Julie van den Hout - Author Page

Prisoners grate Caribbean dyewood in the courtyard of the Rasphuis (literally "grate house") prison in Amsterdam. They dyewood shavings were boiled down to create red dyes for the Dutch linen industry.

Trying to learn to read 17th-century Dutch? Here's a secret—it takes time and patience but you can do it! 😃 Check out this website I made awhile back for learners like me: www.17thCenturyDutch.com

More than 150 ships undertook roughly 250 voyages to New Netherland between 1609 and 1664. Check out the stories of these voyages in the timeline linked here: https://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/1537340/A-SHIPS-STORY/

In December 1649, Janneken Melyn wrote a letter to her husband from New Netherland, telling him that it was so cold that "the ink freezes in the pen."

Nevermind that my eyes are closed in this otherwise fun pic! The recording of this presentation on my database of voyages to New Netherland will be available soon!

Julie, Charly, and Steve had a grand time recording "Voyages of New Netherland." Tune in on November 17 at 5pm for the airing of the recorded portion plus a live Q & A with the audience.

https://www.facebook.com/events/456315562000560

Adriaen van der Donck was known in seventeenth-century New Netherland as "the Joncker," an honorific short for "Jonckheer," meaning "young gentleman" in Dutch. His property, encompassing what is now Yonkers and part of the Bronx, became known as "Ye Youncker's land" under the English, and eventually became Yonkers.

Available on amazon, this book tells the compelling story of the young legal activist Adriaen van der Donck, whose fight to secure the struggling 17th-century Dutch colony of New Netherland (now New York) made him a controversial but pivotal figure in early America. At best, he has been labeled a hero, a visionary, and a spokesman for the people. At worst, he has been branded arrogant and selfish, thinking only of his own ambitions. The wide range of opinions about him testifies to the fact that, almost four centuries after his death, Adriaen van der Donck remains an intriguing character, whose determination to stand by his convictions at great personal risk offers a revealing look into the human spirit, and the strong will that drives it against adversity.

I have always considered myself Team Lego, but this Playmobil set is pretty awesome!

Vincent van Gogh, Marten & Oopjen, het Melkmeisje, de schutter van de Nachtwacht en Rembrandt bewaken het museum nu we tijdelijk gesloten zijn. 💂 Wist je dat onze hele Playmobil-familie als één complete set verkrijgbaar is? 😍

🛍️ https://www.rijksmuseumshop.nl/nl/playmobil-familie-set

As a young legal activist, Adriaen van der Donck worked to secure the struggling seventeenth-century Dutch colony of New Netherland. Becoming embroiled in the politics of Manhattan, he could not have forseen that he was headed for a fight for his adopted homeland and a bicontinental showdown. The changes he put in motion for the colony that became New York endured long after his premature death. The biography, Adriaen van der Donck, A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth-Century America, is available on amazon.

The Hartgers’ View is the first known image of Manhattan and dates back to 1626–1628. Adriaen van der Donck featured this image in his 1655 book. Before I had ever heard of him, I ran across this print in a history book. Something about it drew me into the story of New Netherland in an almost otherworldly attraction. Coincidence?

I left a little bit of my heart in Breda after I lived there for four years in my early twenties. I remember walking home through the city center, listening to the evening bells toll from the tower of the Grote Kerk—to me, a signal that the day was ending and all was well. Breda is also the city of Adriaen van der Donck’s birth. Little did I know that he had walked the same streets four hundred years earlier.

Adriaen van der Donck grew up a stone’s throw away from the Begijnhof in Breda, historically home to the Beguine order of Catholic laywomen. The Begijnhof has a rich history dating back to 1267 and a longstanding relationship with the House of Orange-Nassau. If you are ever in Breda, it is worth a visit!

While I was writing Adriaen van der Donck, I scoured the internet looking for a detailed 17th-century map of Breda. One day I realized that the map I needed had been hanging in my living room all along. A gift from my Dutch colleagues when I returned to the U.S., the map is a keepsake that I treasure to this day (Thank you Klokkenberg O.K.

Adriaen van der Donck’s maternal grandfather and namesake, Adriaen van Bergen, is known for the famous “list van Breda,” a Trojan Horse-style military strategy against Spanish forces occupying the city in 1590. Van Bergen secretly stowed 72 soldiers in the cargo hold of his peat boat, smuggling them past the Spanish guards and into the fortressed Castle. The battle won back control of the city for the House of Orange.

Adriaen van der Donck enrolled at Leiden University in 1638 under the study of Law. The university was a gift to the city of Leiden in 1575 from Willem, Prince of Orange, and offered a world-class education. Here, a student studies in his room about 1650.

Isn’t this a crazy image of Manhattan then and now? NYPL's cool map warper tool overlays the 1660 Castello Plan, showing Broadway, Beaver Street, Stone Street, Pearl Street—all still there today. The fort was on the tip of Manhattan, before modern landfill, when Greenwich and Pearl were waterfront property. 😲 Wall Street to the north is named for the wall Stuyvesant had erected to protect the city from the English.

Adriaen van der Donck brought the Remonstrance of New Netherland to the Dutch Republic to argue for the “very poor and most low condition” of the colony. After he had it published and distributed as a pamphlet under the name “Vertoogh,” it became so popular that the West India Company directors remarked, “Formerly New Netherland was never spoken of and now heaven and Earth seem to be stirred up by it.”

I love this painting of the Assembly of the States General in The Hague. This beautiful image and so many more are made available through the generosity of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

The Great Assembly of 1651, Bartholomeus van Bassen, c. 1651 - Rijksmuseum Our website uses cookies. A cookie is a small text file which will be saved on your computer or mobile device when you visit our website. More information? Read our cookie policy.

I could not have written this book without the support of the New Netherland Institute. I am grateful for the incredible scholarship and resources that they offer, and for the friends I've made.

New Netherland Institute :: Home We are still accepting submissions for the special issue of New York History on race and slavery in America's Dutch communites.

Adriaen van der Donck wrote this book in 1655 while detained in the Dutch Republic and unable to return to New Netherland. As one of the earliest contemporary descriptions of early America, this landmark witness-author book stands as a testament to his vision for the country.

Caught in a time warp. The Palisades would have been the view from Adriaen van der Donck's beloved Colendonck on the Hudson River.

Still a fan of this wonderfully engaging book by Russell Shorto that introduced me to the colorful story of New Netherland. Highly recommend!

The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto: 9781400078677 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books In a riveting, groundbreaking narrative, Russell Shorto tells the story of New Netherland, the Dutch colony which pre-dated the Pilgrims and established ideals of tolerance and individual rights that shaped...