New Netherland Research Center
In November 2010, the New Netherland Research Center at the New York State Library opened to the public.
In 1974, the New Netherland Project began to translate and transcribe the 12,000 pages of Dutch-language administrative records from the archives of New Netherland, now in the collections of the New York State Archives and Albany County Hall of Records. The New Netherland Research Center continues this work.
Visiting The New Netherland Research Center (NNRC)
The NNRC is located on the 7th floor of the New York State Library in Albany’s Cultural Education Center (222 Madison Avenue). Along with research materials, it features reproductions of key documents such as the Schagen letter on Manhattan’s “purchase” and the Rensselaerswijck deed, prints by artist Len Tantillo, and periodic New Netherland artifact exhibits from the New York State Museum.
To explore the collection.
- The New York State Library catalog → Power Search→ and select NETHERLAND from the “location.”
- Browse the Zotero Report.
- Or download the Excel spreadsheet. (enable Editing→Home→Find and Select to search.)
Materials are non-circulating and must be used onsite.
New Netherland Resources at the Cultural Education Center
The State Archives, State Library, and State Museum—together forming the Office of Cultural Education (OCE)—house the nation’s largest repository of New Netherland documents, artifacts, and special collections. Located in Albany’s Cultural Education Center, these institutions preserve:
- State Archives: the world’s largest collection of original New Netherland records, including West India Company documents used in the New Netherland Project translations.
- • State Museum: extensive Dutch-era artifacts from the upper Hudson Valley and New Amsterdam.
- • State Library: complementary research collections.
Through exhibitions, programs, and research access, the OCE advances knowledge of New York’s human and natural history, serving the public, educators, and scholars statewide and beyond.
New Netherland Resources at the Cultureal Education Center
Status of the New Netherland Research Center Translation Project
New Netherland Project Collections
Over three decades, the Project gathered published and unpublished works on the Dutch in the New World and the 17th century. These materials are cataloged in a Citations Database, accessible through The Zotero Report. Researchers may also download the full collection as a Zotero Report PDF of the NNRC Collection
The Schiltkamp Collection
In 2011, Jacob Adriaan Schiltkamp’s wife and children donated his holdings of 600 books and rare print materials relating to the 17th-century Caribbean and the Dutch in the Atlantic World to the New York State Library. The collection includes the original records from Petrus Stuyvesant’s tenure as director of Curaçao. Many of the books are available at the NNRC. Rare books and historic documents can be accessed in the Rare Book Room of the Library.
