Four hundred years ago, the Dutch founded a small trading outpost on Manhattan Island. At that same moment, a parallel shift was taking place in European art, science, and philosophy. Join Russell Shorto, Director of the New Amsterdam Project at The New York Historical and co-curator of the Old Masters, New Amsterdam exhibition, for a lecture about the global forces that shaped Manhattan. Shorto will look beyond the canvases of Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Jan Steen, to explore contemporaneous breakthroughs in Dutch society.

New York City Hall

New York Historical

The Robert H. Smith Auditorium at The New York Historical

Dutch Roots: Art, Innovation, and the Creation of New York

Russell Shorto is the author of the bestsellers Smalltime, Revolution Song, Amsterdam, and The Island at the Center of the World. His most recent book is TAKING MANHATTAN: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America. He is the director of the New Amsterdam Project at the New York Historical and senior scholar at the New Netherland Institute. In 2009 he was given a knighthood by the Dutch government for advancing Dutch-American historical awareness. In 2018 he was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame.

Sandy Lazo of New Amsterdam History Center, speaking at ‘It Happened Here - 1600’s Symposium: The Beginning of the City’ on July 3, 2025

Jaap Jacobs of University of St. Andrews, speaking at ‘It Happened Here - 1600’s Symposium: The Beginning of the City’ on July 3, 2025

Russel Shorto speaking at ‘It Happened Here - 1600’s Symposium: The Beginning of the City’ on July 3, 2025

Dutch Roots: Art, Innovation, and the Creation of New York

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