Bayonne
Bayonne names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Bayonne a strongly fortified seaport of France
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a strongly fortified seaport of France, in the department of Basses-Pyrénées, capital of an arrondissement ; at the confluence of the Nive with the Adour, and 58 miles W. N. W. of Pau. It is a first-class fortress, the citadel, one of the finest works of Vauban, commands the town and harbor. A mint is established here. Chocolate, liqueurs, glass, sugar, etc., are manufactured. There are also extensive yards for the building of ships of war and merchant vessels . The hams of Bayonne have long enjoyed a high celebrity. The military weapon called the bayonet takes its name from this city, where it is said to have been first invented and brought into use during the siege of 1523. Though often besieged, Bayonne has never been taken; and hence its motto, "Nunquam Polluta." It was invested by the British, Feb. 24, 1814. Pop. about 27,500.
Bayonne a city in Hudson co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city in Hudson co., J., on N. New York harbor, the Kill von Kull, and Newark Bay, and the Central of New Jersey and the Lehigh Valley railroads; 7 miles S. W. of New York City. The city is also on the Hudson County Boulevard and the Morris canal. It contains a number of former villages; and is principally engaged in coal shipping and petroleum refining, the works for the latter being connected by pipe lines with New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and other cities. Other noteworthy industries are the manufactures of chemicals, ammonia and colors. The residential part of the city is very attractive, containing fine homes of New York business men, and having trolley connection with Jersey City, Newark, and the Oranges. Pop. (1910) 55,545 ; (1920) 76,754.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's placed the French Bayonne in "Basses-Pyrenees"; that department was renamed Pyrenees-Atlantiques in 1969, and the city's population is roughly double the 27,500 given, close to 50,000 today. Two of its proudest claims have been trimmed by later scholarship: the bayonet's birth at a siege of 1523 is now treated as folk etymology rather than fact, and the motto "Nunquam Polluta" sits awkwardly beside the 1814 siege, which ended in the garrison's capitulation after Napoleon's abdication. The Bayonne hams still enjoy their celebrity, protected since 1998 as Jambon de Bayonne. In New Jersey, the coal wharves and Standard Oil stills that made the town have largely gone, the Morris Canal was abandoned in the 1920s, the Bayonne Bridge opened in 1931 across the Kill van Kull and had its roadway lifted for modern container ships in 2017, and the population at the 2020 census, about 71,000, was slightly below the 76,754 Collier's reported for 1920.
Written for this edition, 2026.