The New Amsterdam Project
The New Amsterdam Project explores New York's origins and connects critical themes from that formative period—including tolerance and intolerance, capitalism, and water—to our world today.
New York has always been the engine of American ideas and innovation. Before the skyscrapers, before Seinfeld and Central Park, was the Dutch city of New Amsterdam. The Dutch brought capitalism in its early form and a groundbreaking policy of tolerance, laying the foundation for the world’s most dynamic metropolis. They also brought slavery, and in other ways failed to live up to their own ideals. Eventually, those ideals—and failures—became ours. At the same time, the Dutch were pioneers of water management, engineering dikes to stop flooding and canals that became waterways and later streets.
Today, we face crises in these same areas: of intolerance, inequality, and climate upheaval. Exploring New York’s roots reminds us of our values. The aim of the New Amsterdam Project, under the direction of author and historian Russell Shorto, is to connect the past to the present, and point the way forward.
Events and Resources
A monthly series of conversations with scholars investigating what life was like in the Dutch city that predated New York.
This groundbreaking 2026 exhibition used masterpieces by Rembrandt and his contemporaries to give a sense of what New Amsterdam looked like.
On his "For the Ages" podcast, David Rubenstein interviewed Russell Shorto about his book on the merger of English and Dutch elements that formed America’s greatest city.
A two-day symposium in May 2024, held in conjunction with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the New Netherland Institute.
On the 400th anniversary of the Dutch founding of the colony that would give rise to New York, this installation featured artifacts of New Amsterdam, including a rare original map of the Dutch city, as well as the letter documenting the controversial “purchase” of Manhattan Island.
Visit the capital of the Dutch colony in this interactive map, designed in collaboration with the New Amsterdam History Center.
In 2022 and 2023 the New Amsterdam Project hosted a series of conversations on water, climate, and sustainability in and around New York, featuring community activists, city officials, architects and urban planners.
On October 1, 2022, the New Amsterdam Project, in collaboration with the New Netherland Institute and the Center for Women’s History, presented the groundbreaking conference "Alida Livingston's World: Women in New Netherland and Early New York."
A guide for teachers and students that explores the interactions between New York’s Native American and earliest Dutch, African, and British inhabitants.
Our acclaimed online curriculum site includes two chapters on women's roles in early New York
Many of New-York Historical's founders and early members had deep roots in New York. Explore an online catalog of some of the earliest treasures in our collections.
Since 2013, Rebuild By Design has incubated more than $3.9 billion in projects to address climate resilience. They donated their archive to New-York Historical in 2022.
This guide highlights eight objects currently on view at New-York Historical that directly and indirectly explore the connection between humanity and the environment.
