In the spring of 1613, a sailor named Jan Rodrigues arrived at the shore of the Hudson River from a Dutch trading ship, likely the Jonge Tobias. Identifying himself as a free individual, he became the earliest documented Black man in New Netherland. Jan Rodrigues is the subject of one of 25 new, peer-reviewed biographical sketches published by the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society in August, part of the NYG&B’s New Netherland Settlers initiative. [Read more…] about 25 New Netherland Biographies Published
Netherlands
Women & The Hidden History of Delftware
Delftware is a renowned type of tin-glazed earthenware, predominantly featuring white pottery with blue cobalt designs, originating in The Netherlands during the 17th century to mimic Chinese porcelain.
When over seventy-five pieces of 17th and 18th century Delftware were rediscovered in an historic Manhattan townhouse, decorative art advisor and writer Genevieve Wheeler Brown recognized the pieces could tell an amazing story. [Read more…] about Women & The Hidden History of Delftware
Dutch Arms Dealers & Military Engineers in the Revolutionary War
Modern international law prohibits a neutral nation from supplying arms, ammunition, or equipment to any warring party, either directly or indirectly.
Eighteenth-century Dutch legal minds argued the opposite case. They stuck to the principle of “free ships make free goods,” dictating that a vessel under a neutral flag cannot be captured or confiscated.
Neutrality was driven by self-interest, a desire to achieve economic advantage without being involved in hostilities. [Read more…] about Dutch Arms Dealers & Military Engineers in the Revolutionary War
Fake News: Augsburg, New York City & The American Revolution
Augsburg is spectacular city in Bavaria with a rich history in finance and culture. It was home to the Fugger family of bankers who rose to become a global powerhouse of capitalism in the space of just three generations. Wealth was translated into cultural splendor. [Read more…] about Fake News: Augsburg, New York City & The American Revolution
Leo Fuld: Manhattan’s Star of Yiddish Song
On Christmas Day 1934, just a year after ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment which repealed Prohibition, the refurbished Earl Carroll Theatre on 7th Avenue and 50th Street opened as the French Casino.
It was a glittering Art Deco showpiece with walls draped in black velvet and established a reputation as Manhattan’s most lavish nightclub. [Read more…] about Leo Fuld: Manhattan’s Star of Yiddish Song
Eisenhower’s Sabre, The Netherlands & The Marshall Plan
On October 14th, 1947, a crisp and sunny autumn day, General Dwight D. Eisenhower celebrated his 57th birthday in style. At the Dutch embassy, in the heart of Washington, DC, ambassador Eelco van Kleffens presented the legendary leader of the Second World War with an “honorary sabre.”
It was not a conventional blade. Weighing nearly five pounds, the gold-encrusted sabre was embedded with hundreds of gemstones and had been meticulously handcrafted by one of the most skillful goldsmiths in The Netherlands: Brom’s Edelsmederij in Utrecht. [Read more…] about Eisenhower’s Sabre, The Netherlands & The Marshall Plan
The Hawleys, Opposition to the War of 1812 and the Church of the Presidents
The American artist Wilhelmina Douglas Hawley (Perth Amboy, NJ 1860 – Rijsoord, Netherlands 1958), my great-grandmother, lived a long and interesting life. Her artistic career and family history has fascinated me since I was a young girl.
Wilhelmina’s ancestors were English and Scottish migrants, who moved to the east coast of the United States and Canada in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. [Read more…] about The Hawleys, Opposition to the War of 1812 and the Church of the Presidents
American Culture and 1920s Netherlands
During the 1920s, the Netherlands excelled in dullness, it is said. But Kees Wouters shows how the cobwebs of pillarized society were blown away by a new musical wind from the West: Jazz! Exalted by many, vilified by others, Dutch musicians playing American jazz conquered music halls and radio waves alike and even made the Dutch dance.
According to Dutch historian Hermann von der Dunk, writing in the early 1980s, life in the Netherlands after World War I was as exciting as in a girls’ boarding school. Nothing much happened. Despite the presence of about a million destitute Belgian refugees, the horrors of the war had largely passed the Netherlands by. [Read more…] about American Culture and 1920s Netherlands
Lady Liberty as Muse: A Dutch Writer’s Love for the United States
My love for America started at an early age, when I pinched a book from my older brother: Pietje Bell in Amerika. I still remember the cover: a jolly Dutch newspaper boy with the skyline of New York City in the background. It pointed to the idea the book conveyed: the land of limitless opportunities, from paperboy to billionaire, a new start, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. [Read more…] about Lady Liberty as Muse: A Dutch Writer’s Love for the United States
Dutch Prince Bernhard, His American Jeep and Two Women Passengers
During the Second World War, the English secret service did not trust the German-born Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, son-in-law of Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands. Yet he was wildly popular among the Dutch population suffering under the Nazi yoke. So much so that he could get away with a few missteps.
In the fall of 1944, the immediate future of many people in The Netherlands looked distinctly grim. Following the Allied invasion in Normandy in June, France, as well as Belgium and southern parts of The Netherlands, had been liberated quickly. [Read more…] about Dutch Prince Bernhard, His American Jeep and Two Women Passengers
Dutch-American History: The Phoenix Tragedy, 1847
I love to make evening walks in the town of Winterswijk, where I was born. The Dutch habit of keeping curtains open makes strolls resemble visits to a museum, with the windows framing paintings that offer ever-changing views. I like to discover routes to find new, unfamiliar places.
One evening, in December 2020, I passede the old graveyard of Winterswijk, a place that usually gives me the creeps. For some reason — I still don’t know why, — I decide to walk across the graveyard this time. I immediately spotted a brightly lit memorial: two bollards holding up a colorful plaque. The sign reads: “The Phoenix Tragedy, 1847.” [Read more…] about Dutch-American History: The Phoenix Tragedy, 1847
Jane Addams, Alice Hamilton & The Hague Women’s Congress
Berlin, May 1915. Three feminists on an historical mission — Jane Addams and New York native Alice Hamilton from the United States, and Aletta Jacobs from the Netherlands — meet Wilbur H. Durborough. The American photographer and filmmaker had traveled to Berlin with his cameraman, Irving G. Ries, to shoot footage for his war documentary On the Firing Line with the Germans (1915). [Read more…] about Jane Addams, Alice Hamilton & The Hague Women’s Congress
A United Nations Exhibit Sheds Light On Dutch Colonial Slavery
The exhibit “Slavery: Ten True Stories of Dutch Colonial Slavery from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam” will be displayed in the lobby of the United Nations in New York City from February 27 through March 30, 2023.
The exhibition explores ten true personal stories centered on wooden foot stocks known as a “tronco” (Portuguese for tree trunk) that were used to constrain enslaved people by clamping their ankles. The foot stocks represent the more than one million people who forced to work in Dutch colonies on sugar plantations and in mines and harbors in Brazil, Suriname, the Caribbean, South Africa, and Asia. [Read more…] about A United Nations Exhibit Sheds Light On Dutch Colonial Slavery
Dutch-American Stories: Growing Up Dutch
What does it mean to be of Dutch extraction in the United States? Pella, situated on the Iowa plains, was the destination of choice for hundreds of Dutch families, led by Hendrick Pieter Scholte, after the Afscheiding (Secession) of 1834 split the Dutch Reformed Church. What is still Dutch and what has changed over time? Valerie Van Kooten, Executive Director of the Pella Historical Society and Museums, tells us about her childhood. [Read more…] about Dutch-American Stories: Growing Up Dutch
Mayonnaise, Hollandaise, Huguenots and Nostalgia: A Culinary History
What and where a person eats, suggests togetherness with one community and dis-identification with another and is therefore a factor that affects all migrant communities. Consumption conveys an idea of public identity.
Food can also serve as a psychological stimulus by unlocking emotional childhood reminiscences. Such experiences have frequently been expressed creatively. There are, for example, the uncooked wrinkled French prunes for Tolstoy’s Ivan Il’ich or the famous “petites madeleines” for Marcel Proust’s Swann that recapture vivid images of early years. [Read more…] about Mayonnaise, Hollandaise, Huguenots and Nostalgia: A Culinary History
Early Distilling History: Puritan Bibles, Gin & Schnapps
For the first decade of its existence, New Amsterdam was a rough place. Located on the tip of Manhattan Island, it was a haven for pirates and smugglers. Many of the earliest rules and regulations were an attempt to control the unruly citizens of a backwater outpost, but officials proved unable to lay down the law. Intemperate drinking was one of the problems.
In 1640 permission was granted by Willem Kieft, Director of the New Netherland Colony, for liquor to be distilled on Staten Island – in contemporary Dutch: Staaten Eylandt – where what is believed to have been the first commercial distillery in North America was built (today Staten Island is home to the Booze History Museum). [Read more…] about Early Distilling History: Puritan Bibles, Gin & Schnapps
‘Cradle of the Breed’: Gerrit Smith Miller & His Kriemhild Holsteins
On August 17th, 1929, the German airship Graf Zeppelin was attempting to encircle the world. Baseball fans were still marveling about how Babe Ruth had reached the 500 mark in home runs the previous Sunday at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio. The Great Bull Market of the 1920s was yet to crash.
None of these matters preoccupied Henry A. Strohmeyer, Jr., animal photographer, as he positioned himself and his camera to capture a picture of the man of the hour. Son of a famed expert in stereoscopic photography who made a career in capturing images of the estates of the wealthy, Strohmeyer had built his own reputation largely by taking pictures of cows and bulls. He was about to photograph Gerrit Smith Miller who at eighty-four was the oldest and most respected Holstein cowman in the country. [Read more…] about ‘Cradle of the Breed’: Gerrit Smith Miller & His Kriemhild Holsteins