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Census Data from 1661: Multicultural and Multilinguistic Dutch New Haarlem

The first European colonists to arrive and settle in Harlem were strikingly diverse. The Dutch West Indies company that settled the village that would become New York City, focused on the robust accumulation of wealth as a primary objective and not on a monocultural populace. The earliest record of Harlem residents shows a variety of ethnic origins:

French

  • Daniel Tourneur
  • Jean Le Roy
  • Pierre Cresson
  • Jaques Cresson
  • Philippe Casier
  • David Uzille
  • Jacques Cousseau
  • Philippe Presto
  • Francois Le Sueur
  • Michel Zyperus
  • Jan Sneden

Walloon (Belgian)

  • Simon De Ruine
  • David Du Four
  • Jean Gervoe
  • Jan De Pre

Dutch

  • Dirck Claessen
  • Michiel Janse Muyden
  • Lubbert Gerritsen
  • Meyndert Coerten
  • Aert Pietersen Buys
  • Sigismundus Lucas

Danish

  • Jan Pietersen Slot
  • Nicolaes De Meyer
  • Jan Laurens Duyts
  • Jacob Elderts Brouwer

Swedish

  • Nelis Matthyssen
  • Monis Peterson Staeck
  • Jan Cogu

German

  • Adolph Meyer
  • Adam Dericksen
  • Hendrick Karstens

This list, of course, only itemizes white, European men. Children, women, Indigenous People, and African slaves, were not included in this 1661 census.

Jacob Lawrence Panel Discovered

Our neighbor’s blog: https://gothamtogo.com/the-met-discovered-a-missing-jacob-lawrence/ alerted me to this important mid-century Harlem artist and the stunning discovery of a ‘lost’ painting of his:

The Met announced the discovery of a painting by esteemed American artist Jacob Lawrence that has been missing for decades. The panel is one of 30 that comprise Lawrence’s powerful epic, Struggle: From the History of the American People (1954–56), and it will be reunited immediately with the series, now on view at The Met through November 1 in Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle. Titled by the artist There are combustibles in every State, which a spark might set fire to. —Washington, 26 December 1786, the work depicts Shays’ Rebellion, the consequential uprising of struggling farmers in western Massachusetts led by Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays; it protested the state’s heavy taxation and spurred the writing of the U.S. Constitution and efforts to strengthen federal power. The panel is number 16 in the Struggle series.

The painting has not been seen publicly since 1960, when the current owners purchased it at a local charity art auction. A recent visitor to The Met’s exhibition, who knew of the existence of an artwork by Lawrence that had been in a neighbor’s collection for years, suspected that the painting might belong to the Struggle series and encouraged the owners to contact the Museum.

The work will be specially featured at The Met and will also join the touring exhibition, organized by the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), for presentations in Birmingham, Alabama; Seattle, Washington; and Washington, D.C., through next fall.


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