Many people are surprised to learn that New York was founded by the Dutch and not the British, or that it was New Netherland before it became New York. The colony of New Netherland comprised the current area of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, northern Pennsylvania, and southern Connecticut. Beginning in 1609, the land was claimed by the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), who started another branch of their company, the Dutch West India Company, to oversee it and other Dutch colonies and interests in the northern hemisphere.
For years, many early-colonial-period historians underestimated the lasting Dutch impact in the era of European colonial expansion. Access to historic documents was limited, largely due to language barriers. Early records of the colony were written in Old Dutch, a variation of the current language that few could read. Thousands of pages of historic documents related to the colony of New Netherland sat in the New York State Library and Archives, waiting to be translated.
All that changed in 1974 thanks to members of the Holland Society. A series of phones calls to former governor Nelson Rockefeller and then current governor Malcom Wilson eventually led to funds for translation being made available to the New York State Library. Those funds helped to hire Dr. Charles T. Gehring, the only person in New York at the time who could read 17th century Dutch.
For nearly forty years, Dr. Gehring has worked to translate over 12,000 Dutch-era documents, including letters, wills, deeds, court rulings, journals, and more. In 1980, Dr. Gehring was joined by Dutch historian Dr. Janny Venema, who helped to translate documents, before retiring to the Netherlands in 2020. Together they revealed the seventeenth-century world of New Netherland and spurred a deep interest in our state’s beginnings. Their work, and the work of scholars in the Netherlands, has helped historians look more closely at the role the Dutch played in world events. For New Yorkers, this access to historic documents has helped us to see how much of the architecture, laws, businesses, and culture of New York came from the Dutch.
The religious tolerance of the Netherlands attracted refugees from across Europe, fleeing upheaval from religious and economic wars. Many of these people eventually immigrated to New Netherland, where the common language for many years was Dutch. And, many of the elite families throughout New York history, like the Philipses, were originally Dutch, or came through Holland on their way to the colonies. As both the early colonial lingua franca and the mother tongue of the early elite, Dutch would continue to be spoken in New York well into the 19th century. Sojourner Truth, known throughout the world for her human rights activism, spoke Dutch as her first language during her childhood in Ulster County.
The Dutch colonial presence can be experienced all around the state. Historic Dutch houses and barns dot the countryside. Tulips, long cultivated by the Dutch, brighten the landscapes around the state each spring. Spring also brings Pinkster, the African American celebration of Pentecost shared via the Dutch. Winter celebrations begin early in December with Saint Nicholas Day, a holiday celebrating an antecedent of the modern Santa Claus. Dutch heritage tours can be enjoyed in Manhattan and Albany, as well as up and down the Hudson and Mohawk River Valley. Streets wear Dutch names, as do many parks and historic locations. An easy clue is the use of the word ‘Van’ in the title: Van Dyck, Van Allen, Van Cortlandt. Pancakes, waffles, donuts, and pea soup appear on restaurant and home menus; these popular historic Dutch foods have become icons of American foodways.
Below are just a few of the many resources available to explore Dutch Heritage in New York.
New Netherland
Website: The work of Dr. Charles T. Gehring at the New Netherland Project
Website: The New Netherland Institute
Jacobs, Jaap, The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth Century America, Cornell University Press, 2009
Shorto, Russell, Island in the Center of the World, Abacus, 2014
Culinary
Rose, Peter G., The Sensible Cook; Dutch Foodways in theOld and the New World, Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 1989
Rose, Peter G., Food, Drink and Celebrations of the Hudson Valley Dutch, Charleston, The History Press, 2009
Pinkster
Dewulf, Jeroen, The Pinkster King and the King of Kongo: The Forgotten History of American’s Dutch-Owned Slaves, Jackson, University of Mississippi Press, 2017.
Dutch Architecture
New York State Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation – Dutch Architectural Survey
Fitchen, John, The New World Dutch Barn, The Evolution,Form and Structure of a Disappearing Icon
Tours and Tourism
Website: New York State Tourism
Hondius, Dienke; Jouwe, Nancy; Stam, Dienke; Tosch, Jennifer, Dutch New York Histories, Connecting African, Native American and Slavery Heritage., LM Publishers, 2017
See your local board of tourism for regional sites, events, and activities.
