Albany High School students scrub State Street in preparation for Tulip Fest. Honoring Dutch tradition, Albany High School students scrub State Street in preparation for Tulip Fest, an annual celebration of the city’s Dutch heritage. To learn more, visit the Dutch Settlers Society of Albany website.

New Netherland was a Dutch colony from 1614 to 1664, about 50 years. In 1664, the English took the colony from the Dutch by force–even though the two countries were not at war and few if any shots were fired.

Even after New Netherland became an English possession, Dutch settlers remained, and life in the colony did not much change. It remained distinctively Dutch. Decades after the English seizure, many settlers continued to speak the Dutch language and to live as they had in the past.

In the former New Netherland, Dutch influence can still be felt. Many famous Americans–including three US presidents–are descendants of those early settlers. We can also thank the Dutch for cookies, Santa Claus, pancakes, and coleslaw, traditions that they began centuries earlier and that we still enjoy today. Most importantly, a distinctive culture of diversity, entrepreneurship, religious tolerance, and global engagement remains in the region where the Dutch once ruled.