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Dutch Renaissance: The Story of the New Netherland Project

Recipient of the 

New York Library Association Government Information Roundtable's 2009 NYS Notable Documents Awards.

The purpose of this booklet by Peter A. Douglas, published in the series Annals of New Netherland, a publication series developed by the New Netherland Institute, formerly Friends of the New Netherland Project, is to enhance awareness of the Dutch history of colonial America .

Dutch Renaissance recounts the story of the New Netherland Project, established in 1974, in the Project's objective to transcribe, translate, and publish the official records of the Dutch West India Company in the seventeenth-century colony of New Netherland in America .

Prior to the availability of these records in English, historians were unable to access the primary source materials for this period. Consequently, until recently, the Dutch colonial period has largely been ignored, shortchanged, or misrepresented. With only English primary sources to rely on following the demise of New Netherland in 1674, the result was an incomplete and unbalanced perception of this formative period in American history.

The essay looks at the problems encountered by the Project, both in its financial security and in producing the translations themselves. Some of these problems stem from the many hazards to which the documents were exposed in more than three centuries. The impact of their poor condition on the process of translation is examined.

There is a brief overview of early translation attempts, which were abbreviated and, in many cases, flawed and selective. The New Netherland Project is making the first thorough, systematic, and long-term effort to make available in English the official documents of New Netherland . The promotion, dissemination, study, and scholarly use of this material is allowing America’s Dutch period to be restored and included in new history books and curricula.

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