Dutch History

Dutch-American Stories: The “Patron Saint of New York”

May 3, 2022 by Jaap Jacobs Leave a Comment

The bonds that connect the American and Dutch peoples have been commemorated in various ways and at various levels. Dutch-American Friendship Day is a well-established annual event at the governmental level. In New York City, the historical memory of Petrus Stuyvesant has recently become controversial, but in the twentieth century his image was iconic.

On April 19th, 1782, the Dutch States General decided to recognize John Adams as the envoy of the United States of America. It was the culmination of a contentious political process in which the Dutch Republic’s constituent provinces (Friesland being the first) instructed their delegates to vote in favor of accepting Adams’s nomination. With Adams in place as America’s minister plenipotentiary, the Dutch Republic reciprocated by naming Pieter Johan van Berckel as its first ambassador. [Read more…] about Dutch-American Stories: The “Patron Saint of New York”

The Beauty of Bricks: Amsterdam, Delft & Manhattan

March 16, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

In his 1653 poem on “The Character of Holland,” a piece of stereotypical English propaganda that was written in an era of fierce Anglo-Dutch economic rivalry, poet and politician Andrew Marvell ridiculed the Low Countries as being composed of “undigested vomit from the sea.”

The satirist did not mention the fact that out of this appalling spew the Dutch created bricks that were used by architects to build their characteristic cities which, in turn, inspired the flourishing genre of the cityscape in seventeenth century painting. Both bricks and building skills were at the time exported to England and across the Atlantic. [Read more…] about The Beauty of Bricks: Amsterdam, Delft & Manhattan

Painter Hubert Vos’s ‘Exotic People’: Maastricht to Manhattan and Beyond

February 23, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

In spring 1905, painter Hubert Vos received a letter at his Manhattan residence from the Dutch Legation in Peking inquiring if he would be able and willing to travel to China and paint the portrait of a prominent official. The invitation was vague, but too tempting to refuse for a painter who had made the portraiture of racial types his specialty. [Read more…] about Painter Hubert Vos’s ‘Exotic People’: Maastricht to Manhattan and Beyond

Early Albany Theater & The Ghost of Rev. Freylinghausen: An English Tale of Dutch Albany

February 1, 2022 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

Anne McVickar Grant says in her Memoirs of an American Lady: With Sketches of Manners and Scenery in America, as they Existed Previous to the Revolution (1808), a memoir of an aunt of General Philip Schuyler, that theater began in Albany in 1760. She says that British soldiers quartered at Albany, built a stage and produced The Beau’ Stratagem. The 1707 play by Irishman George Farquhar details the exploits of two young men on hard times who plan to travel and seduce wealthy women for the their money. Unexpectedly, one falls in love.

Grant says the soldiers felt that the moral of the story was missed on the Albany residents, “so indifferent was the English Language understood by them.” Almost 100 years after the English occupation of Albany, the Dutch language was still predominant. In fact, pockets of Dutch speakers remained into the 20th century. [Read more…] about Early Albany Theater & The Ghost of Rev. Freylinghausen: An English Tale of Dutch Albany

Albany’s Role In Three Little-Remembered Colonial Wars in the Northeast

January 24, 2022 by Peter Hess 2 Comments

From the time Henry Hudson sailed up the Hudson River in 1609, the area that is now Albany, NY was considered the focal point of trade with Indigenous People. For over a hundred years, Albany was the trading post furthest west and most remote in the colonies. Most of the other colonies were English; New Netherland was Dutch and settled for the purpose of trade.

With a moderate climate, abundant rainfall, a lake and river system for good transportation and plentiful natural resources, New Netherland was well-positioned. The fur trade significantly raised the standard of living of many European settlers and Native People. Arriving at Albany with a catch of furs, an native person could trade would usually trade with a representative of the Van Rensselaers, or one of his agents.

Thousands of pelts began to flow into Albany in return for Dutch, and later English, trade goods. News of the Dutch market spread and before long Native People from as far away as today’s Minnesota and Illinois were traveling across the Great Lakes and Mohawk River to Albany to obtain manufactured goods with animal pelts. [Read more…] about Albany’s Role In Three Little-Remembered Colonial Wars in the Northeast

Colonial Conflict, Native People, Anti-Catholicism & The Burning of Schenectady

January 12, 2022 by Peter Hess 5 Comments

In 1652, New Netherland Director General Peter Stuyvesant declared that Fort Orange and everything around it, including the village outside the fort, often called Oranje after the fort, was independent of the ownership of the Van Rensselaer family. He named the small mostly Dutch village “Beverwyck.”

Possibly at the urging of the Van Rensselaers, their earlier manager Arendt Van Curler (Corlear) began planning the construction of a new village. [Read more…] about Colonial Conflict, Native People, Anti-Catholicism & The Burning of Schenectady

400 Years of New York History: A Pictorial Guide

January 1, 2022 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Book purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.

The first volume of the new book series 400 Years of New York History: A Pictorial Guide (Pictorial History Press, 2020) by Sasha Vosk is a one-of-a-kind illustrated guide that offers readers an opportunity to view New York City’s history in a manner that has not been possible until now with the benefit of 21st century art technology. This volume covers the period of New Amsterdam, when the Dutch controlled the city as part of their colony of New Netherland. [Read more…] about 400 Years of New York History: A Pictorial Guide

Life In Dutch Albany When The English Took Over

December 29, 2021 by Peter Hess 2 Comments

In 1664, Charles II, King of England, bequeathed to his brother, James, Duke of York and Albany, all the land in the Hudson River Valley and Long Island from the west side of Connecticut to the east side of Delaware Bay, in short, all of Dutch New Netherland.

He also bequeathed four men-of-war and 300 soldiers under the command of Colonel Richard Nicolls to take possession of New Netherland from the Dutch. Learning of this, the Dutch in New Netherland appealed to the Dutch West India Company asking for a loan of five or six thousand guilders to prepare fortifications. No loan or assistance appeared. [Read more…] about Life In Dutch Albany When The English Took Over

Father Isaac Jogues, Pastor Johannes Megapolensis & Native People

December 21, 2021 by Peter Hess 6 Comments

By 1642, the number of inhabitants of the van Rensselaer Manor Rensselaerswyck had grown and Patroon Kiliaen van Rensselaer willingly complied with a requirement of the Dutch West India Company to secure a clergyman for a Dutch Church to conduct services for the settlers.

The Reverend Doctor Johannis Megapolensis, Jr., the dominie (pastor) of the congregation of Schorel and Berg, belonging to the classis of Alkmaar in Holland, was selected and accepted the call. He was to serve for six years at a salary of one thousand guilders (about $400) per year. He was also to receive a yearly donation of thirty schepels (22 ½ bushels) of wheat and two firkins of butter. [Read more…] about Father Isaac Jogues, Pastor Johannes Megapolensis & Native People

The Third Patroon & The English Take-Over of New York

December 6, 2021 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

The third patroon was Kiliaen Van Rensselaer II (1655-1687) son of Johannes, who was the first patroon to live at Rensselaerswyck, the van Rensselaer Patroonship in most of what is now Albany and Rensselaer Counties, along with parts of Columbia and Greene Counties.

Kiliaen II was only seven years old when his father died however, so his uncles continued to manage the colony. Jeremias was director in 1664 when the English seized New Netherland and renamed Beverwyck “Albany.”

Jeremias’ constant conflict with Stuyvesant and his possible establishment of overland fur trade with the English in Massachusetts, avoiding Peter Stuyvesant’s tax collections in New Amsterdam (New York City), may have facilitated the English take-over. [Read more…] about The Third Patroon & The English Take-Over of New York