From Gothic Window to Kloosterkozijn
“From Gothic Window to Kloosterkozijn.
The Importance of Primary Sources
in Understanding the Material Culture of the Settlers of New Netherland”
Annual Meeting of the Friends of New Netherland
January 21, 2006
Jeroen van den Hurk
Copyright 2006
[Please do not cite, quote, or circulate without written permission from the author]
In 1621, the Dutch West India Company (WIC) received its charter from the States General for parts of West Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and a section of North America, to interfere with Spanish interests. Colonization remained a byproduct of this charter but in 1624, the WIC did make its first serious attempts to settle its North American territory, known as New Netherland, to establish the permanent fur trade with the American Indians of the region.
The forty years of Dutch rule of New Netherland ended with the surrender of the colony to the English on September 8, 1664. Regardless of the fact that the English took control of the territory, signs of Netherlandic culture lasted well into the eighteenth century. Its most visible manifestation is the so-called Dutch Colonial architecture.
