An exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York presented in partnership with the National Maritime Museum Amsterdam/ Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam and the New Netherland Project, Albany (April- September 2009)
In 1609 English explorer and navigator Henry Hudson sailed under the auspices of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) to find a Western route to the Orient. Hudson made the first exploration of what is now New York Harbor and of the majestic river that today bears his name, laying the foundation of the Dutch on the area. His voyages led to the founding of New Netherland under the charter of the WIC (Dutch West India Company), including its trading post at the mouth of the river New Amsterdam.
The exhibition Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The World of Henry Hudson will focus in three sections on the voyages of Hudson: the Dutch role in the Age of Exploration, Henry Hudson in the Age of Exploration and the first link between the Dutch civilization and culture of the Old World and that of the colony that would soon build in the New.
The Rise of the Dutch Republic
An overview of the development of the first modern state not ruled by a hereditary monarch, a confederation of seven provinces whose struggles against Spanish rule and persecution by the Catholic Church had ingrained a strong sentiment in favor of religious tolerance.
An overview of commerce and culture in the Netherlands will set the stage for the story of the development of the city of Amsterdam, which evolved from a small settlement into the staple market of the world in the space of a single century.
Henry Hudson and the Age of Exploration
Highlights and advances in knowledge of the nature of the world and of navigation, featuring the work of Gerardus Mercator and other cartographers. A brief discussion of European exploration and colonization in general will create the context for Henry Hudson's four voyages that will be storyline for this section of the exhibition.
New World Colony
An overview of the land and peoples of the area that would become New Amsterdam and discusses the peltry trade with the native Americans as the major impetus for colonization. It charts the growth of the colony, which accelerated after the Dutch West India Company gave up its strict monopoly and let others trade in the region.
This part of the exhibition considers the evolution of New Amsterdam's built environment and of the growth of a merchant class that was independent from Amsterdam. It shows who administered the colony on behalf of the Dutch West India Company and the efforts by citizenry to win self-government. Finally it describes the end of the Dutch experiment in North American colonization.