This year’s Fulbright Scholar, Dirk Alkemade, has arrived at the New Netherland Research Center! Dirk is a doctoral student at Leiden University and will be researching Dutch political refugees that arrived in the United States after the Revolution. He would gladly read any suggestions on genealogical and archival sources covering the period 1776-1815, and can be reached at d.g.a.alkemade@hum.leidenuniv.nl.

The New Netherland Institute is pleased to announce the winners of our Charles Wendell Grant, which is given to anyone working on high-quality, publishable research related to the Dutch experience in North America and/or the Dutch Atlantic World. Charles Wendell served on NNI’s board from 2000 to 2015. The 2022 awardees are:

Evan Haefeli, Associate Professor, Texas A&M University, for his book manuscript, One Great Family: The Iroquois League and the Pacification of the Eastern Woodlands

BJ Lillis, PhD Candidate in History, Princeton University, for his dissertation, A Valley between Worlds: Slavery, Dispossession, and the Creation of a Settler-Colonial Society in the Hudson Valley, 1659-1766

Aagje Lybeer, PhD Candidate in Art History, University of St Andrews/Ghent University Joint PhD Program, for her dissertation The Power of Body Language: Posture in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Portraiture

Andrea Mosterman’s recent book tour for Spaces of Enslavement attracted approximately 100 participants across five presentations: St. Marks’ Church-in-the-Bowery, Albany Institute of History and Arts, Dyckman Farmhouse, Jacob Leisler Institute/Hudson Area Public Library, and Columbia County Historical Society. She was also interviewed on the podcast “Ben Franklin’s World” in March. You can listen to that podcast (and over 300 others on topics related to colonial North America) here. 

The 100th anniversary of Albany’s Dutch Settlers Society is in 2024, when the organization aims to publish its Yearbook with original articles, genealogies, and other information.  If you are interested in submitting your work, visit here. 

The Society is also interested in working with other organizations to make the anniversary a particularly special one because it coincides with the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Fort Orange.  Anyone or any organization interested in collaborating may contact John Wemple (yearbook editor) or Cheryle Webber (co-editor) via e-mail at jgwemple@rr.cap.com and cherylem29@aol.com.

Director of the New Netherland Research Center, Dr. Charles Gehring, was featured in Schenectady's Daily Gazette during the first week of May. The article includes information on what brought Dr. Gehring to the world of colonial Dutch records and his contributions to expanding that world through translation. 

On May 18th, the New Amsterdam History Center hosted Sara Cedar Miller for a talk on the 17th-Century history of what is now Central Park, including a farm run by the De Forest brothers and Johannes de la Montagne. This painting by Len Tantillo shows what the farmstead may have looked like in the 1600s.

In early April, the Traditional Timber Frame Research Advisory Group (TTRAG) hosted a virtual conference on Dutch timber framing systems and structures in Europe and New Netherland. Participants in the TTRAG conference came from 18 states, three Canadian provinces, and several European countries. The community included preservation professionals, academics, business leaders, non-profit managers, and directors of government programs. In addition to our distinguished speakers, the Timber Framers Guild and Dutch Culture USA were particularly pleased to have participants from the U.S. National Park Service, Preservation New England, Rijkdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Kingdom of the Netherlands), and Erfgoed Zeeland. NNI members can access the playlist for all conference sessions here.  

 While not all events hosted by the Timber Framers Guild focus on Netherlandish styles, if you are interested in the topic take a look at their website. 

Christopher Paul Moore, an influential scholar and preservationist of New York history, died on March 13 in a Brooklyn hospital at the age of 70. He is survived by his wife, actress Kim Yancey-Moore, and their two children.

Moore's talents were diverse and his contributions wide-ranging. Over the years, he worked as a journalist, a news editor for National Black Network, playwright, actor, curator, writer, preservationist, and historian. As research coordinator for the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center and member of New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission from 1995 to 2015, Moore was instrumental in helping uncover, preserve, and share New York's Black history.

A descendant of African, Dutch, and Native Americans, Moore was born Jan 20, 1952, in Suffern, NY, to Willard and Norma (né DeFreese) Moore. He was believed to be a direct descendant of Captain Jan de Vries (or Fries) and Elaria, an African woman whom Jan de Vries enslaved. In the August 25, 1647, New Amsterdam Dutch Reformed Church baptismal record of their son Jan, she was referred to only as Swartinne, or Black woman. In addition to these Dutch and African origins, Moore also descended from the Lenape who inhabited the region long before Dutch colonization. In fact, his mother was a descendant of the Ramapough Lenape Council. In the book Dutch New York Histories, Moore writes about his childhood growing up in a Native American community where he "learned ancient traditions like canoeing, fishing, and hunting, and enjoyed Dutch customs such as ice-skating and my mother's homemade Dutch treats - ollycakes, koolsla and koeckjes."

His family history and upbringing—"[g]rowing up with remnants of the ancient Native American, African, and Dutch culture of old New Netherland"—informed many of his scholarly endeavors. At the Schomburg Center, he curated several exhibitions, including "Lest We Forget: The Triumph Over Slavery" (2001). He wrote Santa and Pete: A Novel of Christmas Present and Past (1998), a fictional story about Christmas in New York inspired by his African-Dutch heritage that was adapted by CBS into the TV movie "Santa and Pete" (1999). Moore also wrote about slavery in New Netherland, including a chapter for the Slavery in New York (2005) publication that was edited by Ira Berlin and Leslie Harris and published in conjunction with the “Slavery and the Making of New York” exhibit at the New-York Historical Society. Moore is probably best known for the role he played in bringing attention to the NYC African Burial Ground and the History Channel documentary about that discovery, entitled, "The African Burial Ground: An American Discovery" (1994), which he wrote and produced.

I first met Moore when I was a graduate student at Boston University. Even though I only just started my research on slavery in Dutch New York, he was kind enough to welcome me at the Schomburg to discuss this history. Not just that, he took me to Sylvia's Harlem restaurant for lunch and then showed me where the famous photographer James Van Der Zee once had his Harlem studio. I share this because it illustrates so well the generous and kind scholar he was. He always made time for others interested in this history. His important work will be carried on by the many scholars who benefitted from his incredible expertise and generosity.

Shirley Wiltse Dunn passed away on April 25th, at the age of 93. Shirley earned master’s degrees in English and History from what is now SUNY Albany and taught in both New York and Maryland before working for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation until she retired in 1992.

Shirley was recognized by the New Netherland Project and the Holland Society of New York for her contributions to Dutch studies, which include the books Dutch Architecture near Albany (with Allison Bennett), Fort Crailo and the Van Rensselaers, and The River Indians Meet the Dutch, as well as other publications including “Enlarging Rensselaerswijck: 17th-Century Land Acquisition on the East Side of the Hudson River” that she presented at the first Seminar on Rensselaerswijck in 1979. Another project resulted in “The Long Reach of Rennselaerswijck: Shaping Hudson Valley Architecture.”

She was a founder of the Dutch Barn Preservation Society and the Esquatak Historical Society, and an assistant site manager at Fort Crailo.

Indigenous peoples were another of Shirley’s specializations, and the Mohican Nation awarded her for her contributions to documenting Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican history. She also wrote The Mohicans and their Land, 1609-1730, The River Indians: Mohicans Making History, and edited three volumes of the New York State Museum Bulletin on Algonquian peoples.

The New York State Family History Conference will be held in person in Albany, NY from September 8th through 10th. An online option is also available, with livestreamed and recorded sessions available September 8th through October 17th. For more information, click here. 

Calling all genealogists and genealogy buffs: Do you have Dutch ancestors about whom you would like to know more during their lives in the Netherlands? If so, you may be interested in consulting the New Netherland Institute’s website about genealogical resources in the Netherlands.