Welcome to the eMarcurius, NNI's monthly e-newsletter edited by NNI director Stephen McErleane and brought to you in part by the generous sponsors featured below. 

Something to share? Interested in becoming a sponsor? Reach us at nni@newnetherlandinstitute.org.

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of R. J. Jippe Hiemstra, President of the New Netherland Institute. Jippe passed away peacefully on April 11th at his beloved farm in Buskirk, New York. The cause of death was pneumonia and congestive heart failure. The board and staff of NNI send our condolences to Jippe's wife, our friend, Annette van Rooy—who has never hesitated to offer her time and services to NNI—and to his family and friends. Jippe served on NNI's board for 13 years, the last seven as its president, and helped guide the organization through a period of considerable growth. He was NNI's sixth president, taking office in 2012, and would have completed his seventh term this May. In January, Jippe was invited to remain on the board as President Emeritus in appreciation of his long and dedicated service, an offer he gratefully accepted. 

NNI’s accomplishments under Jippe’s leadership were many. One of his earliest acts was to oversee a significant redesign of NNI's website. He later supported the publication of the book New Netherland in a Nutshell by Firth Fabend—which was distributed to all public and academic libraries in New York State, all public libraries in New Jersey, and all public, academic, and school libraries in Delaware—and volumes 2 and 3 of A Beautiful and Fruitful Place, which comprised papers of twenty years of Rensselaerswijck Seminars. Jippe supported Dennis Maika, NNI’s second Senior Scholar, in the creation of an Emerging Scholars’ program and other educational initiatives, and Russell Shorto, our third Senior Scholar, in his unparalleled efforts to spread interest in New Netherland far and wide. In May 2017, Jippe and the board appointed Stephen McErleane as NNI’s first full-time Administrative Director and later as its Director and CEO.

Jippe was also committed to increasing NNI’s resources by acquiring grants and other financial contributions. Working closely with the board, he secured funding from corporations and garnered donations from private individuals that increased NNI’s endowment significantly during his tenure. He fostered relationships that helped NNI secure important grant funds, including substantial contributions from the Dutch Consulate in New York, that were key to NNI’s programing over the last decade. Perhaps most significant was a grant from the National Archives of the Netherlands that allowed the New York State Archives to digitize the remaining Dutch documents in its New York Colonial Manuscripts. A related grant from the Society of the Daughters of Holland Dames made the online searching of those documents possible. To encourage research and writing in the early colonial period, NNI and its benefactors established the Clague and Carole Van Slyke Article Prize, the Fulbright-NNRC Grant, and the Charles W. Wendell Research Grant, all during Jippe’s tenure as president. 

His efforts to build stronger relationships with other organizations will be Jippe’s most enduring legacy. His relationship with Ralph DeGroff and the Holland Society of New York helped remind the Holland Society of its longstanding support of the translation project and of NNI in general. Jippe led the discussions between NNI and Cornell University Press that led to an arrangement in 2017 to co-publish books on New Netherland and the Dutch in America, NNI’s first foray into academic publishing. He supported and encouraged NNI trustee Mike Vande Woude in his efforts to create the Dutch American Group (DAG), an initiative that facilitates collaboration between Dutch-American historical institutions. Jippe was a tireless advocate for the creation of a succession plan for the directorship of the New Netherland Research Center and helped solidify our relationship with the New York State Office of Cultural Education. One of his last acts was to encourage NNI to develop a stronger and more active relationship with New York City née New Amsterdam. 

Staff and board members alike will always remember those summer board meetings hosted by Jippe and his wife Annette at their beautiful farm in Rensselaer County, closely observed by their dogs. Rest in peace, Jippe. We miss you.

Marilyn E. Douglas

As terms for our trustees come to an end or renew this May, I'd like to thank them all for their time and devotion to the New Netherland Institute. I'd also like to remind everyone that we are always looking for new trustees who can help us continue to move this organization in the right direction. 

The current NNI trustees are Marilyn E. Douglas, Vice President; E. James Schermerhorn, Secretary; John Brownell, Treasurer; Ellen Zunon; Phoebe Bender; Dr. Arthur Fontijn; James F. Sefcik; Michael Vande Woude; Everett Law Zabriskie, III; and Richard C. Kiger.

We'd love to hear from

energetic and entrepreneurial business people, who are not already overextended with other commitments, eager to put their enthusiasm into expanding NNI’s networks and resources;

community leaders and philanthropists willing to engage their peers and help them understand the importance of NNI's mission;

scholars/academics and other professionals who want to put their expertise into action helping NNI; and

individuals who have a demonstrated talent, joy and energy in chairing successful fundraising events and promotions. 

Image: Detroit Industry north wall, Diego Rivera, 1933, Detroit Institute of Art

Thank you to everyone who has submitted proposals for our October 24th conference in New York City on race and slavery in North America's Dutch communities.

Given the current distractions, we are extending the deadline to May 5th. We still want to hear from you!

We are of course aware that the conference itself is in jeopardy. Expect a final word on that in late spring. We still encourage you to submit, as there are other options for us to share our work with each other.

The New Netherland Institute is excited to partner with Cornell University Press on a special issue of New York History in 2021. The issue's theme will be race and slavery in North America's Dutch communities. Submissions are due by 12/20/20. Please see the submission guidelines below.

Since 1932, New York History has served as the foremost scholarly journal on the state's past. Now under the leadership of the Cornell University Press and the staff of the New York State Museum, the journal seeks to unify the diverse field of New York State history and meet the needs of a growing historical community that includes scholars, public historians, museum professionals, local government historians, and those seeking an in-depth look at the Empire State's history.

Articles should address, in an original fashion, some aspect of race and slavery in North America's Dutch communities. This includes not only seventeenth-century New Netherland, but its legacy of families spread throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region and elsewhere. Articles must have some new, previously unexploited material to offer or present new insights or new interpretations. Suggested length is 20–30 double-spaced pages (or between 6,000 and 9,000 words), including footnotes. All submitted articles must include a 100-word abstract summarizing the article and providing keywords (no more than 10). Authors must submit articles electronically, with all text in Word and all tables, figures, and images in formats supported by Microsoft Windows. Provision of images in proper resolution (no less than 300 dpi at 5” x 7”), securing requisite permissions, and the payment of any fees associated with images for articles are all the responsibility of the author. New York History employs, with some modification, footnote forms suggested in the Chicago Manual of Style.

Please send inquiries and submissions to nni@newnetherlandinstitute.org.

In April 1665, Jeremias van Rensselaer wrote to his mother that a reliable well had run dry “on account of the continued dry weather.”*  The letter was sent during the height of the second-worst drought in the Hudson Valley in 500 years— the worst being in the 1960s.  Jeremias’s observation is one of only a few illustrating the severity of the 1661–1667 drought. In 1661, several families on western Long Island asked to move to a different location because streams ran dry in summer and threatened the health of their cattle.  Streams were also described as dry in the Esopus in July 1663.  In the absence of a robust historical record of precipitation, tree rings have been used to reconstruct wet and dry periods in the New York City watershed: a thick annual ring means the tree had sufficient water from May through August, while a thin ring indicates growth was limited by dry growing season conditions. Using this method, the third-worst drought in the region is believed to have occurred from 1630 to 1636, and other dry periods in the seventeenth century included 1647–1651, 1685–1692, and 1697–1700.  In contrast, especially wet years occurred between 1672 and 1680.
 
* Correspondence of Jeremias van Rensselaer 1651-1674, pg. 378.

Chelsea Teale