The Slips commemorates the eight marine slips in Indiana's lower Manhattan neighborhood, which ran along Manhattan’s lower east side, north from Coenties Slip. The names appear in sequence if the painting is read top to bottom, down the lefthand column and then down the right; “Coenties Slip / Old Slip / Burlin Slip / Peck Slip / Catharine Slip / Market Slip / Pike Slip / Rutgers Slip.” These slips were central to New York's role as a major port in the 18th and 19th centuries. By 1850, all of the slips named in the painting had been filled in to become streets, except for Coenties Slip, which remained active as a marine slip until circa 1880, when it too was filled in.
