Deborah Hamer, Director of the New Netherland Institute, speaks with historian and historical translator Dirk Mouw on his research, the early congregations and religious life in New Amsterdam, and the continuing legacy of the church, now known as the Reformed Church in America.

Scholar Jaap Jacobs, currently working on a Society of Daughters of Holland Dames funded translation project, joins Russell Shorto to talk about the work of translating these documents, new information yet to be uncovered, as well as Petrus Stuyvesant, who Jacobs is researching for his upcoming biography.

Deborah Hamer, Director of the New Netherland Institute, and Josephine Bloodgood, Director of Curatorial and Preservation Affairs at HHS, explore some of the exciting discoveries made through digitization of the community’s earliest documents.

Ian Stewart, owner of New Netherland Timber Framing and Preservation, and Russell Shorto, director of the New Amsterdam Project, discuss Ian's 20+ year career working on historic buildings and heritage sites. From Dutch barns to 17th-century homes, discover how we are still preserving New Netherland's architecture all across the country—even in Texas!

Christian Koot, author of "A Biography of a Map in Motion: Augustine Herman’s Chesapeake "(2017), and Deborah Hamer discuss how maps were made, what was distinct about the Dutch tradition of mapping, and how maps were much more than neutral depictions of borders and terrain.

Russell Shorto, curator of "New York Before New York: The Castello Plan of New Amsterdam," and Deborah Hamer, Director of the New Netherland Institute, take a closer look at life in New Amsterdam through the Castello Plan.

Four centuries ago, what had been a Lenape-speaking archipelago suddenly became New Amsterdam—a crossroads of Native American, European, and African cultures. Here, 18 languages were reported as being spoken within the first few decades, and the number is likely far greater.

Slavery, race, community, and family were vital to the history and development of colonial New Amsterdam and New York. Examining familial and community networks of diverse women, especially enslaved women, reveals multiracial and dynamic connections among ordinary people who shaped the trajectory of the city’s history.

What happened to Dutch traders and leaders in New Netherland after they surrendered to the British in 1664? Dutch colonists were able to maintain regional power based on the relationships that they had built with Indigenous nations in the previous decades.

After journalist Debra Bruno discovered that her Dutch ancestors were enslavers, she contacted the descendants of the people her family enslaved. Would connecting with the descendants bring anyone healing? She described the details of her journey for the Washington Post Magazine in 2020. Bruno joins writer Russell Shorto to talk about her archival research and record finding, what it meant to publish her family history, and how she’s turning it all into a book.

What did people in New Amsterdam eat? Africans, Native Americans, and a range of Europeans relied on many of the same ingredients but used them in different ways. Watch this conversation with culinary historian Lavada Nahon and writer Russell Shorto about the history of these foodways in New Amsterdam and the legacies they left behind.

Marked by periods of regional cooling in the North Atlantic extending from the 16th to 18th centuries, the Little Ice Age presented challenges to Dutch colonists living in New Netherland. Research shows weather during the Little Ice Age was irregular with sometimes harsh winters, dry growing seasons, floods, and failed harvests. But there were also many years without a noteworthy climate event.