Celebrating 400th Anniversary of Henry Hudson’s Historic Voyage from Amsterdam to what is now known as New York
On April 4, 1609, the English navigator Henry Hudson — an Englishman hired by the Dutch left Amsterdam harbor to search for a shortcut to Asia. Hudson’s instructions from the Dutch East India Company were to sail east, as he had done on two earlier voyages that were blocked as a result of Arctic ice.
The 400th anniversary of Hudson’s departure will be celebrated starting this week in Amsterdam, at the Rijksmuseum and in Manhattan, at the South street Seaport Museum. In New York the exhibition includes 275 artifacts in an installation that evokes the hull of Hudson’s 85-foot-long ship, the Half Moon. It will remain open through the end of September, which is when New York City and New York State will formally commemorate the anniversary of Hudson’s arrival.
In Amsterdam the exhibit of the former Dutch colony (1626 en 1667), know as "New Amsterdam" is at the famous Rijksmuseum until June 1,2009, open daily from 9.00 am to 6.00 pm. Among the numerous historical artifacts on display will be the famous letter of purchase of Manhattan by the Dutch for 60 guilders.
New York is still home to about 25,000 people who claim Dutch ancestry, but that is fewer than most other ethnic groups living there now. Much of the Dutch legacy today seems tied to the sponsorship of the New York City Marathon by ING, the Dutch financial group, to renewed interest in windmills to meet energy needs, and in surviving names derived from the Dutch, including Yankee and Roosevelt. Part of New York’s Dutch heritage are also Bowling, the Bowery, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Harlem, Stuyvesant Town, the Yankees, the Roosevelts and Coleslaw.
The focus of the website is on: The USA and the Netherlands: Two Countries, One Spirit, United by Values, History and a Vision of the Future.
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