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.

Four hundred and forty-five years ago, the place name New Netherland appeared for the first time in a resolution concerning trading licenses between New France and Virginia. On October 11, 1614 the Staten Generael of the United Netherlands chartered the New Netherland Company with “the right to resort to or cause to be frequented” the territory in America extending on the north from the present-day boundary separating New York State and the Province of Quebec (45º north latitude) southward to what is now northern New Jersey (40º north latitude). “What did this really mean?,” I asked Charly. His reply “After Hudson returned with accounts of a new source of furs, competing cartels sent ships to the area to trade for this valuable commodity. However, as profit margins were squeezed by competition, the States General established a monopoly called the New Netherland Company. This put an end to aggressive behavior and allowed investors to profit on an equal basis.”

Thus, New Netherland came into existence six years before the signing of the Mayflower Compact and the establishment of the Plymouth colony and seven years after Jamestown. In 1990, NNI member George Damiano succeeded in getting an annual commemoration of New Netherland. On 25 July 1990, Governor Mario M. Cuomo signed the bill into law designating October 11th of each year as New Netherland Day—and the rest is history. Celebrate.

Marilyn

Image: A View of New Amsterdam by Johannes Vingboons

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making our 42nd Annual Conference a success! We could not have had a better host than the Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist. We encourage you to check out all they have to offer.

We will see you at SUNY New Paltz in 2021 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Dutch West India Company. The details for our 2020 conference will be available shortly. 

Our new biannual publication is now in its final stages (we promise) and will be out shortly to members. The magazine will feature short essays by historians, archaeologists, and other experts on the history, legacy, and memory of the colony of New Netherland. The first issue will contain articles by Russell Shorto & Len Tantillo, Charles Gehring, Peter Douglas, and Ian Stewart.

Interested in a publication sponsorship? For $250 your organization can get its logo in two issues of New Netherland Matters and at the bottom of this newsletter each month for a full year. Contact us here.

Thanks to the generosity of Mr. Peter G. Ten Eyck II of Indian Ladder Farms, we will have our second Peter Gansevoort Ten Eyck Lecture Series in 2020. Stay tuned for details.

Photo of Peter courtesy of Fruit Growers News. (Click on the image for the story)

Inspired by the excellent presentations at our recent Annual Conference, we will now highlight from time to time (hopefully ever month) some interesting and current research on New Netherland, particularly (though not exclusively) work from recipients of NNI's research grants. Below is a description by Julie van den Hout, a Charles W. Wendell Research Grant recipient, of her digital history project on ship voyages to and from New Netherland. Also check out Julie's website on seventeenth-century Dutch texts.

“Historians and genealogists have assembled assorted lists of ships sailing between the Dutch Republic and New Netherland (1609–1664). What have not been examined are the complete routes of these approximately 300 port-to-port voyages, by more than 130 ships, including often-overlooked stops at Curaçao. An up-to-date and comprehensive database for these voyages has yet to be established as recent translations and access to digitized documents make new information available. An accurate and updated list of voyages to and from New Netherland will be of indeterminate value to researchers studying New Netherland, seventeenth-century shipping and trade, or any number of aspects of Atlantic history. This in-progress study mines primary source documents to collect data on these voyages, including available information on ship owners or freighters, vessel types and sizes, dates of departure and arrival, ports made, names of captains, crews, supercargoes, soldiers and some passengers, as well as information on animals and documented cargoes. The data collected is then formatted into a database where it can be analyzed, using web tools for humanities, to construct maps, timelines, and network visualizations of relationships between the different dimensions of the data. Visual outputs produced by digital tools in analyzing large datasets can identify patterns and expose previously unseen connections that are not readily visible by traditional research methods.”

Everyone who knows Len Tantillo knows he is a great guy. This recent interview with the Albany Times Union reveals some of his charm and humility.

“I appreciate the gift I have, but still I've never finished a drawing or a painting that I truly liked. I often feel that it's OK, but I can spot what's wrong immediately. That's the challenge in this line of work, to keep trying and hopefully one day get it right. When someone tells you they're great at something, they're not going anywhere because they've already arrived. Now they're settling. I know I can still improve at what I'm doing.”

The year 2020 marks 400 years since the Pilgrims deparated the Netherlands for (eventually) America. Most Americans know the story of the Pilgrims and the Mayflower; few know that the Pilgrims spent several years in Leiden, the Netherlands before coming to the New World.

Currently, a full-scale reproduction of the Mayflower is on display at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, MA, where it is being restored in preparation for the 400-year anniversary of the Mayflower voyage, which will be celebrated at the Mayflower Sails 2020 festival in Boston, MA.

If you find yourself in Leiden, don't forget to visit the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, which houses objects used by the Pilgrims during their time in the city.

Find out more about the Mayflower reproduction here.

Image: Embarkation of the Pilgrims by Robert W. Weir (1843)

Join our friends at the Jay Heritage Center this Friday for a sparkling evening celebrating New York's rich Dutch history with authentic Dutch tastes and treats! The night includes dinner and dancing at the Jay Estate with live music by Octane.

Tickets start at $275. Reserved tables of 10 start at $3,500.

Wednesday, December 4, 2019, 6:30 to 8:00pm
The Netherland Club of New York @ The Warwick Hotel
65 W 54th St
Presented by the New Amsterdam History Center with the Holland Society of New York

20th Biennial Interdisciplinary Conference of Netherlandic Studies
June 5 & 6, 2020, University of California, Berkeley

The conference focuses on the wide scope of Dutch Studies, across all fields (art, history, literature, linguistics, etc.) and across the globe. Four travel grants of $500 each will be awarded to graduate students who present a paper.

41st American Indian Workshop
April 01 - 04, 2020, Department of Ethnology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich/Germany