New Amsterdam: Island at the Center of the World
"The exhibition that is opening here today is only one of many activities celebrating four hundred years of shared history between the United States and the Netherlands. On both sides of the Atlantic, people have interacted and formed bonds – cultural, economic and scholarly. Our two countries have grown closer in so many ways this year."
Your Royal Highnesses, Excellencies, Mr. Sciame, ladies and gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you here this morning to the South Street Seaport Museum on the East River. This is precisely the turn that Henry Hudson did NOT take four hundred years ago. Otherwise THIS river would be the Hudson, and the Hudson would be the WEST River!
This past week, as you may have noticed, the spotlight has been on the Dutch roots of New York City. The exhibition that is opening here today is only one of many activities celebrating four hundred years of shared history between the United States and the Netherlands. But it is an important one. Documents that have never been displayed before in the US are now open to the public, including old maps and plans like those of the renowned cartographer and watercolorist Johannes Vingboons. The original letter that Pieter Schagen sent to the States General in The Hague in 1626 is one of the exhibition’s highlights. It describes the purchase of Manhattan for goods worth sixty guilders or approximately twenty-four dollars. This letter and the other historical items on display open a window on a faraway past. And they can teach us a great deal about the present as well.
This New Amsterdam exhibition is a joint initiative of the South Street Seaport Museum and the Dutch National Archives – one of the many partnerships that have developed between Americans and Dutch people in the run-up to this celebratory year. To me, this is the best thing about our joint celebrations: they have generated so much new energy and such a positive spirit. Not only from government to government, but also, and especially, from people to people. On both sides of the Atlantic, people have interacted and formed bonds – cultural, economic and scholarly. It is amazing what this celebration has made possible: our two countries have grown closer in so many ways this year.
This should not come as a surprise. Because the bonds of friendship between the US and the Netherlands have always been strong. In 1776 we were the first country to salute the flag of the newly independent United States of America, from the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Eustatius. Formal recognition of your country followed. And we have been close friends ever since, working together in many corners of the globe for a better and a more just world. Today, we are partners in the Middle East Peace Process and allies in NATO, and we stand shoulder to shoulder in Afghanistan. We understand each other well; we feel comfortable with each other. I have no doubt that this mutual understanding stems in part from our common history. The values that our peoples have shared for centuries continue to guide our friendship today.
Ladies and gentlemen,
A museum, to paraphrase Socrates’ famous metaphor, should be the birthplace of ideas; a place where history comes to life. I hope that this year this will be true of the South Street Seaport Museum. I hope that many visitors will find their way here, learn something about the founding of New York City that they did not know before, and go home with a new sense of inspiration.
Thank you.