This is the last weekend of the exhibition Amsterdam/New Amsterdam -- the Worlds of Henry Hudson. A visit yesterday showed that this popular exhibition is drawing an interested audience even after 6 months of display.
This is a beautiful exhibition about Amsterdam and the first settlements in Manhattan and surroundings in what was called at the time New Netherland. The Museum of the City of New York has a wealth of original documents, artifacts and paintings on display that provide a glimpse of life in New Netherland and the Netherlands at that time.
Among the documents on display is the Treaty of Breda from 1667 from the National Library of the Netherlands. It is the formal end of the war between the English and the Dutch, and it was made under conditions of uti possidetis, "as you posses". This meant that New Amsterdam would stay in English hands and the Dutch would keep Suriname.
A painting by Jan van Goyen, The Hague from the North-East, was among the original paintings on loan from the Netherlands. Paintings of New Netherland from that time are not available, but recent historically accurate works by Len Tantillo such as Hanover Square, Manhattan give a good view of how the city looked like. The National Library of the Netherlands provided an original copy of A Description of New Netherland by Adriaen van der Donck.
Most of the knowledge we have from that time comes from written documents: "What we know about leisure activities and children's games in New Amsterdam comes from ordinances outlawing them on Sundays".
The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the New Netherland Project in Albany and Scheepvaartsmuseum in Amsterdam. The Scheepvaartsmuseum is the Dutch national Maritime Museum. Its building in Amsterdam is undergoing extensive renovations and the museum has been closed for a number of years.
For more information see also the reviewin the New York Times.
The Museum of the City of New York, Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: the Worlds of Henry Hudson
through September 27, 2009
http://www.mcny.org
Kids games.
A large 3D map of New Amsterdam.
The seal of the province of New Netherlands during years 1626-1654.