State History

Excerpt written by Paul Grondhal of the Times Union

The Dutch officials acknowledged that some of the finest collections of 17th- and 18th-century Dutch records, correspondence and artifacts reside in the State Library, State Archives and State Museum that share the Cultural Education Center at the Plaza's southern edge.

Because of this, the Dutch government invested tens of thousands of dollars through the National Archives of the Netherlands to scan and digitize roughly 13,000 documents in the state's possession. Those documents now can be searched for free by researchers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Schuwer and Hogewoning said they'd been fascinated with Albany, in particular, after they both read Russell Shorto's best-selling 2004 history, "The Island at the Center of the World." Much of Shorto's research was conducted at the State Library, with the assistance of scholar and translator Charles Gehring, founder of the New Netherland Research Center. He and assistant director Janny Venema have translated more than 7,000 pages of original 17th-century New Netherland documents in state collections, many of which suffered fire, smoke and water damage in a 1911 state Capitol blaze.

"It's very nice that we finally got this visit after trying for decades," said Venema, who is Dutch.

"It's great to see their interest in Dutch colonial history and to celebrate the legacy of tolerance and diversity they left here," said State Archivist Thomas Ruller, who displayed the Flushing Remonstrance of 1657, a seminal document that proclaimed the necessity of religious freedom in Flushing, Long Island after Quakers were barred from the town.

"Our shared heritage distinctly defines us as New Yorkers," said Mark Schaming, State Museum director, who showed the Dutch visitors some of the thousands of Colonial-era artifacts, including art work and ceramics.