Charles Gehring Translated Arcane 17th-century Dutch to Explain Albany’s History
An unmatched expert in the language of New Netherland, Gehring is retiring after 50 year interpreting colonial Dutch to explain the lives of New York’s earliest European settlers.
Gehring’s translations fill 18 thick volumes and are published by Syracuse University Press. His work has helped scholars and historians transform our understanding of the founding of America by writing an origin story that predates the Pilgrims and reclaims New York’s long-neglected Dutch roots.
“I literally fell into this work,” said Gehring, who wears quadrifocal eyeglasses to combat severe eye strain deciphering 400-year-old scrawl. He is stooped with age and speaks in a rumbling baritone that morphs into a phlegmy, guttural sound when pronouncing old Dutch words.
The fact that the documents — correspondence, court cases, legal contracts and municipal records — survived across four centuries is miraculous. The dense stacks of papers and ledgers endured battles, revolts, gnawing by rats drawn to paper paste, leaky ship holds, creeping mildew, seizure by the English and a catastrophic 1911 state Capitol fire that burned away large sections and destroyed scores of pages.
