Welcome to the eMarcurius, the New Netherland Institute’s monthly e-newsletter and a source of information for New Netherland-related events, activities, conferences, and research. The eMarcruius is edited by NNI director Stephen McErleane. Something to share? You can reach us here.

We are less than a month away from our 42nd Annual Conference. We look forward to seeing you all in Poughkeepsie.

Ian Stewart, New Netherland Timber Framing, “Buildings as Belongings: Netherlandish Architecture as Seen through a Material Culture Lens”

Julie van den Hout, San Francisco State University, “Voyages of New Netherland, A Digital Humanities Project”

Chelsea L. Teale, Humboldt State University, “Dutch Colonial Agriculture: A New Consideration”

Shaun Sayres, Clark University, “Masters of the Mid-Atlantic: The Susquehannocks and Anglo-Dutch Relations on the Periphery of Susquehanna”

Jaap Jacobs, University of St Andrews, “Competing Claims: International Law, Diplomacy, and Anglo-Dutch Rivalry in 17th Century North America”

Michael J. Douma, Georgetown University, “Dutch-speaking Runaway Slaves”

Don't miss the opportunity to see and hear these two excellent storytellers explain their crafts.

In this visually compelling program, historical artist Len Tantillo and author Russell Shorto compare their methods of bringing New York’s origins to life, focusing on the search for the Stuyvesant “Bowery” home. 

This program is free (courtesy of the New York State Museum). 

Registration is encouraged.

Historic Huguenot Street, with help from its generous supporters, has commisioned fine artist Len Tantillo to create a series of three paintings depicting New Paltz and Huguenot Street in its early days. The paintings will eventually become part of a permanent exhibition at Historic Huguenot Street, enhancing the site's interpretations and aiding visitors in understanding what the street has looked like over different periods of time.

Len, a New Paltz native, will be speaking about the project at our annual dinner on October 5.
 

“I mention this spot with all possible laud, for it is in such little retired Dutch valleys, found here and there embosomed in the Great State of New York, that population, manners, and customs remain fixed; while the great torrent of migration and improvement, which is making such incessant changes in other parts of this restless country, sweeps by them unobserved.”
— Washington Irving

Because the official Dutch presence in North America lasted only forty years, from 1624 until 1664, with the Dutch returning to govern the region for a mere fifteen months in 1673–1674, Washington Irving’s 1820 depiction of a living Dutch culture in New York 150 years later may seem surprising. Yet, Irving tells us, the Dutch presence remained very much alive in his day. Nearly seventy years later, New York visitors to the Netherlands were struck by the similarity between the two regions despite obvious differences in the landscapes. “As we approached Amsterdam it almost seemed like the approach to the upper end of New York [City] when coming in on the railroad,” wrote one traveler in 1888. Even today, Dutch influence is found from the Delaware to the Connecticut River in place names and political divisions, law, religion, language, cuisine, and folklore and customs. Indeed, the culture that the original Dutch settlers brought with them has not only persisted in the region they settled but has found its way into mainstream America.

Image: “Central Park, Winter – The Skating Pond,” Lithographed by Lyman W. Atwater after a painting by Charles Parsons. 

Another important September date in New Netherland history is September 8, 1664, when director general Petrus Stuyvesant surrendered New Netherland during peace time to an English invasion fleet commanded by Richard Nicolls. While this event is well known, Charly says there is more to the usual story: Stuyvesant signed the articles of transfer to prevent the looting of New Amsterdam after he was convinced that his position was defenseless. However, many felt that it was just a matter of time before the city would be returned to Dutch control, either by force or negotiation. Stuyvesant’s son Balthazar wrote from Curaçao to a friend in New Amsterdam that Admiral de Ruyter was on the way there shortly after the English takeover. De Ruyter had managed to recover most of the trading posts in Africa that the Dutch had recently lost to the English. But after hearing of the declaration of war with England and sustaining damage to his ships and loss of crew in the Caribbean, he decided to head back to the Netherlands rather than attempt to recover New Netherland. He arrived back home just after a disastrous naval defeat at Lowestoft. De Ruyter’s return turned gloom into exuberance, spreading a wave of hope throughout the United Provinces. Shortly after his return, De Ruyter was appointed lieutenant admiral. After several years of large naval engagements, the war ended with De Ruyter’s victory in the Medway, during which the Royal Charles, flagship of the English fleet, was captured and sailed to the Netherlands as a prize. On the other hand, New Netherland was neither retaken nor returned by treaty. It remained New York until it was recaptured by a Dutch fleet during the Third Anglo-Dutch War in 1673.

Dennis Maika’s article “We shall bloom and grow like the Cedar on Lebanon: Dutch Merchants in English New York,” de Halve Maen (Spring 2011) discussed briefly the terms of “capitulation” that in practice preserved more of New Netherland than they gave up. In his first year as NNI Senior Scholar in Residence, Maika gave a talk at our 2012 Rensselaerswijck Seminar (now ‘Annual Conference’) in which he emphasized the term “Articles of Transfer,” which he based on the Dutch word “overgaen” that Dennis (aided by Charly) had discovered in a Dutch document. Dennis applied that idea in subsequent talks and writings, and it is now an accepted, widely-used phrase. 

Dennis, Lou Roper, and Jaap Jacobs participated in a 2017 conference on 1664 for teachers that was organized by Roper, professor of history at SUNY New Paltz. Material presented at the conference is currently being revised and edited by Dennis, and the piece, tentatively titled “Negotiating the Surrender of New Amsterdam: A Role-Playing Simulation for Students,” should be available on the NNI website this fall. 

A not-to-be-missed article on the “transfer” is the 2017 Clague and Carol Van Slyke Article Prize winner by Lou Roper entitled “The Fall of New Netherland and Seventeenth-Century Anglo American Formation 1654–1676.”

Marilyn

Image: The Surrender of Nieuw Amsterdam in 1664 (1908) by Charles Harris