Initial 3D Visual Tour

Mapping Our New Amsterdam History Project

The New Amsterdam History Center (NAHC) has begun plans for a prototype of its Mapping Our New Amsterdam History Project – a pioneering three-dimensional, interactive map of New York’s “New Amsterdam as viewed by the Castello Plan”, the image of Old New York as it was in 1660.[i] The collections committee has been developing specifications for a prototype of a fully interactive virtual kiosk[ii] that can potentially provide people with access to a range of information on New Amsterdam – such as statistical and biographical data, historical photos, documents, individual oral histories, and artifacts. Visitors engage with the area below Wall Street as defined in the Landmarks Preservation Commission “Street Plan of New Amsterdam and Colonial New York” within the confines of the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam.[iii], [iv]

The primary purpose of the 3D modelling project is to spatialize and present information and theories about how New Amsterdam looked in the period of 1660 as the “capital” of New Netherland .

The spatialization and presentation involve two forms of communication. (1) knowledge that we have about the settlement will be used to reconstruct digitally how its topography, infrastructure, (streets, bridges, walls) and individual buildings and fort may have looked (2) whenever possible, the sources of archaeological information and speculative reasoning behind the digital reconstruction will be made available.

Thus the virtual project, or digital model, will be a representation about the present state of knowledge about the settlement as we currently know it. Beyond this primary purpose, it can be used to teach students or the general public about how it looked. It can be used to collect data about the built form, the natural features and cultural phenomenon. Finally, a digital model can easily be updated with new information or archaeological discovery.

The area is a striking reminder of New York’s colonial past and provides virtually the physical evidence in Manhattan of the Dutch presence in New York during the 17^th century.[v] The virtual tour of New Amsterdam will allow, by clicking on or “visiting” an address to not only see artifacts, photos, documents, and oral histories connected to that place, but also allow visitors to also submit their own personal accounts and memories of New Amsterdam and its environs from family histories that may be connected to this area. This format provides a new way of exploring and writing the history of New Netherland based Americans in New York and expands the public’s participation in the ongoing process of reclaiming and interpreting the community’s diverse cultures and histories.

Beginning in August 2004, the history center generated interest on the part of representatives from the Holland Society, The New Netherland Museum, The New Netherland Institute and the Collegiate Church Archives.

It established a website, created its by-laws, constitution and application for and received its provisional charter from the New York State Education Department in 2005

During 2007 it has held a workshop bringing together scholars of the New Netherland period and laid the groundwork for establishment of a scholarly advisory committee to ensure that any products of the NAHC can stand the test of criticism from the scholarly community.

The Mapping Our New Amsterdam History Project is expected to be a collaborative one. It’s the first project of its kind that the four principal partners of the NAHC have all worked on, and it is expected to further “raise the bar on so many levels: technical achievement, design creativity, and innovation in the ways we tell cultural and historical stories”[vi] about an area that has the richest collection of historical documentation available that is not well understood by the public at large.[vii]

Virtual reality technology will be used to see history in a new, interactive way. Integrating cutting edge technology with their extensive, growing archives. NAHC has embarked on an innovative approach to presenting and gathering the history of New Amsterdam to develop a computer simulated, photo-realistic model of New York’s New Amsterdam Through interactive menus, [visitors] will also be able to share their own stories and photos to these specific sites, making them a part of the documentation process to the project’s growing database.” It is expected that this community effort will be very similar to the Ellis Island’s Honor Wall methods of fund raising but is likely to capture the interest of those tourists and residents of the New York Metropolitan area that are seeking to confirm their genealogical roots 200 years earlier than immigrants who came through Ellis Island in the late 1800’s.

Rather than receiving a name on the wall, the NAHC expects to add new names and family histories and short biographies to its growing database of New Amsterdam’s family tree.[viii]

The core material will be drawn from the documentary evidence about New Amsterdam with particular focus on I.N. Phelps Stokes “Iconography of Manhattan Island” six volume work originally published in 1915-1928.

The Main purpose of this discussion is provide an overview of the project as it has been developing over the past two years relative to its content, structure and possible relationships with other educational projects.

The project is expected to benefit from the methods and procedures of a ten year effort to create the “The Virtual Jamestown Archive” which is a digital research, teaching and learning project that explores the legacies of the Jamestown settlement and "the Virginia experiment."

As a work in progress, Virtual Jamestown has been researching various methods to “shape the national dialogue on the occasion of the four hundred-year anniversary observance in 2007 of the founding of the Jamestown colony.”

The NAHC Project expects to build on this experience as well as others such as the Rome Reborn project of the University of Virginia and UCLA, A vision of virtual reality of ancient rome..

A unique vehicle that will not only serve as a repository of information, but also as a tool to solicit personal stories and memories of the neighborhood, the Mapping Our New Amsterdam History Project becomes a means by which community volunteers, students, residents and organizations can play a crucial role in helping to gather new information, images and artifacts on the New York’s New Amsterdam community. A recent example is the New Netherland Museum’s partnership with the New Netherland Institute and its ship the Half Moon to support the work of students from the area’s public schools by providing them a public venue for their experience on the Half Moon. The Mapping Our New Amsterdam History Project will add to the student experience that is now already operational through the New Netherland Museum’s Half Moon Voyages of Discovery.[ix]

The Mapping Our New Amsterdam History Project has received $300,000 in support from the Empire State Development Corporation. It is is expected to seek support from other sources such as the New York State Council on the Arts and National Trust for Historic Preservation. Project specification is already underway to create a Mapping Our New Amsterdam History Project kiosk that will be located at the emerging NAHC.

Initial Seed money for the Mapping Our New Amsterdam History Project has been made possible with the generous support of the Collegiate Church Corporation.[x] Additional grant support applications are in progress.

NAHC will employ a revolutionary approach to preserving the memory of place: the creation of highly detailed virtual reality models of historic places as a means to collect, present, experience, and spatially organize local neighborhood history. NAHC will develop a Virtual Reality environment focused on New Amsterdam. Through the application of 3D computer visualization technology traditionally used for military training applications and video games, the NAHC will explore new, interactive ways to recover the history of New Amsterdam through the power and experience of place. Imagine being able to walk virtually through a historic neighborhood as it exists today or a century ago in a fully realistic virtual environment, and then with the click of a mouse, look around, select any building to view historical facts, photos, stories, and videos linked to these selected sites, and add your own stories to these sites. The NAHC will applying the latest in 3D Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to virtually re-create historic New Amsterdam, link it to historic and cultural multimedia archives, and facilitate an experiential process that is accessible to the public on-site or on the web.

New Amsterdam expects to create a searchable archive/datatbase of digital images, artifacts, maps, rare documents, censuses, and other data for teachers, researchers, genealogists, students, and the general public who want to explore the meaning of New Amsterdam in the American experience

The following outlines the near-term steps the NAHC needs to consider now that it has obtained funding from the Empire State Development Corporation and Collegiate Church Corporation cash advance commitments. We have broken these steps into two distinct parts. The first part is Visioning and Strategy, which will help lay the groundwork of the future of the NAHC for years to come, and the second involves Virtual New Amsterdam, what is generally considered NAHC’s first exhibit and the feasibility study.

Phase One: Visioning and Strategy

The development of a virtual New Amsterdam makes sense for a place-based institution that does not yet have a permanent location, but the development of such an exhibit must be considered in context with long-term vision and comprehensive strategy for the institution. The exhibit will set the stage and provide a reference point for guiding the elements of the feasibility study. Consequently, Phase One considers developing a long-term vision for the institution and creating a strategy that will bring that vision to fruition. Relevant aspects of the Project Team recommendations will be presented to the NAHC Fundraising; Exhibitions, Events and Collections; and Location committees for review and comment as necessary.

New Amsterdam Thematic Views

Preliminary discussions with the NAHC Exhibitions, Events and Collections committee has identified the following ten views (expansive and close-ups) of New Amsterdam for consideration.

1) Prehistoric Lower Manhattan: View of lower Manhattan’s primal forest and terrain, swamps, brooks, shoreline inlets and rocky shoals. View includes a Native American path coursing to the southern tip of the island and extending to the oyster and clam shell mound, or midden, on the eastern shoreline (Pearl Street), an inlet [Broad Street], brook [Maiden Lane] and swamps [Beeckman and Lispenard] and lake [Collect Pond].

2) Early New Amsterdam ca. 1632

Includes Fort Amsterdam, a windmill on Broadway, a tannery mill on Mill Lane (First Collegiate Church), a barn on Pearl Street (second Collegiate Church), a few dozen houses, dock, Dutch West India Company warehouse.

3) New Amsterdam ca. 1660

Includes Fort Amsterdam (with finished Church in the Fort – the Third Collegiate Church), Costello Plan/de Sille village plan, Bridge Street, Stone Street, Pearl Street, Stadt Huys, Stuyvesant’s House, and The Wall.

4) Fort Amsterdam ca. 1664

5) Church In The Fort ca. 1647.[Exterior]

6) Church In The Fort ca. 1647 [Interior]

7) East River Dock and ship ca. 1660

8) Collect Pond ca. 1660

9) The Wall ca. 1653

10) Road To New Haarlem ca. 1658

[i] Glenn Collins ,“A Distant Urban Past Is Just a Local Stop” in Wired New York Forum, New York Times, April 28, 2004

[ii] It is expected that the kiosk will draw on the visual images that were created by the Museum of the City of New York’s “New York Begins” and the Brooklyn Museum’s “An Old House in the New World” on line curriculums.

[iii] New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, Street Plan of New Amsterdam and Colonial New York, June 14, 1983, Designation List 165 LP 1235, I.N. Stokes, New York Past and Present Its History and Landmarks 1524-1939, One Hundred Views Reproduced and Described From Old Prints, Ets., and Modern Photographs, Compiled from orginal sources for the New York Historical Society on the occasion of the New York World’s Fair 1939

[iv] Courtney A. Haff, “Land Market Understanding is the Basis for Smart Change” as a David C. Lincoln Fellow of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, April 2004 available on the web site http://www.lincolninst.edu/pubs/pub-detail.asp?id=868 describing the 400 Year History of Lower Manhattan’s land market and an econometric model of urban land value methodologies using Geographic Information Systems and power point presentation for course at Williams College, Winter 2005 available from the author by request.

[v] Collections of the Holland Society of New York, Vol. 5, Domine Selyns Records, New York, 1686, 1916, ; Kevin L. Stayton, Dutch by Design, Traditions and Change in Two Historic Brooklyn Houses, Brooklyn Museum, 1990, Harrison Meeske, The Hudson Valley Dutch and Their Houses, 1998.

[vi] The Museum of the Chinese in the Americas, Op.Cit.

[vii] www.nnp.org and Russell Shorto, Island at the Center of the World, 2004.

[viii] Immigrant Wall of Honor, www.ellisisland.org

[ix] See www.halfmoon.mus.ny.us

[x] See www.collegiatechurch.org

From its modest beginnings as a Dutch trading outpost at the beginning of the 17th century, New York City has had a rich and storied history. Around 1650, colonists from northern France and other parts of the Low Countries began to immigrate as well, creating both a multicultural population and a growing commercial base. Despite this diversity, the persistence of Dutch customs and styles remained strong into the eighteenth century, even after the English gained control of the colony in 1664. Dutch heritage is evident in the craft practices of the housewrights, furniture makers, and silversmiths who settled there, as well as in the products of their workshops.

Homes in Dutch cultural areas of colonial New York and New Jersey, and the functional and decorative objects that adorned them, are highly distinctive. In their style and methods of construction, these houses differ considerably form their counterparts in New England and Virginia, and derive directly from late medieval and Renaissance building traditions in the Netherlands and the Low Countries. In Manhattan, western Long Island, central New Jersey, and the upper Hudson Valley near Albany, houses were constructed of H-shaped wooden frames called "anchor-bents" that were arranged laterally in a series to create one or two first-floor rooms with an upper garret for storage. The spaces between the posts were filled with brick noggin to protect against air infiltration and the walls were covered with wide, sawn weatherboards or, in the most elaborate homes, a veneer of kiln-fired brick laid in distinctive patterns. In northern New Jersey and the central Hudson Valley, houses of the same essential plan as the frame houses were built, but with thick load-bearing masonry walls of local red sandstone and limestone.

In typical Netherlands style, colonial Dutch-American houses had steeply pitched single-gable roofs, leaded glass casement windows, and exterior doors—one in each room—split at the center so the upper section could be opened independently of the lower half to let in light and fresh air while simultaneously keeping children in and unwanted animals and vermin out of the house. These so-called Dutch doors continued in use until the Revolution, even in English-style center-hall houses with gambrel roofs. Also of Dutch origin were the jambless fireplace typically found in these houses (although because of their inefficiency, most had been removed by the mid-eighteenth century). Jambless fireplaces lacked "jambs" or the brick side walls that formed a firebox as in English-style fireplaces. Instead, they had wide, open hearths of red terracotta tiles that extended from the back wall well out into the room, and a massive hood that lazily directed smoke upward into a chimney that rested directly on the anchor beams in the garret above. Oftentimes the white plaster back walls of jambless fireplaces would be adorned with courses of imported blue and white or mulberry and white Dutch tiles.

Just as traditional Dutch-style houses were built in New Netherland and colonial New York and New Jersey, so too were distinctive Dutch furniture forms manufactured by immigrant joiners and turners and their apprentices in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Unfortunately, early furniture of relatively pure Dutch style is exceedingly rare. This is due to the steady and ever-increasing influence of Anglo furniture forms and styles after the English takeover of New Netherland in 1664, as well as the relatively low survival rate of inexpensive moveables from the early Dutch period. One quintessentially Dutch furniture form that held on as tenaciously as the "Dutch" door in colonial New York and New Jersey and survives today in considerable number is the kast. These large closetlike case pieces meant for the storage of linens and other textiles were often purchased as part of a young Dutch woman's uitzet, or outset of household goods and linens presented to her by her parents before her wedding. The kast's impressive scale and architectural character, as well as its highly valued contents, made it the most important piece of furniture in colonial Dutch-American households. Only a handful of the earliest seventeenth-century oak kasten are known, and there is a small but important group of painted examples that depict symbols of fecundity and good fortune associated with furniture made on the occasion of a marriage. Literally hundreds of eighteenth-century hardwood kasten survive, however, attesting to the powerful attraction this furniture form held for people of Dutch descent in colonial New York and New Jersey.

Silver coinage was scarce in seventeenth-century New York, encouraging the importation of wrought silver from abroad. Demand was brisk enough to attract the attention of pirates, who plundered enemy ships for booty and made their sponsors wealthy. By the 1680s and 1690s, colonial silversmiths were being commissioned to fashion such items as spoons, tankards, beakers, and two-handled cups for domestic use and display. Vessels for use in the Dutch Reformed churches constituted a significant part of the silversmith's trade, and in those objects the influence of the Netherlands remained especially strong.

The domestic silver that survives from colonial New York reflects a distinctive regional style, a merging of English, Dutch, and Northern European forms and ornament. Generally heavier and more capacious than silver produced in the other colonies, it is often enriched with ornamental devices such as engraving, embossing, or applied castings. The overall effect is one of boldness and luxury. Guided by imported objects, by immigrant craftsmen trained abroad, and by the demands and tastes of their patrons, the silversmiths of early New York crafted some of the most elaborate and substantial silver produced in colonial North America.

You can explore the city's past by visiting the history museums that are members of the New York City History Coalition, including South Street Seaport Museum. The members of the coalition represent all five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Through exhibitions, collections of artifacts, educational outreach programs and adult and children's programming, all of these institutions bring the past to life.

The Museums of Lower Manhattan

After visiting the 3D tour, please also consider visiting our neighboring institutions, the History and Heritage Downtown group of museums:

Friends of Hudson River Park

Join the Friends of Hudson River Park for talks, walks and boat rides at various locations in lower Manhattan, including Piers 25 and 40. Go to www.fohrp.org

Double Click on the underlined in blue links above to view their content.