At the end of December, the agency will close an exhibit that has been on display for the past year, New Visions of Old New York. The collaboration between the New Amsterdam History Center and the New York City Department of Records & Information Services has been the most well-attended exhibit that the agency has hosted. Those who missed the in-person display can view it at our online exhibit on archives.nyc.
Mapping Early New York, Courtesy of the New Amsterdam History Center.
Rendering of 1660 Castello Plan of New Amsterdam, James Wolcott Addams. I.N. Phelps Stokes, Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. NYC Municipal Library.
New Visions of Old New York features historical maps, drawings, sketches, and official documents from the New York City Municipal Archives alongside newly imagined, digitally-generated content from the New Amsterdam History Center’s Mapping Early New York project. The selections represent ways in which the lives of women, enslaved people, and Native Americans intersected with the settlement created by the Dutch West India Company.
A closing event on December 11th brought together the organizers and others in the community to reflect on the exhibit. Maria Iacullo-Bird of Pace University led a panel discussion with Michael Lorenzini (of the NYC Department of Records & Information Services), Drew Shuptar-Rayvis (an Algonkian Historical Consultant for The New Amsterdam History Center), and Kamau Ware (founder of the Black Gotham Experience, which tells the oft-forgotten stories of the early Black residents of New York City).
Still image, Kierstede House. Mapping Early New York, Courtesy of the New Amsterdam History Center.