Russell Shorto had a conversation with Atlantikerforum on the Dutch influence on New York and the rest of the country.  You can download a transcript of the event on the Atlantikerforum website, which hosts articles, essays, and interviews related to American and German history, politics, and culture.

The Jacob Leisler Institute will once again co-host a presentation with the Hudson Area Library on February 11, at 1pm (Eastern).  Culinary historian Peter G. Rose, author of History on Your Plate: Recipes from America’s Dutch Past for Today’s Cook, will talk about chocolate in colonial New York.  Registration is not yet open, but add the event to your calendar!

Erin Kramer has won the 2022 Clague and Carol van Slyke Article Prize for her article, "'That she shall be forever banished from this country': Alcohol, Sovereignty, and Social Segregation in New Netherland," which was published in Early American Studies. The committee agreed that the article is of the highest quality in terms of writing and research. Not only does Kramer grapple with several separate historiographies, she also skillfully brings them together in interesting and innovative ways. The article makes an important contribution to our understanding of Dutch and Indigenous relations in New Netherland. It shows the intercultural origins of social segregation and the role of alcohol in these attempts. In her analysis, Kramer considers how both the Dutch and Indigenous authorities advocated for such social segregation. As one committee member noted, the article is based on "high-quality, eye-opening research that convincingly shows how the regulation of alcohol was intended to create social segregation."  

Timo Wouter McGregor has won this year’s Hendricks Manuscript award for Properties of Empire: Mobility and Vernacular Politics in the Dutch Atlantic World, 1648-1688. The committee agreed that this is a refreshingly original and important contribution to our understanding of the Dutch colonial experience in America. Ambitious and complex, it shows how the Dutch, and early modern colonial states at large, imagined and constructed their far-flung imperial interests, drawing upon case studies from seventeenth-century Anglo-Dutch settlements in the Guianas, West Africa, and northeastern America. The manuscript is framed around concepts of protection, contract, neighborliness, and treason. It shows how colonial communities used these concepts to extend Dutch political power and property relations through politics and the law, creating an empire that was much more than the free-floating inter-imperial economic network it is often represented to be. McGregor traces out the process by which colonial jurisdictions were created by Dutch colonial officials, investors, and other elites, who adapted European terms and strategies for asserting political authority to deal with the novel circumstances of creating and sustaining communities in the colonial Atlantic world.

Endowed by Dr. Andrew Hendricks, this award of $5,000 is given annually for the best book or book-length manuscript relating to the Dutch colonial experience in North America before the American Revolution.  More information is found on NNI's website.

These annual grants honor the memory of Dr. Charles W. Wendell, a valued trustee, vice-president, and president of the New Netherland Institute’s Board of Trustees from 2000 to 2015. The grant covers a period of one week up to six months, part of which may be devoted to residency at the New Netherland Research Center(NNRC), and provides a stipend of $1,000 to $5,000, depending upon the scope of the project. A time frame for fulfilling the grant requirements will be established in consultation with the Director of the NNRC.  More information is found on NNI's website.

The New Netherland Institute offers an annual $1,000 prize for the best published article relating to the Dutch colonial experience in the Atlantic world, with a special sensitivity to New Netherland or its legacy. The Clague and Carol Van Slyke Article Prize is named in their memory, and given in honor of their New Netherland ancestry.  More information is found on NNI's website.

Applications are invited for a month-long course in modern Dutch, early modern Dutch/paleography, and archival research in Amsterdam/The Hague* ('the archival week'). The first two sections can be taken separately. The third section, in the Netherlands, requires participation in one or both of the first two sections. The course is free-of-charge. Funding has been provided through the Nederlandse Taalunie.

A single letter of application will suffice for any section(s) of the course, but applicants should be sure to include the appropriate supporting materials for the particular section(s) of the course to which application is being made. Applicants are requested to clearly state which sections they are applying to, by stating it in boldface on the letter of purpose.

 *Participants in the Archival Week must make arrangements for their own accommodations and flight. Travel expenses within the country may be covered depending on additional funding.

Yda Schreuder’s book (supported by a Wendell Grant) is coming out in December with Anthem Press.