Dutch Renaissance - Translations Unveil America's Forgotten Past

A “ghost colony” comprising much of what is now the northeastern United States.  A horrifying shipwreck claiming the lives of 86 innocent souls.  Revolutionary turmoil in a young, upstart nation.  And a fiery conflagration in which an elderly Civil War veteran dies a heroic death.  Peter Douglas’s “Dutch Renaissance” contains all these stories and more in a gripping tale of how the official documents of the New Netherland colony somehow mostly survived against all odds for nearly four centuries.  Douglas also describes the fascinating work of Dr. Charly Gehring, who labored over the past half-century translating the remaining records from 17^th Century Dutch, bringing the colony back to life in its own words.  It is a remarkable story, superbly told by Peter Douglas in this spellbinding account.

Coming out as Dr. Gehring retires, this update and extension to a 2009 publication is a fitting tribute to the ambitious endeavor he undertook in 1974 to translate and publish the surviving documents from the seventeenth century Dutch New World colony of New Netherland.

Available from the New Netherland Institute for $12.  To order email NNI at nni@newnetherlandinstitute.org.