Collector of the Port of New York
E94783
The Collector of the Port of New York was a powerful 19th-century federal customs post responsible for overseeing and taxing the vast volume of imports entering through New York Harbor, making it one of the most politically influential patronage positions in the United States.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Collector of Customs for the Port of New York and New Jersey | 1 |
| Collector of the Port of New York canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T794808 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Collector of the Port of New York Context triple: [Chester A. Arthur, positionHeld, Collector of the Port of New York]
-
A.
The New York Packet
The New York Packet was an 18th-century New York City newspaper known for printing essays from The Federalist Papers during the debate over ratifying the U.S. Constitution.
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B.
Port of New York and New Jersey
The Port of New York and New Jersey is the largest seaport on the U.S. East Coast and a major global shipping and transportation hub serving the New York metropolitan area.
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C.
Brooklyn Navy Yard
The Brooklyn Navy Yard is a historic former U.S. Navy shipbuilding and repair facility on the Brooklyn waterfront that played a major role in American naval construction before its redevelopment into an industrial and commercial hub.
-
D.
Angel Island
Angel Island is a historic island in San Francisco Bay known for its former U.S. immigration station, often called the "Ellis Island of the West."
-
E.
City of Big Shoulders
City of Big Shoulders is a poetic nickname for Chicago that evokes its history as a powerful industrial and working-class metropolis.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Collector of the Port of New York Target entity description: The Collector of the Port of New York was a powerful 19th-century federal customs post responsible for overseeing and taxing the vast volume of imports entering through New York Harbor, making it one of the most politically influential patronage positions in the United States.
-
A.
The New York Packet
The New York Packet was an 18th-century New York City newspaper known for printing essays from The Federalist Papers during the debate over ratifying the U.S. Constitution.
-
B.
Port of New York and New Jersey
The Port of New York and New Jersey is the largest seaport on the U.S. East Coast and a major global shipping and transportation hub serving the New York metropolitan area.
-
C.
Brooklyn Navy Yard
The Brooklyn Navy Yard is a historic former U.S. Navy shipbuilding and repair facility on the Brooklyn waterfront that played a major role in American naval construction before its redevelopment into an industrial and commercial hub.
-
D.
Angel Island
Angel Island is a historic island in San Francisco Bay known for its former U.S. immigration station, often called the "Ellis Island of the West."
-
E.
City of Big Shoulders
City of Big Shoulders is a poetic nickname for Chicago that evokes its history as a powerful industrial and working-class metropolis.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (54)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
customs post
ⓘ
federal government office ⓘ public office in the United States ⓘ |
| abolished | early 20th century ⓘ |
| appliesToJurisdiction |
New York Harbor estuarine system
ⓘ
surface form:
New York Harbor
Port of New York and New Jersey ⓘ
surface form:
Port of New York
|
| appointedBy |
President of the United States
ⓘ
with advice and consent of the United States Senate ⓘ |
| country | United States of America ⓘ |
| hasDuty |
enforce federal customs laws
ⓘ
levy federal tariffs on imported goods ⓘ manage customs officers and inspectors at the Port of New York ⓘ oversee customs collection on imports ⓘ remit customs revenues to the United States Treasury ⓘ |
| hasHeadquartersLocation |
United States Custom House
ⓘ
surface form:
Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
United States Custom House ⓘ
surface form:
Custom House, New York City
|
| inception | early 19th century ⓘ |
| locatedInTheAdministrativeTerritorialEntity |
New York
ⓘ
surface form:
New York (state)
New York City ⓘ |
| partOf |
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
ⓘ
surface form:
United States Customs Service
United States Department of the Treasury ⓘ |
| positionHeldBy |
Alonzo B. Cornell
ⓘ
Augustus Schell ⓘ Byron M. Cutcheon ⓘ Chester A. Arthur ⓘ Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence ⓘ Daniel Magone ⓘ Edward A. Merritt ⓘ Edward L. Hedden ⓘ Elias B. Fish ⓘ Fernando Wood ⓘ Henry A. Smythe NERFINISHED ⓘ Hiram Barney ⓘ Hugh McCulloch ⓘ James T. Kilbreth NERFINISHED ⓘ Jesse Hoyt ⓘ John A. Dix ⓘ John J. Astor ⓘ John J. Cisco ⓘ John J. Crittenden ⓘ Moses H. Grinnell ⓘ Nevins W. McReady NERFINISHED ⓘ Samuel Swartwout ⓘ Silas W. Burt NERFINISHED ⓘ William H. Robertson ⓘ William H. Wickham ⓘ William M. Evarts ⓘ |
| reasonForSignificance | large share of federal customs revenue collected at New York Harbor ⓘ |
| replacedBy |
Collector of the Port of New York
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Collector of Customs for the Port of New York and New Jersey
|
| significantFor |
control of federal jobs and contracts in New York City
ⓘ
influence in national party politics ⓘ political patronage in New York ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 19th century ⓘ |
| usedFor | distribution of political patronage ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Collector of the Port of New York Description of subject: The Collector of the Port of New York was a powerful 19th-century federal customs post responsible for overseeing and taxing the vast volume of imports entering through New York Harbor, making it one of the most politically influential patronage positions in the United States.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Collector of the Port of New York
→
replacedBy
→
Collector of the Port of New York
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Collector of Customs for the Port of New York and New Jersey