Live From New Amsterdam: The Ancient House

Presented live on Zoom

FREE

Although New Amsterdam has often been the focus in histories of New Netherland, Albany was a center of Dutch-Indigenous trade and diplomacy. Its importance continued long after the English Conquest in 1664.  Calling it “the ancient house,” the Haudenosaunee made Albany into a place where they negotiated with Dutch settlers, and, as a result, it became a shared space between the communities. Join New Netherland Institute director Deborah Hamer for a discussion with Dr. Erin Kramer about her new book The Ancient House: Constructing Community in the Seventeenth-Century New York Borderlands (UNC Press, 2026), which explores how Albany was established as a center of cooperation between the Dutch and the Haudenosaunee.

Dr. Erin Kramer

Dr. Erin Kramer is an Associate Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

She is is a historian of early America whose research examines how Indigenous communities experienced and responded to settler colonialism, and how Indigenous nations affected colonial development. She is the author of The Ancient House: Constructing Community in the Seventeenth-Century New York Borderlands, which was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2026. Her article, “‘That she shall be forever banished from this country’: Alcohol, Sovereignty, and Social Segregation in New Netherland,” published in Early American Studies in 2022, won both the John M. Murrin Article Prize from the McNeil Center for Early American Studies and the Clague and Carol Van Slyke Article Prize from the New Netherland Institute, as well as Honorable Mention for the Essay/Article Award from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender. She is currently working on a second book, a comparative study of the roles of water and irrigation in early American colonial expansion and Indigenous resistance.

Deboarah Hamer Executive Director, the New Netherland Institute

Deborah Hamer is Director of the New Netherland Institute, where she is responsible for initiatives aimed at identifying, preserving, digitizing, and translating Dutch language documents in repositories around the world. She is a historian of the Dutch Atlantic world and received her Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Live From New Amsterdam is an ongoing series hosted by the New Netherland Institute and the New Amsterdam Project at The New York Historical. Through vibrant conversations with scholars and historians, each program will investigate new and exciting research related to New Amsterdam, New Netherland, and the lasting legacies of Dutch rule in New York.

Live From New Amsterdam is presented in partnership with the New Netherland Institute.

Location:

Presented live on Zoom

Ticket Instructions:

Online: Click on the “Register” button at the top of this page. If you need assistance, please send an email to libraryprogram@nyhistory.org. Please note registration closes two hours prior to the program start time.

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All programs in the Live From New Amsterdam series will be recorded and made available online soon after the program date.