In September 1609 Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, sailed up the river that would bear his name.  This marked the beginning, exactly 400 years ago, of the Dutch era (1609-1664) of New York City.

New Amsterdam: The Island at the Center of the World, the Exhibition uses original maps, charts, watercolors, and documents to illustrate the political, commercial, and cultural development of the Dutch West India Company’s trade outpost known as New Amsterdam.  Some of the works featured in this exhibition are:

·         The Schaghen Letter, the “Birth Certificate of New York,” which is the only documentation of the “purchase” of Manhattan from the Lenape,

·         The Castello Plan, the only surviving contemporary layout of New Amsterdam, identifying where individual buildings and plots were in the colony,

·         Adriaen Block’s hand-drawn map of the area, including the island named after him (Block Island),

·         Papers documenting the 1609 contract between Henry Hudson and the Dutch East India Company for his voyage to find a new passage to Asia,

·         The commission for Peter Stuyvesant to become the director-general of New Netherland,

·         The letters of complaint about Peter Stuyvesant’s rule from Adriaen van der Donck and the Board of Nine,

·         The charter for the Dutch West India Company,

·         Numerous watercolors by Johannes Vingboons showing Dutch settlements around the world, and

·         The Treaty of Breda, which ended the war between the Dutch Republic and England and allowed for the handover of the colony to the British.

New Amsterdam: The Island at the Center of the World, the Exhibition is a collaboration of the Nationaal Archief (National Archives of the Netherlands) and the South Street Seaport Museum.  This exhibition is a unique opportunity to see these documents, many of which have never been to the United States, and some that have never been displayed anywhere.  Throughout the exhibition are personal stories of New Amsterdammers whose diversity, vision, passion, and grit set the foundation for this Island at the Center of the World.

On view September 13, 2009 – January 3, 2010.