Press

ALBANY, NY – A cooperative agreement between the New York State Museum and the South Street Seaport Museum provides for the continued preservation and accessibility of 2 million New York City artifacts and gives the State Museum the largest archaeological collection from the Dutch colony of New Netherland.

The South Street Seaport Museum will transfer to the State Museum title to a collection of artifacts representing more than 300 years of Manhattan history -- including the Dutch New Amsterdam, English colonial and early American Republic periods. The collection will help to fill a void in the State Museum’s archaeology collection of over 2 million artifacts that span the entire period of human occupation in New York State. Previously, New York City was underrepresented in the collection that includes artifacts from every county in the state.

“This collection will now be under the umbrella of the University of the State of New York and its institutions – the State Museum, Library and Archives – which work together to document and preserve New York’s history,” said Chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents Robert M. Bennett. “The collection fills a significant gap and provides the basis for a broader, more complete interpretation of this period of the state’s history.”

“These important artifacts will enrich and enlarge the valued collections that already exist on New Netherland at the State Museum, Library and Archives, and provide a treasure trove of resources in one location at the Cultural Education Center (CEC),” said state Education Commissioner Richard Mills. “Scientists and students will have access to this collection but it also will be used for public exhibitions and programs and be available for loan to other cultural institutions.”

The decision to transfer the collection from New York City came a year after financial concerns forced the South Street Seaport Museum to downsize its staff in June 2004, including laying off its archaeologist. This left the archaeology collection without an experienced archaeologist to oversee its care. After subsequent attempts to obtain additional funding during the summer and early fall
of 2004 were unsuccessful, it was decided to look for a new home for the collection.

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“South Street Seaport Museum is deeply indebted to the staff and directors of the New York State Museum for helping us to affect this transfer,” said Paula Mayo, executive director of the South Street Seaport Museum. “We are delighted with the new home for this extraordinary collection, where it will be accessible to scholars and other researchers.”

“The South Street Seaport Museum was faced with a very difficult decision and should be commended for its responsible stewardship and careful consideration of how best to preserve and protect this valuable collection, while also ensuring its accessibility,” said Museum Director Dr. Clifford Siegfried. “This acquisition will complement the State Museum’s own collection of over 500,000 artifacts obtained from urban excavations in Albany and make the Museum the primary source of archaeological materials for New Netherland.”

The Seaport collection resulted from excavations at a dozen archaeological sites throughout New York City, particularly lower Manhattan, during the past two decades. One of them was the Broad Street Financial Center site, which was excavated in 1983 and where archaeologists discovered trash deposits in the backyards of Holland natives who settled in New Amsterdam in the 1600s. Another was the Assay site, which was excavated in 1984 along Front Street, between Old Slip and Gouverneur Lane, and revealed the wharfs built after the American Revolution that created the New York City waterfront.

The artifacts in the collection include items from everyday life, as well as merchandise from all over the world that had been shipped to the bustling trade center. Included are china cups and glass bottles, pewter plates and spoons, buttons, pins, shoe buckles, building fixtures, glass beads, clay pipes, an ivory comb, wig curlers, woman’s hairbrush and child’s toy boat.

The artifacts will be housed at the CEC, which offers many other resources for the study of the history and archeology of New Netherland, which includes the state’s Hudson Valley. The State Archives (www.archives.nysed.gov) has 12,000 pages of colonial Dutch governmental records dating from 1638-1670. In 1999, as part of a White House Millennium Council initiative, these records were named an official project of Save America’s Treasures, and the State Archives received $80,000 to conserve the collection. The State Library’s New Netherland project transcribes, translates and publishes Dutch documents in New York repositories relating to the 17th century colony of New Netherland (http://www.nnp.org/.) Researchers have access to early printed books, as well as family papers and land documents of influential Dutch colonists through the Manuscripts and Special Collections unit of the Library (). The State Museum also has the Colonial Albany Social History Project http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/welcome.html).that provides information on the people of colonial Albany and their world.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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