beige, was used to simulate stone.

There was a profusion of cast iron foundries in New York, including Badger's Architectural Iron Works, James L. Jackson's Iron Works, and Cornell Iron Works.

Since the iron was pliable and easily molded, sumptuously curved window frames were created, and the strength of the metal allowed these frames considerable height. The once-somber, gas-lit interiors of the industrial district were flooded with sunlight through the enlarged windows. The strength of cast iron permitted high ceilings with sleek supporting columns, and interiors became expansive and functional.

During cast iron's heyday, many architects thought it to be structurally more sound than steel. It was also thought that cast iron would be fire-resistant, and facades were constructed over many interiors built of wood and other flammable materials. When exposed to heat, cast iron buckled, and later cracked under the cold water used to extinguish fire. In 1899, a building code mandating the backing of cast-iron fronts with masonry was passed. Most of the buildings that stand today are constructed in this way. It was the advent of steel as a major construction material that brought an end to the cast iron era.

Lower Manhattan Expressway
In the 1960s, the SoHo area was to have been the location of two enormous elevated highways that comprised the two branches of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, a Robert Moses project that was intended to create an automobile and truck through-route connecting the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge on the east with the Holland Tunnel on the west.

The young historic preservation movement and architectural critics, stung by the destruction of the original Pennsylvania Station in 1963 and the threat to other historic structures, challenged the plans because of the threatened loss of a huge quantity of 19th-century cast-iron buildings. When John V. Lindsay became mayor of New York City in 1966, his initial reaction was to try to push the expressways through, dubbing the project the Lower Manhattan Expressway, depressing some of the proposed highway in residential areas and stressing the importance of the artery to the city. Nevertheless, through the efforts of Jane Jacobs, Tony D'Apolito, Margot Gayle, and other local, civic, and cultural leaders, as well as SoHo artist residents themselves, the project was derailed.

Artists move in
After the abandonment of the highway scheme, the city was left with a large number of historic buildings that were unattractive for the kinds of manufacturing and commerce that survived in the city in the 1970s. The upper floors of many of these buildings had been built as commercial Manhattan lofts, which provided large, unobstructed spaces for manufacturing and other industrial uses. These spaces attracted artists who valued them for their large areas, large windows admitting natural light and low rents. Most of these spaces were also used illegally as living space, despite being neither zoned nor equipped for residential use. This widespread zoning violation was ignored for a long period of time, as the artist-occupants were using space for which there was little demand due to the city's poor economy at the time, and would have lain dormant or been abandoned otherwise. Nevertheless, as the artist population grew, the city made some attempts to stem the movement, concerned about the occupation of space that did not meet residential building codes, and the possibility that the occupied space might be needed for the return of manufacturing to New York City. Pressured on many sides, and organizations such as the Artist Tenant Association and later the Soho Artist Association, the city abandoned attempts to keep the district as strictly industrial space, and in 1971, the Zoning Resolution was amended to permit Joint Live-Work Quarters for artists, and the M1-5a and M-5b districting was established to permit visual artists, certified as such by the Department of Cultural Affairs, to live where they worked. In 1987, non-artists residing in SoHo and NoHo were permitted to grandfather themselves, but that was the only extension to non-artists and was a one-time agreement.

The area received landmark designation as the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District in 1973.

Gentrification and shopping
In 2005, the construction of residential buildings on empty lots in the historic district was permitted. Nevertheless, with no enforcement of the new zoning laws by the city, beginning in the 1980s, in a way that would later apply elsewhere, the neighborhood began to draw more affluent residents. Due to rent protection and stability afforded by the 1982 Loft Law, in addition to the fact that many of the artists owned their co-ops, many of the original pioneering artists remained despite the popular misconception that gentrification forced them to flee. Many residents have lived in the neighborhood for decades. In the mid-1990s, most of the galleries moved to Chelsea, but several galleries remain as of 2013, including DTR Modern Galleries, William Bennett Gallery, Martin Lawrence Galleries, Terrain Gallery, Franklin Bowles Gallery, and Pop International Gallery.

SoHo's location, the appeal of lofts as living spaces, its architecture, and its reputation as a haven for artists all contributed to this change. The pattern of gentrification is typically known as the "SoHo Effect" and has been observed elsewhere in the United States. A backwater of poor artists and small factories in the 1970s, SoHo became a popular tourist destination for people seeking fashionable clothing and exquisite architecture, and home to some of the most expensive real estate in the country.

SoHo's chain outlets are clustered in the northern area of the neighborhood, along Broadway and Prince and Spring Streets. The sidewalks in this area are often crowded with tourists and with vendors selling jewelry, T-shirts, and other works. SoHo is known for its commercialization and eclectic mix of boutiques for shopping – although in 2010, it had twice as many chain stores as boutiques and three times as many boutiques as art galleries.

Rezoning
Despite the significant change in the neighborhood's character in the previous decades, by the end of the 2010s the area's zoning still reflected its industrial heritage; any new residential development required special permits. As such, in 2019 the city began a public consultation process called "Envision SoHo/NoHo" to plan for future growth and manage change, and ultimately to bring land use rules in line with the mainly residential and commercial present-day reality of the neighborhood.

A coalition of nearly two dozen housing and social organizations, led by pro-housing advocacy group Open New York, and including the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, the Regional Plan Association, and Habitat for Humanity, seized on the idea of a rezoning as a means of alleviating the city's housing shortage. In October 2019, the coalition put forward a rezoning plan that would produce 3,400 additional housing units, nearly 700 of which would be affordable, and later that month the city officially proposed a similar plan that envisaged the creation of 3,200 new residential units and up to 800 affordable units. Observers suggested that the coalition's campaign for a residential rezoning had spurred a previously reluctant mayor to act, noting that even real estate industry groups like the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), the city's largest real estate trade organization, had shown no interest in a rezoning of SoHo and NoHo. The proposal was immediately contentious; while most major candidates in the Democratic mayoral and Manhattan borough president primaries endorsed the plan, at least in principle, candidates for the city council district were more divided.

A group of a half-dozen neighborhood groups, led by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, put forth a "community alternative plan" which they claimed would create more affordable housing without any major new development, and a report attacking the city's plan, a claim that was challenged by the city and other civic organizations. Carl Weisbrod, former chairman of the New York City Planning Commission said the GVSHP's report was "misleading and disingenuous", and a spokesman for the mayor's office described the "community alternative plan" as "an exercise in magical thinking". In July 2021, the area's community board voted to reject the proposal, although the vote was ultimately non-binding. In September 2021, Manhattan Borough president Gale Brewer expressed concerns about the plan, particularly the potential for the plan to incentivize commercial development rather than residential, a criticism echoed by some of the housing advocates who had initially pushed for the plan.

In 2022, a team of over 2,000 players constructed a recreation of Soho in the sandbox game Minecraft, as part of the COVID-19 Build the Earth movement.

Demographics
For census purposes, the New York City government classifies SoHo as part of a larger neighborhood tabulation area called SoHo-TriBeCa-Civic Center-Little Italy. Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of SoHo-TriBeCa-Civic Center-Little Italy was 42,742, a change of 5,985 (14%) from the 36,757 counted in 2000. Covering an area of 581.62 acres, the neighborhood had a population density of 73.5 PD/acre. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 66.1% (28,250) White, 2.2% (934) African American, 0.1% (30) Native American, 22.2% (9,478) Asian, 0% (11) Pacific Islander, 0.4% (171) from other races, and 2.6% (1,098) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.5% (2,770) of the population.

The entirety of Community District 2, which comprises SoHo and Greenwich Village, had 91,638 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 85.8 years. This is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are adults: a plurality (42%) are between the ages of 25 and 44, while 24% are between 45 and 64, and 15% are 65 or older. The ratio of youth and college-aged residents was lower, at 9% and 10% respectively.

As of 2017, the median household income in Community Districts 1 and 2 (including the Financial District and Tribeca) was $144,878, though the median income in SoHo individually was $124,396. In 2018, an estimated 9% of SoHo and Greenwich Village residents lived in poverty, compared to 20% in all of Manhattan and 20% in all of New York City. One in twenty-five residents (4%) were unemployed, compared to 7% in Manhattan and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 38% in SoHo and Greenwich Village, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 45% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation,, SoHo and Greenwich Village are considered high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying.

Police and crime
SoHo and Lower Manhattan are patrolled by the 1st Precinct of the NYPD, at 16 Ericsson Place. The 1st Precinct ranked 63rd safest out of 69 city precincts for per-capita crime in 2010. Though the number of crimes is low compared to other NYPD precincts, the residential population is also much lower. With a non-fatal assault rate of 10 per 100,000 people, SoHo's rate of violent crimes per capita is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 100 per 100,000 people is also lower than that of the city as a whole.

The 1st Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 86.3% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct saw 1 murder, 23 rapes, 80 robberies, 61 felony assaults, 85 burglaries, 1,085 grand larcenies, and 21 grand larcenies auto in 2018.

Fire safety
SoHo is served by two New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire stations:

 * Engine Co. 24/Ladder Company 5/Battalion 2 – 227 6th Avenue
 * Ladder Company 20/Division 1 – 253 Lafayette Street

Health
Preterm births are more common in SoHo and Greenwich Village than in other places citywide, though teenage births are less common. In SoHo and Greenwich Village, there were 91 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 1 teenage birth per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide), though the teenage birth rate is based on a small sample size. SoHo and Greenwich Village have a low population of residents who are uninsured. In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 4%, less than the citywide rate of 12%, though this was based on a small sample size.

The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in SoHo and Greenwich Village is 0.0095 mg/m3, more than the city average. Sixteen percent of SoHo and Greenwich Village residents are smokers, which is more than the city average of 14% of residents being smokers. In SoHo and Greenwich Village, 4% of residents are obese, 3% are diabetic, and 15% have high blood pressure, the lowest rates in the city – compared to the citywide averages of 24%, 11%, and 28% respectively. In addition, 5% of children are obese, the lowest rate in the city, compared to the citywide average of 20%.

Ninety-six percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which is more than the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 91% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", more than the city's average of 78%. For every supermarket in SoHo and Greenwich Village, there are 7 bodegas.

The nearest major hospitals are Beth Israel Medical Center in Stuyvesant Town, as well as the Bellevue Hospital Center and NYU Langone Medical Center in Kips Bay, and NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital in the Civic Center area.

Post offices and ZIP Codes
SoHo is within two primary ZIP Codes. The area north of Broome Street is in 10012 while the area south of Broome Street is in 10013. The United States Postal Service operates two post offices near SoHo both in ZIP 10014:
 * Village Station – 201 Varick Street at King Street.
 * West Village Station – 527 Hudson Street between West 10th and Charles streets.

Education
SoHo and Greenwich Village generally have a higher rate of college-educated residents than the rest of the city. The vast majority of residents age 25 and older (84%) have a college education or higher, while 4% have less than a high school education and 12% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 64% of Manhattan residents and 43% of city residents have a college education or higher. The percentage of SoHo and Greenwich Village students excelling in math rose from 61% in 2000 to 80% in 2011, and reading achievement increased from 66% to 68% during the same time period.

SoHo and Greenwich Village's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is lower than the rest of New York City. In SoHo and Greenwich Village, 7% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per school year, less than the citywide average of 20%. Additionally, 91% of high school students in SoHo and Greenwich Village graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%.

Schools
There are no New York City Department of Education schools in SoHo, although there are several just outside its borders, including:
 * Broome Street Academy Charter School (M522, 121 Avenue of the Americas)
 * Chelsea Career & Technical Education High School (M615, 131 Avenue of the Americas)
 * NYC Ischool (M376, 131 Avenue of the Americas)
 * P.S. 130 Hernando de Soto School (M130, 143 Baxter Street)
 * Unity Center for Urban Technologies (M500, 121 Avenue of the Americas)

The Montessori School in SoHo is at 75 Sullivan Street.

Library
The New York Public Library's Mulberry Street branch is located at 10 Jersey Street, where it occupies three floors of a former SoHo chocolate factory, including two basement levels.

Vehicles
By vehicle, SoHo borders the Holland Tunnel, which carries vehicular traffic under the Hudson River, connecting SoHo and Lower Manhattan with Jersey City and New Jersey to its west.

Subway
SoHo can be reached by the New York City Subway, using the to Spring Street;  to Houston Street; the  to Prince Street; and the  to Spring Street. The crosstown on Houston Street and the north–south  bus routes also serve the neighborhood.

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title: SoHo, Manhattan


text:
Shorthand

Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek stenos (narrow) and graphein (to write). It has also been called brachygraphy, from Greek brachys (short), and tachygraphy, from Greek tachys (swift, speedy), depending on whether compression or speed of writing is the goal.

Many forms of shorthand exist. A typical shorthand system provides symbols or abbreviations for words and common phrases, which can allow someone well-trained in the system to write as quickly as people speak. Abbreviation methods are alphabet-based and use different abbreviating approaches. Many journalists use shorthand writing to quickly take notes at press conferences or other similar scenarios. In the computerized world, several autocomplete programs, standalone or integrated in text editors, based on word lists, also include a shorthand function for frequently used phrases.

Shorthand was used more widely in the past, before the invention of recording and dictation machines. Shorthand was considered an essential part of secretarial training and police work and was useful for journalists. Although the primary use of shorthand has been to record oral dictation and other types of verbal communication, some systems are used for compact expression. For example, healthcare professionals might use shorthand notes in medical charts and correspondence. Shorthand notes were typically temporary, intended either for immediate use or for later typing, data entry, or (mainly historically) transcription to longhand. Longer-term uses do exist, such as encipherment: diaries (like that of Samuel Pepys) are a common example.

Classical antiquity
The earliest known indication of shorthand systems is from the Parthenon in Ancient Greece, where a mid-4th century BC inscribed marble slab was found. This shows a writing system primarily based on vowels, using certain modifications to indicate consonants. Hellenistic tachygraphy is reported from the 2nd century BC onwards, though there are indications that it might be older. The oldest datable reference is a contract from Middle Egypt, stating that Oxyrhynchos gives the "semeiographer" Apollonios for two years to be taught shorthand writing. Hellenistic tachygraphy consisted of word stem signs and word ending signs. Over time, many syllabic signs were developed.

In Ancient Rome, Marcus Tullius Tiro (103–4 BC), a slave and later a freedman of Cicero, developed the Tironian notes so that he could write down Cicero's speeches. Plutarch (c. 46) in his "Life of Cato the Younger" (95–46 BC) records that Cicero, during a trial of some insurrectionists in the senate, employed several expert rapid writers, whom he had taught to make figures comprising numerous words in a few short strokes, to preserve Cato's speech on this occasion. The Tironian notes consisted of Latin word stem abbreviations (notae) and of word ending abbreviations (titulae). The original Tironian notes consisted of about 4,000 signs, but new signs were introduced, so that their number might increase to as many as 13,000. In order to have a less complex writing system, a syllabic shorthand script was sometimes used. After the decline of the Roman Empire, the Tironian notes were no longer used to transcribe speeches, though they were still known and taught, particularly during the Carolingian Renaissance. After the 11th century, however, they were mostly forgotten.

When many monastery libraries were secularized in the course of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, long-forgotten manuscripts of Tironian notes were rediscovered.

Imperial China
In imperial China, clerks used an abbreviated, highly cursive form of Chinese characters to record court proceedings and criminal confessions. These records were used to create more formal transcripts. One cornerstone of imperial court proceedings was that all confessions had to be acknowledged by the accused's signature, personal seal, or thumbprint, requiring fast writing. Versions of this technique survived in clerical professions into the modern day and, influenced by Western shorthand methods, some new methods were invented.

Europe and North America
An interest in shorthand or "short-writing" developed towards the end of the 16th century in England. In 1588, Timothy Bright published his Characterie; An Arte of Shorte, Swifte and Secrete Writing by Character which introduced a system with 500 arbitrary symbols each representing one word. Bright's book was followed by a number of others, including Peter Bales'  The Writing Schoolemaster in 1590, John Willis's Art of Stenography in 1602, Edmond Willis's An abbreviation of writing by character in 1618, and Thomas Shelton's Short Writing in 1626 (later re-issued as Tachygraphy).

Shelton's system became very popular and is well known because it was used by Samuel Pepys for his diary and for many of his official papers, such as his letter copy books. It was also used by Sir Isaac Newton in some of his notebooks. Shelton borrowed heavily from his predecessors, especially Edmond Willis. Each consonant was represented by an arbitrary but simple symbol, while the five vowels were represented by the relative positions of the surrounding consonants. Thus the symbol for B with symbol for T drawn directly above it represented "bat", while B with T below it meant "but"; top-right represented "e", middle-right "i", and lower-right "o". A vowel at the end of a word was represented by a dot in the appropriate position, while there were additional symbols for initial vowels. This basic system was supplemented by further symbols representing common prefixes and suffixes.

One drawback of Shelton's system was that there was no way to distinguish long and short vowels or diphthongs; so the b-a-t sequence could mean "bat", or "bait", or "bate", while b-o-t might mean "boot", or "bought", or "boat". The reader needed to use the context to work out which alternative was meant. The main advantage of the system was that it was easy to learn and to use. It was popular, and under the two titles of Short Writing and Tachygraphy, Shelton's book ran to more than 20 editions between 1626 and 1710.

Shelton's chief rivals were Theophilus Metcalfe's Stenography or Short Writing (1633) which was in its "55th edition" by 1721, and Jeremiah Rich's system of 1654, which was published under various titles including The penns dexterity compleated (1669). Rich's system was used by George Treby chairman of the House of Commons Committee of Secrecy investigating the Popish Plot. Another notable English shorthand system creator of the 17th century was William Mason (fl. 1672–1709) who published Arts Advancement in 1682.

Modern-looking geometric shorthand was introduced with John Byrom's New Universal Shorthand of 1720. Samuel Taylor published a similar system in 1786, the first English shorthand system to be used all over the English-speaking world. Thomas Gurney published Brachygraphy in the mid-18th century. In 1834 in Germany, Franz Xaver Gabelsberger published his Gabelsberger shorthand. Gabelsberger based his shorthand on the shapes used in German cursive handwriting rather than on the geometrical shapes that were common in the English stenographic tradition. Taylor's system was superseded by Pitman shorthand, first introduced in 1837 by English teacher Sir Isaac Pitman, and improved many times since. Pitman's system has been used all over the English-speaking world and has been adapted to many other languages, including Latin. Pitman's system uses a phonemic orthography. For this reason, it is sometimes known as phonography, meaning "sound writing" in Greek. One of the reasons this system allows fast transcription is that vowel sounds are optional when only consonants are needed to determine a word. The availability of a full range of vowel symbols, however, makes complete accuracy possible. Isaac's brother Benn Pitman, who lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, was responsible for introducing the method to America. The record for fast writing with Pitman shorthand is 350 wpm during a two-minute test by Nathan Behrin in 1922.

In the United States and some other parts of the world, it was largely superseded by Gregg shorthand, which was first published in 1888 by John Robert Gregg. This system was influenced by the handwriting shapes that Gabelsberger had introduced. Gregg's shorthand, like Pitman's, is phonetic, but has the simplicity of being "light-line." Pitman's system uses thick and thin strokes to distinguish related sounds, while Gregg's uses only thin strokes and makes some of the same distinctions by the length of the stroke. In fact, Gregg claimed joint authorship in another shorthand system published in pamphlet form by one Thomas Stratford Malone; Malone, however, claimed sole authorship and a legal battle ensued. The two systems use very similar, if not identical, symbols; however, these symbols are used to represent different sounds. For instance, on page 10 of the manual is the word d i m 'dim'; however, in the Gregg system, the spelling would actually mean n u k or 'nook'.

Andrew J. Graham was a notable phonotypist operating in the period between the emergence of Pitman's and Gregg's systems. In 1854 he published a short-lived (only 9 issues) phonotypy journal called The Cosmotype, subtitled "devoted to that which will entertain usefull, instruct, and improve humanity", and several other monographs about phonography. In 1857 he published his own Pitman-like "Graham's Brief Longhand" that saw wide adoption in the United States in the late 19th century. He published a translation of the New Testament. His method landed him in a 1864 copyright infringement lawsuit against Benn Pitman in Ohio. Graham died in 1895 and was buried in Montclair's Rosedale Cemetery; even as late as 1918 his company Andrew J. Graham & Co continued to market his method.

In his youth, Woodrow Wilson had mastered the Graham system and even corresponded with Graham in Graham. Throughout his life Wilson continued to develop and employ his own Graham system writing, to the point that by 1950s, when the Graham method had all but disappeared Wilson scholars had trouble interpreting his shorthand. In 1960 an 84-year-old anachronistic shorthand expert Clifford Gehman managed to crack Wilson's shorthand, demonstrating on a translation of Wilson's acceptance speech for the 1912 presidential nomination.

Japan
"Our Japanese pen shorthand began in 1882, transplanted from the American Pitman-Graham system. Geometric theory has great influence in Japan. But Japanese motions of writing gave some influence to our shorthand.  We are proud to have reached the highest speed in capturing spoken words with a pen.  Major pen shorthand systems are Shuugiin, Sangiin, Nakane and Waseda [a repeated vowel shown here means a vowel spoken in double-length in Japanese, sometimes shown instead as a bar over the vowel].  Including a machine-shorthand system, Sokutaipu, we have 5 major shorthand systems now.  The Japan Shorthand Association now has 1,000 members."

- Tsuguo Kaneko

There are several other pen shorthands in use (Ishimura, Iwamura, Kumassaki, Kotani, and Nissokuken), leading to a total of nine pen shorthands in use. In addition, there is the Yamane pen shorthand (of unknown importance) and three machine shorthands systems (Speed Waapuro, Caver and Hayatokun or sokutaipu). The machine shorthands have gained some ascendancy over the pen shorthands.

Japanese shorthand systems ('sokki' shorthand or 'sokkidou' stenography) commonly use a syllabic approach, much like the common writing system for Japanese (which has actually two syllabaries in everyday use). There are several semi-cursive systems. Most follow a left-to-right, top-to-bottom writing direction. Several systems incorporate a loop into many of the strokes, giving the appearance of Gregg, Graham, or Cross's Eclectic shorthand without actually functioning like them. The Kotani (aka Same-Vowel-Same-Direction or SVSD or V-type) system's strokes frequently cross over each other and in so doing form loops.

Japanese also has its own variously cursive form of writing kanji characters, the most extremely simplified of which is known as Sōsho.

The two Japanese syllabaries are themselves adapted from the Chinese characters: both of the syllabaries, katakana and hiragana, are in everyday use alongside the Chinese characters known as kanji; the kanji, being developed in parallel to the Chinese characters, have their own idiosyncrasies, but Chinese and Japanese ideograms are largely comprehensible, even if their use in the languages are not the same.

Prior to the Meiji era, Japanese did not have its own shorthand (the kanji did have their own abbreviated forms borrowed alongside them from China). Takusari Kooki was the first to give classes in a new Western-style non-ideographic shorthand of his own design, emphasis being on the non-ideographic and new. This was the first shorthand system adapted to writing phonetic Japanese, all other systems prior being based on the idea of whole or partial semantic ideographic writing like that used in the Chinese characters, and the phonetic approach being mostly peripheral to writing in general. Even today, Japanese writing uses the syllabaries to pronounce or spell out words, or to indicate grammatical words. Furigana are written alongside kanji, or Chinese characters, to indicate their pronunciation especially in juvenile publications. Furigana are usually written using the hiragana syllabary; foreign words may not have a kanji form and are spelled out using katakana.

The new sokki were used to transliterate popular vernacular story-telling theater (yose) of the day. This led to a thriving industry of sokkibon (shorthand books). The ready availability of the stories in book form, and higher rates of literacy (which the very industry of sokkibon may have helped create, due to these being oral classics that were already known to most people) may also have helped kill the yose theater, as people no longer needed to see the stories performed in person to enjoy them. Sokkibon also allowed a whole host of what had previously been mostly oral rhetorical and narrative techniques into writing, such as imitation of dialect in conversations (which can be found back in older gensaku literature; but gensaku literature used conventional written language in between conversations, however).

Geometric and script-like systems
Shorthands that use simplified letterforms are sometimes termed stenographic shorthands, contrasting with alphabetic shorthands, below. Stenographic shorthands can be further differentiated by the target letter forms as geometric, script, and semi-script or elliptical.

Geometric shorthands are based on circles, parts of circles, and straight lines placed strictly horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The first modern shorthand systems were geometric. Examples include Pitman shorthand, Boyd's syllabic shorthand, Samuel Taylor's Universal Stenography, the French Prévost-Delaunay, and the Duployé system, adapted to write the Kamloops Wawa (used for Chinook Jargon) writing system.

Script shorthands are based on the motions of ordinary handwriting. The first system of this type was published under the title Cadmus Britanicus by Simon Bordley, in 1787. However, the first practical system was the German Gabelsberger shorthand of 1834. This class of system is now common in all more recent German shorthand systems, as well as in Austria, Italy, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Russia, other Eastern European countries, and elsewhere.

Script-geometric, or semi-script, shorthands are based on the ellipse. Semi-script can be considered a compromise between the geometric systems and the script systems. The first such system was that of George Carl Märes in 1885. However, the most successful system of this type was Gregg shorthand, introduced by John Robert Gregg in 1888. Gregg had studied not only the geometric English systems, but also the German Stolze stenography, a script shorthand. Other examples include Teeline Shorthand and Thomas Natural Shorthand.

The semi-script philosophy gained popularity in Italy in the first half of the 20th century with three different systems created by Giovanni Vincenzo Cima, Erminio Meschini, and Stenital Mosciaro.

Systems resembling standard writing
Some shorthand systems attempted to ease learning by using characters from the Latin alphabet. Such non-stenographic systems have often been described as alphabetic, and purists might claim that such systems are not 'true' shorthand. However, these alphabetic systems do have value for students who cannot dedicate the years necessary to master a stenographic shorthand. Alphabetic shorthands cannot be written at the speeds theoretically possible with symbol systems—200 words per minute or more—but require only a fraction of the time to acquire a useful speed of between 70 and 100 words per minute.

Non-stenographic systems often supplement alphabetic characters by using punctuation marks as additional characters, giving special significance to capitalised letters, and sometimes using additional non-alphabetic symbols. Examples of such systems include Stenoscript, Speedwriting and Forkner shorthand. However, there are some pure alphabetic systems, including Personal Shorthand, SuperWrite, Easy Script Speed Writing, Keyscript Shorthand and Yash3k which limit their symbols to a priori alphabetic characters. These have the added advantage that they can also be typed—for instance, onto a computer, PDA, or cellphone. Early editions of Speedwriting were also adapted so that they could be written on a typewriter, and therefore would possess the same advantage.

Varieties of vowel representation
Shorthand systems can also be classified according to the way that vowels are represented.
 * Alphabetic – Expression by "normal" vowel signs that are not fundamentally different from consonant signs (e.g., Gregg, Duployan).
 * Mixed alphabetic – Expression of vowels and consonants by different kinds of strokes (e.g., Arends' system for German or Melin's Swedish Shorthand where vowels are expressed by upward or sideway strokes and consonants and consonant clusters by downward strokes).
 * Abjad – No expression of the individual vowels at all except for indications of an initial or final vowel (e.g., Taylor).
 * Marked abjad – Expression of vowels by the use of detached signs (such as dots, ticks, and other marks) written around the consonant signs.
 * Positional abjad – Expression of an initial vowel by the height of the word in relation to the line, no necessary expression of subsequent vowels (e.g., Pitman, which can optionally express other vowels by detached diacritics).
 * Abugida – Expression of a vowel by the shape of a stroke, with the consonant indicated by orientation (e.g., Boyd).
 * Mixed abugida – Expression of the vowels by the width of the joining stroke that leads to the following consonant sign, the height of the following consonant sign in relation to the preceding one, and the line pressure of the following consonant sign (e.g., most German shorthand systems).

Machine shorthand systems
Traditional shorthand systems are written on paper with a stenographic pencil or a stenographic pen. Some consider that strictly speaking only handwritten systems can be called shorthand.

Machine shorthand is also a common term for writing produced by a stenotype, a specialized keyboard. These are often used for court room transcripts and in live subtitling. However, there are other shorthand machines used worldwide, including: Velotype; Palantype in the UK; Grandjean Stenotype, used extensively in France and French-speaking countries; Michela Stenotype, used extensively in Italy; and Stenokey, used in Bulgaria and elsewhere.

Common modern English shorthand systems
One of the most widely used forms of shorthand is still the Pitman shorthand method described above, which has been adapted for 15 languages. Although Pitman's method was extremely popular at first and is still commonly used, especially in the UK, in the U.S., its popularity has been largely superseded by Gregg shorthand, developed by John Robert Gregg in 1888.

In the UK, the spelling-based (rather than phonetic) Teeline shorthand is now more commonly taught and used than Pitman, and Teeline is the recommended system of the National Council for the Training of Journalists with an overall speed of 100 words per minute necessary for certification. Other less commonly used systems in the UK are Pitman 2000, PitmanScript, Speedwriting, and Gregg. Teeline is also the most common shorthand method taught to New Zealand journalists, whose certification typically requires a shorthand speed of at least 80 words per minute.

In Nigeria, shorthand is still taught in higher institutions of learning, especially for students studying Office Technology Management and Business Education.

Notable shorthand systems

 * Chandler shorthand (Mary Chandler Atherton)
 * Current Shorthand (Henry Sweet)
 * Duployan shorthand (Émile Duployé)
 * Eclectic shorthand (J.G. Cross)
 * Gabelsberger shorthand (Franz Xaver Gabelsberger)
 * Deutsche Einheitskurzschrift (German Unified Shorthand), which is based on the ideas of systems by Gabelsberger, Stolze, Faulmann and other German system inventors
 * Gregg shorthand (John Robert Gregg)
 * Munson Shorthand (James Eugene Munson)
 * Personal Shorthand, originally called Briefhand
 * Pitman shorthand (Isaac Pitman)
 * Speedwriting (Emma Dearborn)
 * Teeline Shorthand (James Hill (stenographer))
 * Tironian notes (Marcus Tullius Tiro), 63 BC

title: Shorthand


text: User:Twonavels

title: User:Twonavels


text:
Uncial script

Uncial is a majuscule script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. Uncial letters were used to write Greek and Latin, as well as Gothic, and are the current style for Coptic and Nobiin.

Development
Early uncial script most likely developed from late rustic capitals. Early forms are characterized by broad single-stroke letters using simple round forms taking advantage of the new parchment and vellum surfaces, as opposed to the angular, multiple-stroke letters, which are more suited for rougher surfaces, such as papyrus. In the oldest examples of uncial, such as the fragment of De bellis macedonicis in the British Library, of the late 1st–early 2nd centuries, all of the letters are disconnected from one another, and word separation is typically not used. Word separation, however, is characteristic of later uncial usage.

As the script evolved over the centuries, the characters became more complex. Specifically, around AD 600, flourishes and exaggerations of the basic strokes began to appear in more manuscripts. Ascenders and descenders were the first major alterations, followed by twists of the tool in the basic stroke and overlapping. By the time the more compact minuscule scripts arose circa AD 800, some of the evolved uncial styles formed the basis for these simplified, smaller scripts. There are over 500 surviving copies of uncial script; by far the larger number of these predate the Carolingian Renaissance. Uncial was still used, particularly for copies of the Bible, until around the 10th century outside of Ireland. The insular variant of uncial remained the standard script used to write the Irish language until the middle of the 20th century.

Forms

In general, there are some common features of uncial script:

 * $\langlef\rangle$, $\langlei\rangle$, $\langlep\rangle$, $\langles\rangle$, $\langlet\rangle$ are relatively narrow.
 * $\langlem\rangle$, $\langlen\rangle$ and $\langleu\rangle$ are relatively broad; $\langlem\rangle$ is formed with curved strokes (although a straight first stroke may indicate an early script), and $\langlen\rangle$ is written as $\langleɴ\rangle$ to distinguish it from $\langler\rangle$ and $\langles\rangle$.
 * $\langlee\rangle$ is formed with a curved stroke, and its arm (or hasta) does not connect with the top curve; the height of the arm can also indicate the age of the script (written in a high position, the script is probably early, while an arm written closer to the middle of the curve may indicate a later script).
 * $\langlel\rangle$ has a small base, not extending to the right to connect with the next letter.
 * $\langler\rangle$ has a long, curved shoulder $\langle\rangle$, often connecting with the next letter.
 * $\langles\rangle$ resembles (and is the ancestor of) the "long s" $\langleſ\rangle$; in uncial it $\langle\rangle$ looks more like $\langler\rangle$ than $\langlef\rangle$.

In later uncial scripts, the letters are sometimes drawn haphazardly; for example, $\langlell\rangle$ runs together at the baseline, bows (for example in $\langleb\rangle$, $\langlep\rangle$, $\langler\rangle$) do not entirely curve in to touch their stems, and the script is generally not written as cleanly as previously.

National styles
Due to its extremely widespread use, in Byzantine, African, Italian, French, Spanish, and "insular" (Irish, Welsh, and English) centres, there were many slightly different styles in use:

 * African (i.e. Roman North African) uncial is more angular than other forms of uncial. In particular, the bow of the letter $⟨a⟩$ is particularly sharp and pointed.
 * Byzantine uncial has two variants, each with unique features: "b-d uncial" uses forms of $⟨b⟩$ and $⟨d⟩$ which are closer to half-uncial (see below), and was in use in the 4th and 5th centuries; "b-r" uncial, in use in the 5th and 6th centuries, has a form of $⟨b⟩$ that is twice as large as the other letters, and an $⟨r⟩$ with a bow resting on the baseline and the stem extending below the baseline.
 * Italian uncial has flatter tops on the round letters ($⟨c⟩$, $⟨e⟩$, $⟨o⟩$ etc.), and a sharp bow (as in African uncial), an almost horizontal rather than vertical stem in $⟨d⟩$, and forked finials (i.e., serifs in some letters such as $⟨f⟩$, $⟨l⟩$, $⟨t⟩$ and $⟨s⟩$).
 * Insular uncial (not to be confused with the separate Insular script) generally has definite word separation, and accent marks over stressed syllables, probably because Irish scribes did not speak a language descended from Latin. They also use specifically Insular scribal abbreviations not found in other uncial forms, use wedge-shaped finials, connect a slightly subscript "pendant $⟨i⟩$" with $⟨m⟩$ or $⟨h⟩$ (when at the end of a word), and decorate the script with animals and dots ("Insular dotting", often in groups of three).
 * French (that is, Merovingian) uncial uses thin descenders (in $⟨g⟩$, $⟨p⟩$ etc.), an $⟨x⟩$ with lines that cross higher than the middle, and a $⟨d⟩$ with a curled stem (somewhat resembling an apple), and there are many decorations of fish, trees, and birds.
 * Cyrillic manuscript developed from Greek uncial in the late ninth century (mostly replacing the Glagolitic alphabet), and was originally used to write the Old Church Slavonic liturgical language. The earlier form was called ustav (predominant in the 11–14th centuries), and later developed into semi-ustav script (or poluustav, 15–16th centuries).

Etymology
There is some doubt about the original meaning of the word. Uncial itself probably comes from St. Jerome's preface to the Book of Job, where it is found in the form uncialibus, but it is possible that this is a misreading of inicialibus (though this makes little sense in the context), and Jerome may have been referring to the larger initial letters found at the beginning of paragraphs.
 * Habeant qui volunt veteres libros, vel in membranis purpureis auro argentoque descriptos, vel uncialibus ut vulgo aiunt litteris onera magis exarata quam codices.
 * "Let those who so desire have old books, or books written in gold and silver on purple parchment, or burdens {rather than books} written in uncial letters, as they are popularly called."

In classical Latin uncialis could mean both "inch-high" and "weighing an ounce", and it is possible that Jerome was punning on this; he may conceivably also have been playing with the other meaning of codex, "block of wood".

The term uncial in the sense of describing this script was first used by Jean Mabillon in the early 18th century. Thereafter his definition was refined by Scipione Maffei, who used it to refer to this script as distinct from Roman square capitals.

Other uses
The word, uncial, is also sometimes used to refer to manuscripts that have been scribed in uncial, especially when differentiating from those penned with minuscule. Some of the most noteworthy Greek uncials are:
 * Codex Sinaiticus
 * Codex Vaticanus
 * Codex Alexandrinus
 * – these being three of what are often called the four great uncial codices
 * Codex Bezae
 * Codex Petropolitanus Purpureus

The Petropolitanus is considered by some to contain optimum uncial style. It is also an example of how large the characters were getting.

For further details on these manuscripts, see Guglielmo Cavallo Ricerche sulla Maiuscola Biblica (Florence, 1967).

Modern calligraphy usually teaches a form of evolved Latin-based uncial hand that would probably be best compared to the later 7th to 10th century examples, though admittedly, the variations in Latin uncial are much wider and less rigid than Greek. Modern uncial has borrowed heavily from some of the conventions found in more cursive scripts, using flourishes, variable width strokes, and on occasion, even center axis tilt.

In a way comparable to the continued widespread use of the blackletter typefaces for written German until well into the 20th century, Gaelic letterforms, which are similar to uncial letterforms, were conventionally used for typography in Irish until the 1950s. The script is still widely used in this way for titles of documents, inscriptions on monuments, and other 'official' uses. Strictly speaking, the Gaelic script is insular, not uncial. Uncial Greek (commonly called "Byzantine lettering" by Greeks themselves) is commonly used by the Greek Orthodox Church and various institutions and individuals in Greece to this day. The Modern Greek State has also used uncial script on several occasions in official capacity (such as on seals, government documents, etc.) as did many of the Greek provisional governments during the Greek War of Independence. The height of uncial usage by the Modern Greek State was during the Greek military junta of 1967–74, when even Greek Drachma coins had uncial lettering on them. Since the Metapolitefsi, the Greek State has stopped using uncial script.

Half-uncial
The term half-uncial or semi-uncial was first deployed by Scipione Maffei, Istoria diplomatica (Mantua, 1727); he used it to distinguish what seemed like a cut-down version of uncial in the famous Codex Basilicanus of Hilary, which contains sections in each of the two types of script. The terminology was continued in the mid-18th century by René Prosper Tassin and Charles François Toustain.

Despite the common and well-fixed usage, half-uncial is a poor name to the extent that it suggests some organic debt to regular uncial, though both types share features inherited from their ancient source, capitalis rustica.

It was first used around the 3rd century (if we don't consider its earliest example a transitional variant of the rustic script, as Leonard Boyle did) and remained in use until the end of the 8th century. The early forms of half-uncial were used for pagan authors and Roman legal writing, while in the 6th century the script came to be used in Africa and Europe (but not as often in insular centres) to transcribe Christian texts.

Half-uncial forms
Some general forms of half-uncial letters are:
 * $⟨a⟩$ is usually round $⟨ɑ⟩$, sometimes with a slightly open top
 * $⟨b⟩$ and $⟨d⟩$ have vertical stems, identical to the modern letters
 * $⟨g⟩$ has a flat top, no bow, and a curved descender $⟨ᵹ⟩$ (somewhat resembling the digit 5)
 * $⟨t⟩$ has a curved shaft $⟨ꞇ⟩$
 * $⟨n⟩$, $⟨r⟩$, and $⟨s⟩$ are similar to their uncial counterparts (with the same differences compared to modern letters)

Half-uncial was brought to Ireland in the 5th century, and from there to England in the 7th century. In England, it was used to create the Old English Latin alphabet in the 8th century.

title: Uncial script


text:
Variable bitrate

Variable bitrate (VBR) is a term used in telecommunications and computing that relates to the bitrate used in sound or video encoding. As opposed to constant bitrate (CBR), VBR files vary the amount of output data per time segment. VBR allows a higher bitrate (and therefore more storage space) to be allocated to the more complex segments of media files while less space is allocated to less complex segments. The average of these rates can be calculated to produce an average bitrate for the file.

MP3, WMA and AAC audio files can optionally be encoded in VBR, while Opus and Vorbis are encoded in VBR by default. Variable bit rate encoding is also commonly used on MPEG-2 video, MPEG-4 Part 2 video (Xvid, DivX, etc.), MPEG-4 Part 10/H.264 video, Theora, Dirac and other video compression formats. Additionally, variable rate encoding is inherent in lossless compression schemes such as FLAC and Apple Lossless.

Advantages and disadvantages of VBR
The advantages of VBR are that it produces a better quality-to-space ratio compared to a CBR file of the same data. The bits available are used more flexibly to encode the sound or video data more accurately, with fewer bits used in less demanding passages and more bits used in difficult-to-encode passages.

The disadvantages are that it may take more time to encode, as the process is more complex, and that some hardware might not be compatible with VBR files.

Multi-pass encoding and single-pass encoding
VBR is created using so-called single-pass encoding or multi-pass encoding. Single-pass encoding analyzes and encodes the data "on the fly" and it is also used in constant bitrate encoding. Single-pass encoding is used when the encoding speed is most important — e.g. for real-time encoding. Single-pass VBR encoding is usually controlled by the fixed quality setting or by the bitrate range (minimum and maximum allowed bitrate) or by the average bitrate setting. Multi-pass encoding is used when the encoding quality is most important. Multi-pass encoding cannot be used in real-time encoding, live broadcast or live streaming. Multi-pass encoding takes much longer than single-pass encoding, because every pass means one pass through the input data (usually through the whole input file). Multi-pass encoding is used only for VBR encoding, because CBR encoding doesn't offer any flexibility to change the bitrate. The most common multi-pass encoding is two-pass encoding. In the first pass of two-pass encoding, the input data is being analyzed and the result is stored in a log file. In the second pass, the collected data from the first pass is used to achieve the best encoding quality. In a video encoding, two-pass encoding is usually controlled by the average bitrate setting or by the bitrate range setting (minimal and maximal allowed bitrate) or by the target video file size setting. *

Bitrate range
This VBR encoding method allows the user to specify a bitrate range — a minimum and/or maximum allowed bitrate. Some encoders extend this method with an average bitrate. The minimum and maximum allowed bitrate set bounds in which the bitrate may vary. The disadvantage of this method is that the average bitrate (and hence file size) will not be known ahead of time. The bitrate range is also used in some fixed quality encoding methods, but usually without permission to change a particular bitrate.

Average bitrate
The disadvantage of single pass ABR encoding (with or without Constrained Variable Bitrate) is the opposite of fixed quantizer VBR — the size of the output is known ahead of time, but the resulting quality is unknown, although still better than CBR.

The multi-pass ABR encoding is more similar to fixed quantizer VBR, because a higher average will really increase the quality.

File size
VBR encoding using the file size setting is usually multi-pass encoding. It allows the user to specify a specific target file size. In the first pass, the encoder analyzes the input file and automatically calculates possible bitrate range and/or average bitrate. In the last pass, the encoder distributes the available bits among the entire video to achieve uniform quality.

title: Variable bitrate


text:
Mono

Mono may refer to:

Biology

 * Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease"
 * Monocyte, a type of leukocyte (white blood cell)
 * Monodactylidae, members of which are referred to as monos

Technology and computing

 * Mono (audio), single-channel sound reproduction
 * Mono (software), a software framework

Performers

 * Mono (Japanese band), an instrumental band
 * Mono (UK band), an electronic band
 * MONO, Vietnamese male singer and Sơn Tùng M-TP's younger brother
 * Miky Mono, former member of Mono Inc., a German gothic rock band
 * Richard Targett and the Monos, a side-project to The Trudy

Albums

 * Mono (Alpha Wolf album) or the title song, 2017
 * Mono (Fury in the Slaughterhouse album), 1993
 * Mono (K.Flay album), 2023
 * Mono (The Icarus Line album), 2001
 * Mono (Lena Katina album) or the title song, 2019
 * Mono (The Mavericks album), 2015
 * Mono (mixtape), by RM, 2018
 * Mono, by Paul Westerberg, packaged with Stereo, 2002

Songs

 * "Mono" (song), by Courtney Love, 2004
 * "Mono", by Fightstar from They Liked You Better When You Were Dead, 2005
 * "Mono", by Monrose from Ladylike, 2010
 * "Mono", by Whitechapel from Our Endless War, 2014

United States

 * Mono or Mono Mills, California, a ghost town
 * Mono County, California
 * Mono Village, Mono County, California, a former settlement
 * Mono Lake, California
 * Mono Pass, Yosemite National park, California

Elsewhere

 * Mono Department, Benin
 * Mono, Ontario, Canada, a town
 * Monó, Romania, a village
 * Mono Island, Solomon Islands
 * Mono River, Togo

Ethnicities and languages

 * Mono people, an ethnic group of California
 * Mono language (California)
 * Mono people (Congo), an ethnic group the Democratic Republic of the Congo
 * Mono language (Congo)
 * Mono language (Cameroon)
 * Mono language (Solomon Islands), a dialect of Mono-Alu

Other uses

 * Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single
 * BAC Mono, a British sports car which began production in 2011
 * Mono, a character in the video game Little Nightmares II
 * Mono, a character in the video game Shadow of the Colossus
 * Mono, a 2016 American film featuring Sam Lerner
 * Mono (manga), a Japanese manga series
 * Monogamy, a relationship structure
 * Monosexuality, sexual attraction to one gender
 * Monomorphism, in abstract mathematics
 * Order of Mono, a Togolese order of chivalry
 * José María Gatica (1925–1963), Argentine boxer nicknamed "El Mono"

title: Mono


text:
Stereo (disambiguation)

Stereo, or stereophonic sound, is the reproduction of sound using two or more independent audio channels.

Stereo or stereophonic may also refer to:

Film and television

 * Stereo (1969 film), a film by David Cronenberg
 * Stereo (2014 film), a German film
 * 3D film, using stereo imaging

Music

 * Home audio, which include audio systems often referred to as "stereos"
 * Car stereo
 * Boombox

Bands

 * The Stereo, an American pop rock band
 * Stereos (band), a Canadian pop rock band
 * The Stereos, an American doo wop group
 * Stereophonics, a Welsh pop rock band

Albums

 * Stereo (Christie Front Drive album), 1997
 * Stereo (Paul Westerberg album), 2002
 * Stereo (Vallejo album), 2002
 * Stereos (album), by Stereos, 2009
 * Stereo, by Gemeliers, 2018

Songs

 * "Stereo", by Sparks from Terminal Jive, 1980
 * "Stereo", by America from Perspective, 1984
 * "Stereo" (Pavement song), 1997
 * "Stereo" (The Watchmen song), 1998
 * "Stereo" (John Legend song), 2007
 * "Stereo", by Unklejam, 2007
 * "Stereo" (Anna Abreu song), 2011
 * "Stereo" (MGK song), 2012

Other uses

 * Stereo, abbreviation for stereotype (printing)
 * STEREO, a pair of NASA solar observatory spacecraft
 * STEREO experiment, a physics experiment
 * Stereophonic (play), a 2023 stage play

title: Stereo (disambiguation)