
400 years ago the first Dutch colonists arrived in the area known today as New York. Their mission given by the Dutch West India Company was to establish the colony of New Netherlands, with New Amsterdam as its capital, at the southern tip of what is today the island of Manhattan. The Amsterdam Museum has joined with the Museum of the City of New York and representatives of the Lenape —original inhabitants of this area of the United States— in creating an exhibition about this shared history. Looking from an Indigenous perspective, the exhibition examines the decades-long period of Dutch colonization in the area, as well as its consequences for the Indigenous residents and their struggles.