RETURN TO MANHATTAN: 400th ANNIVERSARY OF HENRY HUDSON'S VOYAGE

Rijksmuseum

Starting on 31 March, Rijksmuseum in collaboration with the Dutch archives service Nationaal Archief will exhibit various documents related to the establishment of the Dutch colony New Netherland and the trading post New Amsterdam – which later became New York City – at the beginning of the 17th century. One of the highlights of the exhibition Return to Manhattan (Weerzien met Manhattan) is undoubtedly Nationaal Archief’s Schaghenbrief letter from 1626. One of the earliest documents to mention the purchase of Manhattan, the island on which New Netherland was established, the Schaghenbrief letter is not only evidence of the agreement concluded between the local population and the Dutch in 1626, but also of the first children born to the pioneers in the Dutch colony. Henry Hudson’s discovery of Manhattan Island 400 years ago, as an explorer working for the Dutch East India Company (VOC), will be celebrated this year.

The exhibition also includes the oldest map to show Manhattan as an island (1614) and the famous cityscape of New Amsterdam by Johannes Vingboons from circa 1665. In addition to these unique historical documents from Nationaal Archief, two 17th-century prints of an indigenous man and woman by Wenceslaus Hollar will be on display, as well as part of the famous Blaeu Atlas from the collection of the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap (Royal Antiquarian Society).