Neighbors in the New World: New Netherland and New France

An international team of scholars has been assembled for the 31^st Annual Rensselaerswijck Seminar September 13 by the New Netherland Institute (NNI) in Albany.

"Neighbors in the New World: New Netherland and New France" is the theme of the seminar, featuring speakers from the Netherlands and Canada, as well as from Colorado, Massachusetts and Michigan.

Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. at the New York State Museum's Kenneth B. Clark Auditorium. The pre-registration fee is $50, or $30 for students. Registration at the door will be $60. Information and registration are available at http://www.nnp.org or by telephoning the institute's office at (518) 486-4815.

The seminar is also supported by the Consulate General of The Netherlands in New York. Consul General H. Gaius Scheltema will be a guest speaker at the dinner following the seminar.

Sessions will illuminate the relationship between the Dutch and France in 17th-century North America and focus on interactions of these European powers and their Indian allies following the voyage of exploration of Henry Hudson in 1609.

José António Brandão of Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich., will open with "An Unreasonable Offer: Iroquois Policy towards their Huron and Mahican Neighbors" at 10:30 a.m.

"In Between Worlds: New Netherland and New France at Mid Century" is the topic of James Bradley of ArchLink, Boston, Mass.

Conrad Heidenreich of York University, Ontario, Canada, will analyze Samuel Champlain in "The Skirmish with the Mohawk on Lake Champlain: was Champlain a ‘trigger-happy thug' or ‘just following orders'?"

The Hendricks Manuscript Award will be introduced by Joyce Goodfriend of the University of Denver, Colo. The award is given to the best published or unpublished book-length manuscript relating to any aspect of the Dutch colonial experience in North America. Endowed by Dr. Andrew A. Hendricks, the award carries a prize of $2,000 and the distinction of being named a Fellow of the New Netherland Institute.

Willem Frijhoff of the Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, will talk about "Jesuits, Calvinists, and Natives: Attitudes, Agency, and Encounters in the Early Christian Missions to the North" noting that the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson's 1609 exploration coincides with Samuel Champlain's voyage on the lake that bears his name.

The annual NNI Reception and Dinner will be held in the 4^th Floor Terrace Gallery of the New York State Museum in the Cultural Education Center beginning at 5:00 p.m. Institute staff members will speak about the work of the New Netherland Project and the institute.

The NNI is the support organization of the New Netherland Project. The project, located at the New York State Library in Albany, is actively translating and publishing some 12,000 pages of correspondence, court cases, legal contracts and reports from the Dutch colonial period in New Netherland.