Alida Livingston’s World

2022 New Netherland Institute Annual Conference

Alida Livingston's World: Women in New Netherland and Early New York

October 1, 2022

In Conjunction with the New-York Historical Society

View the video of the conference

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CONFERENCE PROGRAM:

Much of our energy over the past months has been directed toward planning our beloved New Netherland Institute conference, a fixture of the fall schedule for many years. We're pleased to be able to return to an in-person event this year after a two-year hiatus. At the same time, we've learned a great deal from the past couple of years, and we know that our members value the flexibility of online accessibility. This year's conference, "Alida Livingston's World: Women in New Netherland and Early New York" will be a hybrid event. It will be held at the New-York Historical Society and live-streamed via the New-York Historical Society's website. Full details are provided below. We thank the New-York Historical Society, the New Amsterdam Project, and the Dutch Consulate in New York for working with us to put this blockbuster event together, and I hope to see many of you in New York City in October. ~ Deborah Hamer, NNI Director

Explore the lives of women--Dutch, African, Indigenous, and English--who shaped and built New Netherland and colonial New York in the 17th and 18th centuries. Presented in partnership with the New Amsterdam Project and the Center for Women's History at New-York Historical Society, this conference will feature two panel conversations and a keynote address inspired by the on-going translation of the papers of Alida Schuyler Livingston (1656-1727), an elite Dutch woman who exerted substantial influence over colonial politics, economics, and diplomacy. Her correspondence with her husband Robert Livingston (1654-1728) represents one of the most significant collections of women's writing in 17th-Century North America. Leading historians and scholars will use Livingston's surviving letters, business records, accounts, and documents to unearth the impact of women, including those enslaved by the Livingston family and those indigenous to the region, on the history of the Dutch and later British colony.

The conference will be held on Saturday, October 1^st, from 1-6pm, in the Robert H. Smith Auditorium at the New-York Historical Society (170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024). A streaming option is also available.

Tickets for both the in-person and streaming events are available through New-York Historical Society's website (nyhistory.org under "Programs") and by phone (212-485-9268, 9-5 daily. You may also purchase tickets in person during business hours. CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS.

Conference Program

1:00-1:10pm

Welcome from Deborah Hamer, NNI Director

1:10-2:15pm

"The Correspondence of Alida Livingston and Early American Women's History" with panelists Russell Shorto (moderator), Director of the New Amsterdam Project at the New-York Historical Society; Valerie Paley (chair), Senior Vice President and Sue Ann Weinberg Director Patricia D. Klingenstein Library at the New-York Historical Society; Jos van der Linde, translator, Alida and Robert Livingston Correspondence; and Charles Gehring, Director of the New Netherland Research Center

2:15-2:30

Break

2:30-3:45pm

Alida Livingston in Context: Women in New Netherland and Colonial New York" with panelists Deborah Hamer (moderator); Cynthia Kierner, Professor of History, George Mason University; Nicole Maskiell, Associate Professor of History, University of South Carolina; Erin Kramer, Assistant Professor of History, Trinity University; and Andrea Mosterman, Associate Professor, Joseph Tregle Endowed Professor in Early American History, University of New Orleans

4:00-5:00

Keynote Address by Joy Bivins, Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

5:00-6:00

Reception