A 1909 postcard depicts the acquisition of Manhattan by the Dutch. The artifact was part of an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York commemorating the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage to modern-day New York.
As mentioned in a previous entry on this blog, the latest issue of the yearbook The Low Countries was presented at Flanders House in New York City last week. 'T was a fine intercontinental evening (chief editor Luc Devoldere fittingly invited the audience to a 'toast across the Atlantic'), attended by some 50 people. The Dutch cultural attaché Fred Dorsman also delivered a speech on this occasion, calling the NY400 celebrations a jubilation of 400 years of enduring friendship between the US and the Low Countries. Thus the evening was described as a bilateral party, not merely an outstretched hand to the US signalling that the Dutch and Flemish feel close to them and that they have built their land also on a foundation laid out by the pioneers, but 'also a sign to ourselves that we view ourselves in a new light, a new consciousness of who we are'. Which fits in nicely with a yearbook that wants to provide its readers with reliable and soundly based information on the culture and society of Flanders and the Netherlands, without being a nationalist holier-than-thou pamphlet. Or as Devoldere said so insightfully: 'we're not preachers , no missionaries with some kind of exalted "my low countries, right or wrong" rhetoric up our sleeves.' According to him the book is 'a case of gentle diplomacy, the noble art of making distant friends'.
In the words of Dorsman, once more: 'It is especially encouraging to see that both Flanders, and therefore Belgium, and Holland are united in this publication: recent political developments may have given rise to some tension between the two countries, but we are all assured that that is no more than a neighbourly tiff. Anyone interested in the Low Countries would do himself a great favour by spending a few hours with this publication.' That's a fine recommendation indeed for those about to indulge themselves in the Culturally United States of the Low Countries.
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