From the Director's Desk

Dear Friends,

I hope that you are all enjoying the Fall weather.  As we have for many Falls - 45 to be precise - NNI will be hosting our annual conference on the theme of Dutch Albany in History & Art.  We hope that you will be able to join us for an exciting program that includes historians, art historians, and curators, as well as visits to two innovative exhibitions at the Albany Institute of History & Art.

With the chill in the air, your thoughts may be turning to your end of year giving plans.  We hope that you will consider adding NNI to those plans.  Your donations allow us to continue to find, preserve, digitize, and translate Dutch documents related to New Netherland and to support scholarship in the field of New Netherland studies. If you have interest in funding a particular type of project, please be in touch with us.

Warmly,

Deborah Hamer, Executive Director

Join us for a joint conference with the Albany Institute of History & Art and the New York State Library.  This conference illuminates and expands upon themes explored in two exciting, new exhibitions at the Institute, Delights of the Senses: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Life, Featuring Paintings from The Leiden Collection and People of the Waters that are Never Still: A Celebration of Mohican Art and Culture.

The New Netherland Institute mourns the passing of Stefan Bielinski, long-time historian at the New York State Museum and creator of the Colonial Albany Social History Project, a database that includes biographies of Albany residents from ca. 1624 to ca. 1820, including many New Netherlanders.  Click here for an article in the  Albany Times Union about Steve and his immense contributions to New York State history.  Len Tantillo, a close friend and collaborator of Bielinski's, has also written a moving tribute.

The new season of Live From New Amsterdam, NNI's joint lunchtime series with the New Amsterdam Project at New-York Historical Society resumes on Thursday September 26th at noon.  Russell Shorto will talk to Ian Stewart, the owner of New Netherland Timber Framing and Preservation, about his work on New Netherland's architecture.  This year's second episode, on Thursday October 24th, will feature Deborah Hamer speaking to Josephine Bloodgood, Director of Curatorial and Preservation Affairs at Historic Huguenot Street in New Platz, about the New Paltz Historic Documents Project.

The Historic Albany Foundation will be hosting Russell Shorto on Sunday, October 20th for their 4th annual Matthew Bender IV Lecture.  Shorto will discuss his forthcoming book Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events that Created New York and Shaped America.  Visit the event website for more information.

The Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut has a new exhibition on view which explores Indigenous, African, and African-descended maritime cultures in New England.  Given the links between New Netherland and New England, the exhibition should speak to those interested in Indigenous and African histories in the Dutch colony as well.

Thanks to the generosity and commitment to this organization of people like you, NNI has been around since 1986. We believe you share an interest in exploring and preserving the history and legacy of the seventeenth-century Dutch colony of New Netherland. Your support and encouragement will enable us to continue to reveal and publicize this often-overlooked chapter of the American story. We encourage you to keep us in mind as you consider your donations.

There are several ways to donate:

Through the NNI website or through PayPal

Write a check made out to the New Netherland Institute, and mail it to NNI at P.O. Box 2536, Empire State Plaza Station, Albany NY 12220-0536.

For information, email us at nni@newnetherlandinstitute.org or call 518-992-3274.

I thank you now for your willingness to help us fulfill our unique and important historical work.

Sincerely,

Marilyn E. Douglas, President