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Join the Holland Museum, Van Raalte Institute, and Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Chicago for a special morning exploring the lasting Dutch influence on the United States. The program begins with check-in, breakfast bites, and an opportunity to mingle with fellow attendees before featuring presentations from acclaimed author Russell Shorto and professor Matthijs Tieleman. Together, they will examine how Dutch immigrants, culture, and political traditions helped shape America in its earliest years.Schedule Of Events:
9:30-10:00 am: Check-in, Breakfast Bites & Mingling
Start your morning with coffee, breakfast bites, and time to meet fellow attendees.
10:00-11:00 am: Taking Manhattan: How the Dutch Shaped America presented by Russell Shorto. Description: Before New York was New York, it was New Amsterdam: the capital of a small Dutch colony whose influence would far outlast its 40-year existence. This talk tells the story of New Netherland, from the Dutch taking of Manhattan Island from its Native inhabitants to the English wresting it from the Dutch. Along the way, the Dutch developed a remarkably diverse and commercially driven society. And while the English took over in 1664, they did so in a way that preserved much of what the Dutch had created, allowing traditions of pluralism, capitalism, and individual enterprise to survive and flourish. The result was a city unlike any other in English America, and a Dutch inheritance that would ultimately help shape the character of the United States.
11:00-11:15 am: Break
11:15-12:15 pm: Patriots in the Atlantic World: The Dutch and the American Revolution presented by Matthijs Tieleman. Description: The Boston Tea Party, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution: these moments in the history of the American Revolution have traditionally been viewed as exclusively American affairs. But what if the Dutch proved deeply entangled in these and many other founding events of the United States? In this talk, Matthijs Tieleman will discuss the profound connections between the American Patriots and their Dutch counterparts in the eighteenth century. He will examine how the Dutch shaped the American founding, and how the birth of the United States also ignited a revolution in the Netherlands.
12:15-12:30 pm: Group Discussion & Reflection
Continue the conversation with Phil Tanis, Director of the Van Raalte Institute, as he leads a group discussion reflecting on the morning’s presentations and the enduring connections between Dutch and American history.
12:30-1:00 pm: Book Signing
Meet Russell Shorto and have a book signed following the program. Copies of The Island at the Center of the World and Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America will be available for purchase. Attendees can also pre-order Professor Tieleman’s forthcoming book, The Patriot Atlantic: How the Americans, Dutch, and Irish Forged the Age of Revolution.
Cost: $10 per person for Holland Museum members, $20 for non-members
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Event venue
263 College Ave, Holland, MI 49423, United States
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