New Netherland Research Center

New York State Library

NYSED / OCE / NYSL / Research Library / New Netherland Research Center / Learn More about New Netherland

---

Learn More about New Netherland

Videos

• Uncovering America's Forgotten Colony: The New Netherland Project. This video examines the history of colonial America and the Dutch Golden Age through the work of the New Netherland Project (now the New Netherland Research Center).
• Dutch New York. This PBS video examines the history of the Dutch in New York. Included on the website are translated documents and historic maps.

Interactive

• A Virtual Tour of New Netherland. This interactive tour introduces students to the many settlements that comprised New Netherland (now parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware).

Fun Facts

• Famous Dutch-Americans. Learn which famous Americans share Dutch ancestry.

Publications

• Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America by Russell Shorto. This New York Times bestseller by Russell Shorto is based on the work of the New Netherland Research Center. It tells the story of New York City’s beginnings.
• The Edge of New Netherland by Len Tantillo. Through words and images, historical artist Len Tantillo reconstructs a Dutch fort on the southern edge of New Netherland. In the process, he explores seventeenth-century design conventions, surveyor’s instruments, building practices, and tools.
• The Importance of Flushing - This article by Russell Shorto on the Flushing Remonstrance appeared in the Wniter 2008 issue of the New York Archives magazine. It includes a transcript of the Remonstrance.

Exhibits

• 1609. This online exhibit by the NYS Museum explores the founding and settlement of New Netherland; it includes a virtual gallery tour, interactive quizzes, and interviews with scholars and curators.
• The Van Rensselaer Manor Papers. This NYS Library exhibit explores daily life on patroon Killiaen van Rensselaer’s vast estate, Rensselaerswijck, now part of Albany and Rensselaer counties in New York.
• Women’s Rights in Early New York. This NYS Archives exhibit examines how the English conquest of New Netherland affected women’s lives. Dutch law granted women greater civil and economic rights than did English common law. 

Last Updated: April 27, 2012