Dutch New York: more than just cookies and coleslaw

What did ‘Dutch New York’ mean to the New Yorkers of the past? From the Roosevelts and Vanderbilts to cookies and coleslaw; America has had a longstanding relationship with its Dutch heritage, one that has been subject to change more than once.

Michael Botwinick, director of the Hudson River Museum: ‘While it is enjoyable to look at things like Dutch gables and bisquits and quaint place names as the substance of this influence, a great deal more evidence suggests that the true impact of that Dutch period has been more profound.' The exhibition Dutch New York: The Roots of Hudson Valley Culture, opened last week, reexamines this legacy and the relationship of our perception of the past to the present and the future. The importance of this exhibit is, according to the director, its perspective: it takes a closer look at American reflections on Dutch culture throughout history.

Dutch New York zooms in on five key times in Dutch American history: 1609 when the Half Moon entered New York Harbor; 1709, during a period when Dutch culture continued to thrive under English rule; 1809, when Washington Irving’s stories began to romanticize New York’s Dutch heritage; 1909, when the Hudson-Fulton Celebration attempted to create a common Dutch past for a rapidly growing nation; and 2009, a significant Hudsonian anniversary at a time when the concept of historical “celebration” is increasingly debated.

This perspective provides a refreshing view on the history of Dutch New York that has always been one of mixed feelings, myths, and fabrication. The story is illustrated through a rich array of paintings, prints, photographs, furniture, decorative arts, maps, and ephemera from the Museum and other collections.

The ‘ambivalence’ of Dutch New York is suggested by the exhibition’s first work; an 1892 oil painting by Edward Moran called Henry Hudson Entering New York, September 11, 1609.  Here you see no waving Native Americans or smiling Dutchman; the painting lacks all these -often portrayed- false sentiments. The painting just depicts a historical moment in time.

‘The American self-image that we revere is more closely tied to the open, entrepreneurial, self-reliant, tolerant, immigrant-driven colony that was New Netherland than to any of the other mythic forebearer colonies form Massachusetts bay to Jamestown, Botwinick says in the publication, Dutch New York: The Roots of Hudson Valley Culture,  that accompanies the exhibition. (Co-published by the Museum and Fordham University Press, and with an introduction by Russell Shorto).

Dutch New York: The Roots of Hudson Valley Culture is on view till January 10, 2010 at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers.
 

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