The Holland Society of New York

11/27/2025

11/25/2025

The Holland Society’s November enewsletter was published last Friday and is available on our website for all to read https://hollandsociety.org/2025/11/november-2025/. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Please check out our website’s new page and learn more about the Holland Society’s activities and projects. If you would like to sign up to receive our monthly enewsletter visit https://hollandsociety.org/newsletter-archives/

11/21/2025

Today is National Gingerbread Cookie Day! In 17th century New Netherland, ‘Speculaas’ was a popular cookie. Speculaas dough contains ginger and other spices such as cinnamon, cloves, pepper, cardamom and nutmeg. These spices had become available due to the Dutch East India Company’s spice trade in Asia.

Wooden molds were traditionally used to shape the dough. Windmills or dolls were popular shapes and still are today. Speculaas cookies are especially associated with the holiday season and St. Nicholas Day.

If you’d like to try and make your own Speculaas, check out out this recipe https://bit.ly/4rb3noz (Cakies by Rachel)

11/20/2025

During the last Trustees meeting of this year, the Holland Society approved four New Line Members and one Legacy member for election to the Society. Welcome!

Those who are interested in joining the Holland Society of New York are able to do so through two means: through regular membership or by becoming a Friend of the Society. If you know of relatives that have been members of the Society, you can take advantage of the Legacy application based on their relation to you. For more information and eligibility requirements, visit our website https://hollandsociety.org/join/ or contact us at membership@hollandsociety.org.

11/19/2025

Save the date: on January 23rd, 2026, the Holland Society and the Victorian Society of New York will host a lecture by Elisabeth Paling Funk about Washington Irving, the Dutch Saint Nicholas, and the American Santa Claus. Starting at 6:30pm, the lecture will be held at the St. Paul & St. Andrew United Methodist Church, 263 West 86th St., New York. Please click here to register https://bit.ly/49WjKPA.

In Knickerbocker's History of New York, first published on Saint Nicholas Day 1809, Washington Irving introduced the Dutch Saint Nicholas as patron saint and folk hero, changed his appearance, and manipulated his character traits. This presentation will follow the Nicholas celebration from its early European origin through its arrival in New Netherland and continued observance in America. Irving's adoption of the Dutch "Sinterklaas" is responsible for the survival of what was originally a transplanted regional celebration among New Yorkers of Dutch descent into the nationally cherished American Santa Claus.

Elisabeth Paling Funk, PhD, recently published the book The Dutch World of Washington Irving. The books tells an alternative origin story of American literary culture. Funk explores what the young Irving would have read, heard, and observed during his early life and career in New York City, once part of the former colony of New Netherland, where he was surrounded by Dutch-speaking neighbors and relatives and Dutch literature. Born in Woerden, the Netherlands, Elisabeth received her PhD from Fordham University, taught English at the university level, and is now a translator, editor, and independent scholar. She lives in the Hudson Valley.

Copies of her book The Dutch World of Washington Irving will be available for sale and signing during the event.

11/18/2025

New York Social Diary featured our 135th Dinner Dance held on October 25th at the Lotos Club. Great memories of a wonderful evening! New York Social Diary serves as a social, historical, and cultural chronicle of life in New York City. https://bit.ly/47Lf7Xh

11/13/2025

On Saturday October 25th, the Holland Society hosted a book talk by decorative art advisor Genevieve Wheeler Brown about her new book BEYOND BLUE AND WHITE: The Hidden History of Delftware and the Women Behind the Iconic Ceramic. The exclusive event took place at the Lotos Club, which was also the venue for the Holland Society’s 135th Dinner Dance later that evening. A virtual option was available as well for those that weren’t in town for the Dinner Dance. To watch the recording, please click here https://bit.ly/4p3ndjU.

A longtime New Yorker and former Christie’s specialist, Genevieve Brown reveals the hidden story of a Dutch Delftware collection tucked away for decades in a Gilded Age women’s club on the Upper East Side. Her book explores how women—from 17th-century Dutch pottery owners to 20th-century collectors—shaped the history of blue-and-white ceramics.

Set against the backdrop of New York’s cultural evolution, BEYOND BLUE AND WHITE traces the influence of pioneering women such as Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt and her daughter Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, whose collecting shaped tastes and institutions. The author also weaves in stories from the Bronx’s colonial past to the founding of New York’s great museums, spotlighting the critical yet often overlooked role women played as curators, patrons, and preservationists.

Through the book, we meet female Delftware makers, including Barbara Rotteveel founder of “The Three Bells” Delftware factory in 1671. We are introduced to female Delftware patrons such as Queen Mary II, who found her means of expression while creating a vogue in the 17th century for Delft blue and white across royal courts. And then there are the female collectors beginning in the 19th century who saw the artistry and craft in these ceramics others had overlooked. Foremost among them was Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt II who came together with fellow New York women and laid the groundwork for women in the museum world while preserving decorative arts with an educational mission.

11/12/2025

Holland Society Members and Friends: please check your mailbox for our 2026 fundraising campaign flyer! This year’s annual giving campaign has made possible the opening of our new permanent library and office space; co-sponsoring of the New Netherland Settlers Project with the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society; reviving branch events including Russell Shorto in Niagara and other gatherings in the Midwest, California, Jersey Shore, Potomac and South River; private tours of the Grolier’s Club New Amsterdam tap room and the Flushing Remonstrance Exhibit at the New Yor Public Library; and more.

We are busy planning for the 2026 year. To do so, we need your support. Your contribution to our Annual Fund is crucial to our operation and enables the Society to host virtual and in-person events and lectures, conduct and sponsor research into the history of New Netherland, publish our magazine de Halve Maen, and support branch activities. Please help us execute our vision for the future and enhance the impact of our mission! Click here to make a donation. https://bit.ly/4ouNreZ

11/11/2025

On October 25th, our 135th Dinner Dance was held at the Lotos Club. The Dinner Dance is one of the Society’s signature events and the 135th edition was again a wonderful black-tie event starting with cocktails in the Lotos Club Library, dinner in the Ballroom, and the Society’s traditional parading of its Beaver mascot.

Annually at the Dinner Dance, the Society awards a Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement to recognize achievement by those who are not members of the Society, but who have made an outstanding contribution in some field of human endeavor. The Society’s 2025 medalist is Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of The New York Historical (formerly the New-York Historical Society), for her contributions to the City of New York.

Thank you to all who came and we are already looking forward to the 136th Dinner Dance in October 2026! Check out our website for the full photo gallery https://bit.ly/4hNRHDQ

11/11/2025

Our library & office’s neighbor on West 86th St.!

11/07/2025

On this day in 1626, this letter from Peter Schaghen was received announcing the purchase of Manhattan Island.

Peter Schaghen, was the representative of the States General in the Assembly of the Nineteen of the West India Company (WIC) in Amsterdam. He reported the arrival of the ship Wapen van Amsterdam which sailed from New Netherland out of the Hudson River on the 23rd of September. In his report to the directors of the WIC he announced the purchase of Manhattan Island for the value of 60 guilders

The Schaghen letter is the earliest reference to the purchase of the island that would become the center of New Netherland. The original is held by the Nationaal Archief in The Hague.