The first ever New Amsterdam Cultural Heritage Day was celebrated on April 8 at the home of the New York City Municipal Archives in lower Manhattan. The event presented the latest effort in a collaborative project between the NYC Municipal Archives and the Stadsarchief Amsterdam that uses primary source documents from both institutions to tell a series of “New Amsterdam Stories.” The latest addition introduces the story of New Amsterdam’s “Burgher Right,” an early form of city citizenship, using newly translated documents from the New York State Archives, never-before published documents from the Stadsarchief Amsterdam, and originals from the New Amsterdam court records. The event also marked a significant milestone in popularizing New Netherland history in the colony’s former capital, combining a formal recognition by NYC’s mayor with the NYCMA’s commitment to an annual commemoration and a commitment from Amsterdam’s mayor to support these efforts.

The series kicked off two weeks ago with a packed house at Brooklyn Historical Society for a talk by Russell Shorto. The talks in May are below.

Michael J. Douma, "The Trouble with Translating the Constitution into Dutch (and Why New Yorkers Wanted to)" — May 2, Albany Law School

Wim Klooster, "Amsterdam's Interest in New Netherland: The 1667 Petition to Keep the Colony" — May 10, University Club of Albany

Ian Stewart and Bill Brandow, "From Ghent to Rotterdam: Netherlandish Architecture in the Northern Hudson Valley" — May 14, Huxley Theater, New York State Museum

Maeve Kane, "Shirts Powdered Red: Dutch-Haudenosaunee Trade in the 17th and 18th Centuries" — May 18, Clermont State Historic Site

William A. Starna, "‘Those who make up a house’: Togaháyon, Jacob Eelckens, and the Genesis of the League of the Iroquois” — May 23, Mabee Farm Historic Site

Descendants of early Dutch and English colonists make up a large part of the inhabitants of today’s Mid-Atlantic Region. With the popularity of genealogy and family history at an all-time high, the New Netherland Institute is holding its first ever family history/genealogy workshop in Albany. The event—which will feature consultations with professional genealogists, group discussion sessions, and talks on using colonial Dutch and English records in your family research—promises to be an excellent opportunity to not only learn from the experts, but to meet and chat with fellow descendants of the region’s earliest European settlers. 

Thank you to everyone who submitted a proposal to present at our Annual Conference at Marist College in October. More details on the event will be posted soon.

The board and staff of the New Netherland Institute invite you to attend our 32nd Annual Meeting, which will feature reports from NNI board and staff and the talk "Amsterdam's Interest in New Netherland: The 1667 Petition to Keep the Colony" by Wim Klooster.

The project is based on the premise that many Dutch families had a bible in their possession. Not only was it an edifying source of information for members of the Reformed Church but also the only paper available to write on for most people. In many cases, the blank pages in the front and back contain records of not only births, deaths, etc. but also record unusual events such as earthquakes and heavy snow falls. It’s the project’s intention to glean this information for posting online. 

Dr. Yda Schreuder (professor emerita, University of Delaware) for research on the seventeenth-century tobacco trade; Dr. Chelsea Teale (lecturer, Humboldt State University) for an environmental history project focusing on the impact of the Little Ice Age on agriculture and life in New Netherland; and Marian Leech (master’s student at Leiden University) for research on Amerindian-Dutch relations in the seventeenth century in what is now New Jersey. 

Scholars beyond the undergraduate level who are actively working on a thesis, dissertation, or scholarly article are invited to apply. Research must be conducted at the New Netherland Research Center, New York State Library, and the New York State Archives, Albany, NY, in the field of New Netherland history and the Dutch Atlantic world, using the records of New Netherland. The applicant should have a working knowledge of contemporary and seventeenth-century Dutch.

Manhattan Passport is offering a special Mother's Day version of its popular tour "New York and How It Got That Way: Visionaries, Dreamers and Schemers and How They Shaped the Look and Outlook of Manhattan."