Category Dutch Americans
The Great and Powerful Van Walt: A Mysterious anti-Nazi Lecturer with an Incredible Backstory
Harry P. Van Walt (1888-1963) arrived in the United States in late 1940 as a refugee fleeing wartime Europe. In the following decade, he would present himself to thousands of impressionable Americans across university campuses and civic clubs as a world-traveler, Ph.D. psychologist, renowned journalist and author, diplomat, and a high-profile target of the Gestapo […]
Lecture at the Pelgrimvaderskerk (Pilgrim Father’s Church) Dec 9, 2025
On December 9th, I’ll be speaking (in Dutch) about slavery in New York at the Pelgrimvaderskerk (Pilgrim Father’s Church) in Rotterdam/ Delfshaven, the Netherlands. This is the church where the Pilgrims last held service before leaving the Netherlands and voyaging to what became Massachusetts.
Book Presentation: Netherlands-America Foundation (April 25, 2025)
For details and to reserve a seat: https://thenaf.org/event/naf-washington-dc-michael-douma-presents-the-slow-death-of-slavery-in-dutch-new-york/
Mail stamp with date and time (and other neat archival finds)
From the archival papers of Willard Wichers (a.k.a. “Mr. Holland), at Hope College. This stamp used for outgoing correspondence of the Netherlands Information Service reminds me of an old library stamp, but instead of just adjusting the date, it also could be adjusted to note the time of date. And this stamp, from the same […]
A New Netherlander, or the First New Yorker (?) in Japan
I’ve always been interested in the explorers on the fringe (pun intended) of history. There is Pytheas the Greek, for example, who may have circumnavigated the British Isles in 325 B.C., and then there might have been a Minorite Friar from England who visited Norse Vinland in the 14th century. Had the records of these […]
New York slavery in De Groene Amsterdammer
My research on Dutch slavery in New York was recently referenced multiple times in an article in the popular Dutch magazine De Groene Amsterdammer. The writer, Leendert Van der Valk, has done a tremendous job of bringing early Dutch colonial American history to the modern Dutch public. More than just relating the stories of other […]
Review of Philip Dröge, De Tawl: Hoe de Nederlandse taal (bijna) Amerika veroverde, Spectrum, Amsterdam, 2023.
Over at Low-countries.com, I published a review of a new book about the Dutch language in America. The English version is already up here: https://www.the-low-countries.com/article/colonial-echoes-when-americans-spoke-dutch and a Dutch version of this review will appear soon in De Lage Landen magazine.
