Runner-up for the award for Outstanding Catalogue Based on a Permanent Collection, given by the Association of Art Museum Curators
Winner of the 2011 Henry Allen Moe Prize, as given by the New York State Historical Association for excellence in exhibitions and collections-based publishing.
Commemorating the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage and the lasting legacy of Dutch culture in New York, this book explores the life and times of a fascinating woman, her family, and her things. Margrieta was born in the Netherlands but lived at the extremes of the Dutch colonial world, in Malacca on the Malay Peninsula and in Flatbush, Brooklyn. When she came to New York in 1686 with her husband and set up a shop, she brought an astonishing array of Eastern goods, many of which were documented in an inventory made after her death in 1695. Extensive archival research has enabled a collaborative team to reconstruct her story and establish the depth of her connection to Dutch trading establishments in Asia. This is a groundbreaking contribution to the histories of New York City, the Dutch overseas empire, women, and material culture.
Susan Weber
Preface
Louise Mirrer and Linda S. Ferber
Chronology
Marybeth De Filippis and Margriet de Roever
Introduction: Seeking Margrieta
Peter N. Miller and Deborah L. Krohn
Chapter 1. The Dutch Overseas World in the Seventeenth Century
Kees Zandvliet
Chapter 2. Women of a Seafaring Nation: A Chapter in the History of the Dutch Republic, 1580-1700
Kees Zandvliet
Chapter 3. Margrieta van Varick in the East: Traces of a Life
Marybeth De Filippis
Chapter 4. “It has pleased the Lord that we must learn English”: Dutch New York after 1664
Jaap Jacobs
Chapter 5. A Portrait of Women in Seventeenth-Century New York
Joyce D. Goodfriend
Chapter 6. Flatbush in the Time of the Van Varicks
David William Voorhees
Chapter 7. Margrieta van Varick in the West: Inventory of a Life
Ruth Piwonka
About an Inventory
A Conversation between Natalie Zemon Davis and Peter N. Miller
Catalogue of the Exhibition
Appendix
Will of Rudolphus van Varick
Will of Margrieta van Varick
Inventory of the Estate of Margrieta van Varick
Glossary
Supplementary Sources
Bibliography
Index
Henry Charles Lea Professor Emeritus in the Department of History, Princeton University, and Adjunct Professor of History, University of Toronto
Marybeth De Filippis
Assistant Curator of American Art, New York Historical Society
Joyce D. Goodfriend
Professor of History, University of Denver
Jaap Jacobs
Independent scholar specializing in the Dutch presence in North America
Els Kloek
Senior Researcher, University of Utrecht
Deborah L. Krohn
Associate Professor and Coordinator for History and Theory of Museums, Bard Graduate Center
Peter N. Miller
Dean and Chair of Academic Programs, Bard Graduate Center
Ruth Piwonka
Independent Scholar
David William Voorhees
Director, Papers of Jacob Leisler Project
Kees Zandvliet
Director of the Department of Exhibitions, Research and Education, Amsterdams Historisch Museum