30 August 2010
From
NJ.com:
A new book, entitled "Dutch New York and Beyond: A Travel Guide," will focus on the Dutch legacy in Jersey City, according to today's Jersey Journal. Gajus Scheltema, the Dutch Consul General and the book's author, toured some of the historic sites in Jersey City two weeks ago. "The Dutch influence in New Jersey is really a big deal, but much less of it is known than on the (New York side of the) Hudson," he said during the two-hour Aug. 18 tour of the Bergen Square area.
The Apple Tree House on Academy Street has been closed for decades awaiting completion of renovations. The Newkirk House, now Sanai's Restaurant on Summit Avenue, has been significantly modified on the inside, the Old Bergen Cemetery is closed to visitors, and Old Bergen Church's original structure has been replaced. But although Jersey City's sites won't be featured in the book, they will be mentioned, which is still beneficial for the city, said John Hallanan, president of the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy. "It's wonderful to get the recognition that Jersey City has such a rich Dutch heritage," he said.
Read the full article
here
13 February 2010
From
Jaunted.com:
The Dutch just won't let New Yorkers forget that they could be living in "Nieuw Amsterdam" and not "New York." Holland may have lost their grip on Manhattan back in 1674, but they can still find their way in somehow...and these days, they're hoping to gain access to the wallets of New Yorkers by enticing them to vacation in the Netherlands. And what better way to get the attention of jaded New Yorkers than by taking over their commute and decorating the interiors of subway cars? Sure, it's been before, but it never fails to delight.
Read the full article
here
08 November 2009
5 Dutch Days NYC:
5 Dutch Days is a five day cultural event which takes place in New York City every November. It celebrates the continuous influence of Dutch arts and culture in New York City and brings together arts and cultural organizations from across the city. Programs include walking tours, lectures, concerts and contemporary art offerings. This year the 5 Dutch days take place from November 12-16, 2009.
As part of the event author Marc Resch delivers an informative and fun presentation on his book, Only in Holland, Only the Dutch. Using a combination of personal experiences and research, Marc will present a captivating portrayal of Dutch culture.
Date: Saturday, November 14, 2009
Time: 4:00pm
Free. RSVP recommended, as space is limited.
Location:
TRESPA DESIGN CENTRE
62 Greene Street
New York, NY 10012
212.334.7122
www.trespa.com
16 October 2009
From the
New York Times:
Through saplings descended from the majestic horse chestnut tree that gave her so much pleasure in her bleak hideout, Anne Frank will soon have her story joined with that of the Little Rock Nine — the black students who integrated an Arkansas high school under the guard of 1,200 soldiers in 1957. The school, Little Rock Central High School, is one of 11 sites dedicated to fighting intolerance that have been chosen by the Anne Frank Center USA in Lower Manhattan as the destination for saplings that originated from the tree in Amsterdam, now 150 years old. Anne often marveled as it changed through the seasons, blooming flamboyantly, then slowly losing its leaves, outside the small office building at 263 Prinsengracht where she and her family were hidden during the Nazi occupation. It was one of the few things she could glimpse for those two years.
With the horse chestnut reaching the end of its life, the Anne Frank Center announced in April that it would take applications from institutions that wanted a derivative sapling. Thirty-four applied, though three — the White House, the World Trade Center site in New York and the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis — were chosen ahead of time. The saplings are currently in a nursery outside Amsterdam and will be shipped to the United States before year’s end, said Yvonne Simons, executive director of the Anne Frank Center. They will be quarantined for two years to make sure they do not carry certain plant diseases. Ms. Simons said the 11 sites were chosen largely because they showed “the consequences of intolerance — and that includes racism, discrimination and hatred.”
Read the article
here
01 July 2009
From the
Sacramento Bee:
Tropical islands and mountain glaciers get all the attention. But the planet's river deltas are the real front lines of climate change. Sharing that message is a goal of the Delta Alliance, a new effort by officials in the Netherlands to unite people around the world struggling to manage river delta regions. This includes Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Nigeria – and California. Scientists have advised California to prepare for 55 inches of sea level rise in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by 2100. Protecting communities and the Delta freshwater supply, which serves 23 million Californians, will be a complicated and pricey task.
The Dutch have lived below sea level for hundreds of years. They've survived by building massive levees that are the envy of the world. Last week, a delegation from the Netherlands visited San Francisco and the Delta. One result is a planned September symposium in California on common challenges.
The Bee interviewed Bart Parmet, director of the Deltateam for the Netherlands Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, during the delegation's stop in Sacramento.
Read the interview
here.
11 May 2009
From the
New York Times:
A lot has changed in the century since New York celebrated the tricentennial of Henry Hudson’s pioneering 1609 voyage up the river that bears his name. A half-million visitors came to New York in 1909 to watch a spectacular naval parade that included a model of Hudson’s boat, de Halve Maen (the Half Moon), along with a flotilla of floats portraying an encyclopedic array of Americana, from the Statue of Liberty to Rip Van Winkle, from precolonial Indian ceremonies to the Dutch purchase of Manhattan for a reported 60 guilders. With the quadricentennial upon us, though, the planned festivities are far more modest. Who today, after all, recalls much about Hudson, apart from his river, which now seems just a part of New York geography?
But we must take our celebrations as they come, and a new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York — “Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The Worlds of Henry Hudson” — may not offer the sensations of earlier commemorations, but it is so rich in texts and rare objects from the Netherlands and local museums, and so ambitious in its explanatory material, that it restores Henry Hudson’s place in the American hall of origins.
The exhibition makes the case that Dutch rule, which ended in 1674 as the British solidified their hold, was far more important than we generally acknowledge. The show’s main section is a finely detailed examination of New Netherland’s culture (including objects linked to Indian relations and slavery in the colony), cataloging its customs and conflicts (even noting objections to a practice known as “pulling the goose,” in which “a live goose was hung upside down, while riders on horseback tried to pull off its greased head”). And it ends with an account of the 1909 revels and the lasting influence of Dutch rule.
In recent decades the primary foundational experiences of the United States have tended to be identified with Plymouth Rock and Jamestown, where religious freedom and pioneering enterprise have been highlighted, one growing out of English dissent, the other out of English opportunity. Also emerging into fuller view have been American Indians and enslaved Africans, whose experiences required a modification of traditional idealizations. But this exhibition demonstrates that the Dutch heritage needs to be dealt with in constructing the pantheon of our past. That heritage neither promised inalienable rights nor threatened their complete elimination. Instead of high ideals, it held out another powerful possibility: the diverse pursuit of commerce and contentment.
Read the entire article
here.
02 January 2009
The new year brings big anniversary celebrations to New York state, which is planning a yearlong series of events to commemorate 400 years of history on the Hudson River, New York Harbor and Lake Champlain. The Empire State's plans to mark the anniversaries of the 1609 explorations by Henry Hudson and Samuel de Champlain include the Knickerbocker Ice Festival at Rockland Lake State Park, a panel discussion at the Museum of Natural History in New York City, and a relay flotilla of boats tracing Hudson's path to Albany.
Another major event this year will be "River Day" on June 6, which will become an annual event to be held on the first Saturday in June. (...) In this year's event, a flotilla of boats will travel up the river following Henry Hudson's path from New York Harbor to Albany. Flagships will include the Onrust, a reproduction of a historic Dutch yacht; the Sloop Clearwater, a sailboat modeled on Dutch schooners that hosts environmental programs; and the Half Moon, a reproduction of Henry Hudson's ship.
Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands plans to visit New York during the events.
Read the entire article at
Newsday.
More about the 400th anniversary of New York in the
archives. Our
shop offers original Nieuw Amsterdam 1609 tshirts in honor of the occasion!
02 January 2009
From
The New York Times:
Geographically and historically, New York City begins in the small space below Wall Street. And when disaster strikes the area, as it has often done, it can seem as if the city will end there too. But if the nearly four centuries of history there tell anything, it’s a story of survival. As it grew from the tiny Dutch outpost of New Amsterdam to today’s forest of skyscrapers, lowest Manhattan outlived military occupation, enormous fires, terrorist massacres and a long string of stock-market crises.
Bowling Green, the small park at the foot of Broadway’s roaring canyon, is where the seed of today’s metropolis was planted in the 1620s when the Dutch West India Company dropped off a few dozen families to establish a trading post.
A few blocks north, at what was then the edge of the city, the Dutch built a defensive wall across the island in 1653. Like Fort Amsterdam, it proved of no use when the British seized New Amsterdam in 1664 and renamed it New York.
“It was essentially an earthwork with a wooden palisade on top,” explained Steve Laise, the National Parks Service’s chief of cultural resources for Federal Hall National Memorial, a Greek Revival landmark on Wall Street. Today’s Wall Street follows the dirt lane that was just inside this defense. “When you walk on Wall Street, you’re literally walking in the footsteps of the burghers of New Amsterdam,” Mr. Laise said.
Read the entire article
here.
18 December 2008
The flower version of one of America's most recognized national monuments and a symbol of freedom, the Statue of Liberty, signifies the theme the world-famous international flower exhibition
Keukenhof in Lisse has chosen for its anniversary year 2009: "USA, New Amsterdam - New York, 400," building on the strong ties between the two countries and the 400th year anniversary of the establishment of New Amsterdam (New York).
According to general manager Mr. Piet de Vries, Keukenhof aims to emphasize the ties between the Netherlands and the United States, as well as to pay tribute to its many American guests. "We enjoy a vast interest of visitors from the United States. The number varies, but it counts for some 11% percent of the approx. 840,000 people we welcome every year."
Four centuries ago, in 1609, Henry Hudson stepped ashore on what is now Manhattan on behalf of the "Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie," the Dutch East India Company, a seafaring company ruling the oceans back then. Henry Hudson established New Amsterdam, which was later re-named into New York, making the Netherlands the founding father of one of the most important metropolitan areas in the world.
At Keukenhof, an amazing American themed route starts with the Hudson River at the park's entrance. From there a swaying path of blue grape flowers illustrates the two streams of New York and leads the visitors along recognizable American phenomena such as Brooklyn, Harlem and Wall Street. A walk of fame depicts, among others, current First Lady Laura Bush, as well as famed destinations such as Hollywood, Manhattan, Washington and Portland in flowers. The American Dream inspires one of the gardens in which Uncle William, a returning emigrant, plays the major role.
More at
Marketwatch.com and
Keukenhof.nl.
More about the 400th anniversary of Hudson's landing and Dutch New York in the archives:
Windmills have storied history in NY, captured by city's seal
1609-2009: 400th anniversary of Hudsons landing in NY
Historic New York: From Dutch colony to world capital
New York’s birth date: Don’t go by city’s seal
Harlem: Then, now and forever
Manhattan letter returns to New York
16 December 2008
In the capital of Curaçao, Willemstad, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has signed an agreement with the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba on the new political structure of the islands, effectively dissolving the federation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The final details were ironed out at a summit dubbed the Round Table Conference. Guidelines are now established on the powers of the Dutch government regarding the administration of law in the Netherlands Antilles. In the 2007 round of autonomy negotiations, the Dutch government agreed to write off the largest part of the Antillean debt in exchange for having a say in the islands' legal system and finances. The islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten will become autonomous territories, while Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius will become Dutch municipalities.
More at
Radio Netherlands
16 November 2008
From the Royal Netherlands Embassy
website:
"On November 16th, Dutch-American Heritage Day, 8 million Americans of Dutch descent celebrate their heritage and the contributions they and their ancestors have made to the economic, social, political, and cultural life of the United States.
The Dutch began their relations with America in 1609, when Captain Henry Hudson of the Dutch East India Company sailed up the present-day Hudson River looking for a shorter route to Asia. Although Hudson did not find his route, Dutch traders began to exploit the riches of this wild country and in 1614 established Fort Nassau (near Albany), the second European settlement in America. A few years later, the Dutch Governor Peter Minuit bought Manhattan Island for 60 guilders, the famous $24 bargain.
A large portion of the eastern U.S., stretching from New Jersey and Delaware through New York and from Connecticut and Long Island to central eastern Pennsylvania, was settled by the Dutch in the early-1600s. The area was once known as New Netherland, and many places--Schuylkill, Catskill, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Harlem, Wall Street, Coney Island, to name but a few---trace their names from this Dutch period. Over the next two centuries, several waves of Dutch emigrants settled in the United States and, today, most Dutch-Americans are concentrated in ten states: New York, Michigan, California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Washington, Texas, Ohio and Illinois. (...)
In November 1991 the U.S. Congress and President Bush proclaimed November 16 as Dutch-American Heritage Day (hereafter DAHD). November 16th was selected because on that day in 1776 Dutch forces on the Caribbean island of St. Eustatius returned the salute of the American brig-of-war "Andrew Doria," thereby making the Netherlands the first country to officially salute the flag of the newly-independent United States. From the "first salute" in 1776 to the participation of the Netherlands alongside the U.S. in the recent Gulf War, the United States and the Netherlands have worked together for peace, freedom and commerce. The Netherlands-American partnership endures because of the close and natural ties between these two nations and these two peoples. On Dutch-American Heritage Day we celebrate those ties and pay tribute to the mutual respect and friendship that animates the Dutch-American relationship."
Also check out these previous entries:
Windmills have storied history in NY, captured by city's seal
1609-2009: 400th anniversary of Hudsons landing in NY
Historic New York: From Dutch colony to world capital
New York’s birth date: Don’t go by city’s seal
Harlem: Then, now and forever
Manhattan letter returns to New York
30 September 2008
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s vision of a city powered by air is nothing new in New York. For a sneak peek at the mayor’s spinning skyline of tomorrow, one need look no further than the almost-400-year-old city seal. There it is, smack in the middle, between a pilgrim type in breeches and a strapping Indian with a longbow: a windmill.
“We came here on the sailing ships, and the wind brought us to New Amsterdam 400 years ago,” Gajus Scheltema, the consul general of the Netherlands, said from his New York office. “We were proud to be at the very root of New York, and the windmill, for me, is the symbol of the energy that drives New York. The wheels are spinning around, and it shows we are going back to energy resources we were using 400 years ago.”
There were no fewer than four windmills in place in 1638, when New York was still New Amsterdam and owned by the Dutch, according to the authoritative tome “Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898,” by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace. Granted, they were in various states of disrepair even then: “Only one gristmill and one sawmill remained in operation,” the book states.
Read the entire article
here (New York Times)
More about Dutch New York in the archives:
1609-2009: 400th anniversary of Hudsons landing in NY
Historic New York: From Dutch colony to world capital
New York’s birth date: Don’t go by city’s seal
Harlem: Then, now and forever
Manhattan letter returns to New York
14 July 2008
From
The New York Times:
For decades, the proud seal of New York City, with its depiction of a sailor and a Manhattan Indian, of beavers and flour barrels and the sails of a windmill, has celebrated 1625 as the year the city was founded. There’s just one problem: Most historians say the year has hardly any historical significance.
The first settlers arrived in what would become part of New York City on a Dutch ship as early as 1623; some say 1624. The Dutch “purchased” Manhattan in 1626. The first charter was granted in 1653. And the most notable event of 1625? Dutch settlers moved their cattle to Lower Manhattan from Governors Island.
“It is simply wrong,” Michael Miscione, the Manhattan borough historian, said of 1625 as the city’s birth date. “The first founding settlers of New York City landed here in 1624.”
The story of how the city arrived at 1625 as its founding year, however, seems a uniquely New York narrative. It entails machinations to glorify the Dutch, humiliate the British and, some believe, outdo Boston, thereby underscoring how in New York even something as seemingly inviolable as the city’s birthday is subject to political manipulation. The official city seal dates from about 1654, but the current one was more or less created in 1686, when Gov. Thomas Dongan granted the city a charter from the king. In 1784, the royal crown was replaced with an eagle; in 1915, the Board of Aldermen changed the date from 1686 to 1664, the year that Peter Stuyvesant surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who renamed it New York. (The aldermen also shortened the sailor’s pants, perhaps in a nod to the growing influence of the city’s garment industry on fashion.)
Nobody complained much about the date until 1974, when Paul O’Dwyer, the Irish-born and Anglophobic president of the City Council, figured that the 700th anniversary of the founding of Amsterdam in the Netherlands was as good a time as any to strip the British of the distinction of having founded the city and bestow it instead on the Dutch. But how to define founded? The City Council, more familiar in those days with obliterating the past by changing street names to honor more contemporary worthies, was suddenly thrust into a debate of, well, historic proportions.
“The island of Manhattan was being used as a big pasture in 1625,” said Charles T. Gehring, director of the state’s New Netherland Project, a collaboration of the New York State Library and the Holland Society. “If you want to talk about New York City and not Manhattan, then 1624 would be a good date. If you want to put the actual date when it was purchased, when Peter Minuit made the deal, that was 1626.”
Now, on the eve of an elongated quadricentennial celebration that begins next year with a commemoration of Henry Hudson’s voyage of discovery (he was English; his employer was Dutch), some historians hope to correct the record.
“Next year there will be much hoopla over the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson’s arrival in New York in 1609,” Mr. Miscione said. “That will cast a lot of attention on colonial New York history. I think it would be a good time to revisit the flag date.”
Read the article
here.
More about next years celebration here:
1609-2009: 400th anniversary of Hudsons landing in NY
15 May 2008
Amstel Light, a leading imported light beer from Holland, unveiled today a powerful differentiator to drive its new marketing campaign - the brewing tradition and free spirit of its birthplace, Amsterdam. Research showed that the most ownable space for Amstel Light was based on a brand equity it had all along but just hadn't fully leveraged, and that is "Amstel Light is brewed in Amsterdam in the Amstel tradition, which dates back to 1870."
The campaign is anchored by the statement "One Dam Good Bier" - a line that describes the quality of Amstel Light, but also speaks to the premium beer's Amsterdam roots by linking the spelling of the word "Dam" to the Dam in Amsterdam.
New York City, a Dutch colony in the 1600s known as New Amsterdam, will serve as the base for a mock "Dutch Takeover" on May 15 to support the new Amstel Light campaign. This effort to "reclaim" the Amsterdam Avenue section of Manhattan will include a nod to the bicycle culture of Holland with an unprecedented bicycle giveaway by partner I amsterdam. Replicating the spirit of the Dutch city, an authentic 10-seater Beer Bike will traverse Amsterdam Avenue throughout the day, and pubs along the route will feature "Dutch Treat" drink specials. Also, Northwest Airlines/KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, in conjunction with Metro New York, will provide complimentary round trip tickets to Amsterdam as part of a sweepstakes that will kick off at the launch event and run through the summer event series.
In July and August, consumers can experience the progressive, magical spirit of Amsterdam at the "Amstel Light Lounge 1870," a modern pop-up bar infused with elements traditionally found in Dutch pubs during the late 1800s. The lounges will appear in Boston, Chicago, Baltimore/D.C., Miami and San Francisco.
More at
Marketwire.com
05 May 2008
Fragrant flowers, half-timbered windmills and friendly attitudes are just a few of the reasons travelers hit up Holland. But there's another, just as kind, just as gentle land where wooden shoes and tulips rule: Holland, Michigan. Check in to the Dutch Colonial Inn B&B, which blends Midwestern hospitality with Old World atmosphere in a cozy house built in 1928. Amble through downtown where Dutch-accented shops flank the tree-lined streets and then settle in to the New Holland Brewing Co. for a few pints of Red Tulip Ale. In the end, you'll be wearing clogs too.
USA Today
From the official Holland, Michigan
website:
It’s both easy to see and hard to imagine that Holland, Michigan has its roots in the most solemn aspects of Dutch culture. Much of the religious conviction remains, as does the traditional Dutch architecture, and ambiance. But like its pioneers, Holland has reinvented itself without letting go of its heritage. Today’s Holland is alive with diverse cultures, whose influence has created an exciting, thriving community that has never lost its charm or affability. Long time residents can’t imagine living anywhere else; newcomers wonder why they didn’t move here sooner. And our visitors delight in the vast array of recreational activities, visual and performing arts, Dutch attractions, magnificant beaches and an award-winning downtown with exceptional shops, galleries, and eateries.
Spring is finally here and Holland is alive with a host of special events and updated attractions. Our non-stop ode to spring begins with our celebrations of Latino and Dutch cultures: Fiesta! and the world-renown Tulip Time. Eight days of spectacular events await you, with parades, dozens of Dutch attractions, a wide variety of entertainment featuring local and national talent, and over six million tulips planted throughout the area. When you’re not attending a festival, you can enjoy Wednesday night sailboat races, museum and gallery openings, boutique shopping excellent dining. So put on your klompen shoes, grab a Saucijzenbroodjes, and meet us at the windmill!"
(Amsterdam, Holland, would like to edit that last sentence: Put on your klompen (wooden shoes) and grab a saucijzenbroodje. Or multiple saucijzenbroodjes. But still: Tulip Time!)
holland.org: Holland, Michigan website
tuliptime.com: Tulip Time festival website
Dutch village: Nelis' Dutch Village. A theme park in Holland, Michigan that recreates a village from the Netherlands over 200 years ago, complete with authentic Dutch architecture, flowering gardens, canals and windmills.
10 April 2008
In a city that is ever-changing, where new buildings sprout up seemingly every week, there’s still a vast amount of history to be absorbed, ranging from New York City’s colonial origins, to the immigrant communities of the 19th and early 20th centuries, to recent world-shaping events. In
this article (cityguideny.com) you will find a small sample of New York’s treasure trove of historic sites and museums.
Definitely visit Fraunces. From the article: "Fraunces Tavern was the site of Washington’s farewell address to his officers on December 4, 1783, and figured prominently in his presidency. Today, there’s a colonial-style restaurant on the first floor and the Fraunces Tavern Museum upstairs, which exhibits Revolutionary Era armaments, flags, art and other objects." Find Fraunces at 54 Pearl St., 212-425-1778.
frauncestavern.com
A virtual tour of New Netherland
"Fifteen streets or so, depending on how you count them: that was the capital of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. At its southern end, Manhattan Island tapered to a smoothed point, rather like a sock, with the toes sticking out toward the harbor. Once the decision was made to make it the capital, other features of the town fell into place. The position of the fort at the end of the island naturally meant that the town would develop around it, the streets radiating northward from it and from the East River frontage. The presence of a small inlet cutting through the developing grid didn’t deter the inhabitants. They decided it was a “gracht” — a canal — and built pretty little bridges over it, as in Holland." More information at
www.nnp.org
Maps
New Amsterdam's beginnings, unlike most other colonies in the New World, were thoroughly documented in maps. During the time of New Netherland's colonization the Dutch were Europe's pre-eminent cartographers. There is a particularly detailed map called the Castello Plan. Virtually every structure in New Amsterdam at the time is believed to be represented, and by a fortunate coincidence it can be determined who resided in every house from the Nicasius de Sille List of 1660, which enumerates all the citizens of New Amsterdam and their addresses.
Several maps of old New York can be viewed
here (historystreets.com).
New York's legacy, New York's identity: Article in PDF detailing the birth of New York.
(PS: 100th entry!)
07 April 2008
Adam Nicolson reviews
Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland's Glory by Lisa Jardine. Jardine's beguiling picture of 17th-century Europe is like a scene in an ancient chocolate factory: everywhere you look there is another percolating, bubbling, mutually infusing reciprocating-jar experiment.
Arrival of William III of Orange in England, November 15, 16, 1688. William came in an armada of 500 ships, carrying an army of 20,000 soldiers, plus a similar number of sailors and associated personnel. They landed at Torbay and marched to London, which was put under Dutch military occupation until the spring of 1690, by which time William had been fully acknowledged as England's new ruler. It was, says Jardine, "a brilliantly stage-managed sequence of events".
The subject could embrace the whole continent but here is restricted to a single relationship: Holland and England, facing one another as first-cousin cultures, linked and separated by the Narrow Seas. Both were protestant, mercantile and imperialist, both highly urbanised, both opposed to the great Catholic powers to the south. But they also differed: one a republic, the other a monarchy; one emerging from the austerity of a Calvinist burgher culture, troubled by its own gathering riches, the other still in love with courtly, jewelled complexity and elaborate clothes, with magnificent houses in enormous parks and sophisticated gardens. There was never any English embarrassment at riches.
Read the entire article
here.
01 April 2008
"In September of 1658, the Dutch and their African labor force of enslaved and half-free Africans celebrated the founding of a village called New Haarlem. 350 years later, Harlem is still going strong. [...] The original Africans were either members of the Dutch West India Company labor force or individually owned workers. From the very beginning New Haarlem was, like most of New Netherlands, populated not just by the Dutch but by the Africans as well. That bears repeating—people of African descent lived in what is today’s Harlem 350 years ago. Prior to the Africans’ arrival, the colony was essentially a failing, lackluster afterthought of Dutch holdings. Its predominantly Dutch inhabitants clustered at the lower tip of Manhattan island in the tiny New Amsterdam enclave. They wanted to get rich quickly through the fur trade and return home to Holland."
Read the entire article
here.
1863 lithograph of a 1765 drawing of Harlem, New York.
19 March 2008
2009 marks the 400th anniversary of the day that Henry Hudson set sail from Amsterdam, dropping anchor in New York Harbor five months later in September 1609. His first steps on the tip of Manhattan eventually gave rise to a thriving settlement on what is today New York, in many ways the capital of the world.
Henry Hudsons
Halve Maen (Half Moon) in the New York Harbor.
Henry William Hudson
The Englishman Henry Hudson, sailing for the Dutch East Indies Company, first established Dutch claims to the area currently known as New York in 1609. In 1626, the Dutch officially purchased the southern tip of Manhattan Island from the native American population, and founded New Amsterdam, the main settlement of the colony New Netherland. The colony gradually developed into a prosperous settlement under director-general Peter Stuyvesant, until an English fleet conquered New Amsterdam in 1664 and renamed it New York. Yet the Dutch role in New York was by no means over. Dutch settlers maintained their religious institutions, social forms, and cultural values as they gradually adapted to the altered context of their lives. Two regime changes, in 1673-74 and 1689-91, briefly returned political and religious power to Dutch hands.
1656 Dutch map of New York in New Netherland, by A. Vanderdonck.
The original Castello Plan. Full size photograph of manuscript map in the Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana of Florence, Italy. The Castello plan is the earliest known plan of New Amsterdam and the only one dating from the Dutch period.
A monumental flagstaff in Battery Park (NYC) commemorates the Dutch establishment of New Amsterdam and the seventeenth century European settlement which launched the modern metropolis of New York City. Designed by H.A.van den Eijnde (1869-1939), a sculptor from Haarlem in the Netherlands, the monument was dedicated in 1926 to mark the tercentenary of Dutch settlement, and the purchase of the island of Manhattan from Native Americans.
On Saint Nicholas Day, December 6, 1926 the Netherlands Monument, a gift of the people of Holland, was formally accepted by Mayor James J. Walker and Parks Commissioner Francis D. Gallatin. In 1939 the monument underwent restoration and the inscriptions were recut. Subsequently, a fire caused damage to the monument. When the park was closed from 1940 to 1952 for renovations and to build the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, the monument was relocated to its present site at the northeast entrance.
Links
Henry Hudson400.com: The Henry Hudson 400 Foundation was organized to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's legendary voyage to the new world in 2009 in both Amsterdam and New York City.
Explore NY 400.com
Ian Chadwick.com: Extensive research about Henry Hudson and his travels.
29 January 2008
"For the first time in history the inhabitants of Manhattan will be able to see the piece of paper which led to the establishment of New York, the Volkskrant reported on Saturday.
It takes the form of a letter dated 5 November 1626 which states that the Dutch settlers bought the island from the Canarsie Indians for 60 guilders."
Read more:
Dutchnews.nl
(click to enlarge)
From
Only In Holland, Only The Dutch: "Perhaps only the Dutch, with their notorious frugality and neverending quests for tremendous bargains, could have purchased the island of Manna-hatta for a mere pittance. The commonly told story is that the Dutch purchased modern day Manhattan from the Indians for the now legendary price of 60 guilders, or a paltry $24. This legendary $24 came in the form of beads and other items that served little use to the Dutch, but were cherished by the Indians of the region. Once the purchase was finalized, the island was promptly named Nieuw Amsterdam and served as the hub for Dutch business transactions and logistical endeavors throughout the entire Hudson River valley. Incidentally, modern day Wall Street, the financial hub of the world, is the site where the original Dutch inhabitants built a wall for protection against Indian attacks. The Dutch have always been heralded as shrewd European businessmen due to their cunning negotiation for the purchase of Manhattan from the trusting Indians. A present day monument even exists in lower Manhattan depicting a Dutchman purchasing the island from an Indian for a mere $24 worth of beads.
As with much folklore, the story of the Dutch cleverly purchasing the island of Manhattan for a song and dance is more myth than reality. The Dutch actually purchased Manhattan for upwards to thousands of dollars worth of goods such as kettles, steel tools, knives, guns and blankets. They purchased the island, however, from the Indian tribe the Canarsies, who didnt even live on the island of Manhattan, but lived in modern day Brooklyn. [...] The story of the Dutch purchasing Manhattan for $24 in a friendly transaction with amicable Indians is a much more pleasant story than what really transpired, which undoubtedly led to the story's propagation throughout the years."
