Resolution of the Chamber Amsterdam, 12 May 1652

Here and There in New Netherland Studies

New Amsterdam History Center Lecture

THE NEW AMSTERDAM History

Center hosted a presentation by Shaun Sayres on Mohawk-Dutch relations on Wednesday evening, February 5, 2020, at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery in Manhattan. St. Mark’s church dates to 1660, when West India Company New Netherland Director-General Petrus Stuyvesant built a chapel on the site near his country farm, then two miles from the city. Although the original chapel has been replaced, Stuyvesant’s remains lie in a sealed vault at St. Mark’s.

The title of Sayre’s PowerPoint presentation was “A Dangerous Liberty: Mohawk-Dutch Relations and the Colonial Gunpowder Trade, 1639–1665.” Mr. Sayres discussed how the Mohawks and Dutch engaged in cross-cultural interactions centered around the exchange of furs and gunpowder that culminated in the formation of a mutually beneficial partnership. According to Mr. Sayres, the resulting encounters and negotiations reveal a distinct arc of intertwined fates, outlining their shared rise, peak, and decline within a world embroiled in conflict. Ultimately, he suggests the Mohawks survived but the Dutch did

Legal Scholar and retired New York State Justice Albert Rosenblatt.

not, relinquishing New Netherland to the English without a shot in 1664.

Mr. Sayres is a doctoral student at Clark University specializing in colonial American history, the Atlantic world, and the age of revolutions. His dissertation research focuses on intercultural encounters, exchanges, and partnerships in the Atlantic world with special attention to New Netherland and seventeenth-century North America. The lecture was followed by a lively question-and-answer period and refreshments.

Jacob Leisler Institute Receives Rosenblatt Book Collection

FORMER NEW YORK State Supreme

Court Justice and noted legal scholar Albert Rosenblatt is donating his collection of books relating to the colonial history of New York to the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History. Mr. Rosenblatt is a retired judge of the New York Court of Appeals, a Judicial Fellow at New York University Law School, and former president of the Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York. He has written extensively on the history of law in New York. His works include The Judges of the New York Court of Appeals: A Biographical History (2007) and, with his wife Julia, the critically acclaimed Opening Statements: Law, Jurisprudence, and the Legacy of Dutch New York (2013).

The Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History is a research center devoted to colonial New York under English rule. From 1664 to 1773, New York Province’s diverse European settlements fused with American Indian and African populations into a cosmopolitan colonial territory with ties throughout the Atlantic World. The Institute focuses on this underexamined 109-year period in American history. The Institute’s library contains extensive genealogical records, original manuscripts, over 4,000 document photocopies written in Dutch, German, French, English, and Latin, microfilms, rare

Shaun Sayres speaking at the New Amsterdam History Center event in St. Mark’s in-the-Bowery.

91 books, prints, maps, and photographic and digital materials that cover the full extent of New York Province and go well beyond the Hudson River Valley.

In addition to a library and collection of material objects, the Institute contains a number of discrete collections relating to colonial New York and New Jersey. Among these collections are the papers of rebel New York governor Jacob Leisler, including administrative papers from Leisler’s government as well as family-related correspondence, Eric Nooter’s papers relating to the colonial history of Kings County, New York, the Kees-Jan Waterman Collection of materials relating to the EuropeanAmerican Indian fur trade of the colonial Hudson and Mohawk valleys, the Antonia Kolb Collection of materials relating to the Leisler family in Europe, and the Mary Hallenbeck Collection relating to colonial Claverack, New York. Judge Rosenblatt’s donation substantially adds to the Institute’s holdings of books, papers, and illustrative materials.

The Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History is located in Hudson, New York. It is open to the public by appointment. For further information contact info@jacobleislerinstitute.org.

Society Activities

Holland Society’s Hugo Grotius Collection

HOLLAND SOCIETY Executive Director Sarah Bogart Cooney and de Halve Maen Editor David William Voorhees met with Jane Siegel, librarian for the Rare Books and Manuscripts Division, in Columbia University’s Butler Library on February 5, 2020, to check on the status of the Holland Society’s Hugo Grotius Collection. The collection was purchased by Robert Barnwell Roosevelt from Bom and Bom Book Dealers in Amsterdam in 1890 and donated by Mr. Roosevelt to The Holland Society in that year. The collection consists of 137 historical, legal, theological, and literary works published in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, some early editions by Hugo Grotius’s works and others published after

From left to right: David Conklin, Holland Society President Andrew Terhune,

Dr. Daniel F. Van Riper, Daniel S. Van Riper, and James Lansing.

his death. There is an additional supplement of 146 assorted seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth-century Dutch books. This collection has been on a deposit loan at Columbia University from the Holland Society Library for many decades. It is there classified in Dewey with the letter “H” preceding the call number and is indexed in the card catalog. The collection is well cared for and available to view upon request.

Florida Branch Meeting

THE FLORIDA BRANCH of The

Rare Books and Manuscripts Division, Butler Library, Columbia University, Manhattan.

Holland Society of New York met on February 8, 2020. A business meeting and luncheon were held at the magnificent Naples Lakes Country Club in Naples, Florida. Naples also is the community in which Holland Society president Andrew Terhune resides. Following luncheon, President Terhune gave an update on the current state of the Holland Society and reviewed upcoming changes and developments. Discussion, suggestions, and reminiscences followed.

In Memoriam

Donald Lucas Burhans II

Holland Society of New York Member Donald “Skip” Lucas Burhans II of Peoria, Illinois, died on Sunday, October 20, 2019, as the result of a traffic accident. Mr. Burhans was born on August 14, 1950, in Peoria, Illinois, son of Dr. Donald Burhans and Bobette Lyon. He claimed descent from Jacob Burhans, who emigrated to New Netherland from Einingen, Brabant, as a West India Company solider and settled at Wiltwijck, present-day Kingston. Mr. Burhans joined the Holland Society on April 6, 2019.

Mr. Burhans attended Richwoods High School in Peoria, Illinois. He received a B.A. with a major in classics from Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, and a master’s in library science from Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois. He spent 1970–1971 studying abroad as a College Year in Athens student.

Mr. Burhans was a librarian during his career. He specialized in electronic and digital library technologies. He was employed as Access Services/Education Librarian with the rank of Assistant Professor at CullomDavid Library, Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois. Among his publications is “Serving the Information Need of the International and Minority Students at the Small College Library: A Librarian’s View,” in Resources in Education 27, vol. 1.

Mr. Burhans married Roberta Anne Davilla on August 3, 1985, at the Episcopal cathedral in Peoria. The couple has a daughter Kaitlin Burhans, born on September 28, 1986, in Galesburg, Illinois.

In addition to his interest in genealogy, Mr. Burhans was a gun collector and a member of the Galesburg Gun Club. An avid swimmer. He was a lettered member of the Richwoods High School and also a member of the Wabash College swim team.

Mr. Burhans is survived by his daughter Kaitlin Beaumont of Denver, Iowa, who is also a member of The Holland Society of New York, and four grandchildren. A visitation was held at The Wilton Mortuary, Peoria, Illinois, on October 26, 2019. A graveside service took place at Springdale Cemetery on November 16, 2019, with a celebration of life following at Lariat Steakhouse in Peoria.

serve The Holland Society Archives serve as a repository of institutional memory, with records, publications, photographs, audiovisual recordings, and other materials that document the history of the Society, and collections that may be useful to members in their research.

This collection contains 918 items comprising 34,767 images.

Have you registered for an account for our online archive? We have been working with Hudson Archival to digitize our extensive Society and historical archive. We have maps, deceased member files, banquet photos, Society records, historic documents such as indenture certificates (pictured), and much more. You can go through and transcribe documents, tag family members or friends in old banquet photos, and create lists for your own research. You can access the online archive at hsny.localarchives.net. If you do not have an account, please email the office at info@hollandsociety.org.