Runner-up for the award for Outstanding Catalogue Based on a Permanent Collection, given by the Association of Art Museum Curators

Winner of the 2011 Henry Allen Moe Prize, as given by the New York State Historical Association for excellence in exhibitions and collections-based publishing.

Commemorating the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage and the lasting legacy of Dutch culture in New York, this book explores the life and times of a fascinating woman, her family, and her things. Margrieta was born in the Netherlands but lived at the extremes of the Dutch colonial world, in Malacca on the Malay Peninsula and in Flatbush, Brooklyn. When she came to New York in 1686 with her husband and set up a shop, she brought an astonishing array of Eastern goods, many of which were documented in an inventory made after her death in 1695. Extensive archival research has enabled a collaborative team to reconstruct her story and establish the depth of her connection to Dutch trading establishments in Asia. This is a groundbreaking contribution to the histories of New York City, the Dutch overseas empire, women, and material culture.

Table of Contents
Foreword
Susan Weber

Preface
Louise Mirrer and Linda S. Ferber

Chronology
Marybeth De Filippis and Margriet de Roever

Introduction: Seeking Margrieta
Peter N. Miller and Deborah L. Krohn

Chapter 1. The Dutch Overseas World in the Seventeenth Century
Kees Zandvliet

Chapter 2. Women of a Seafaring Nation: A Chapter in the History of the Dutch Republic, 1580-1700
Kees Zandvliet

Chapter 3. Margrieta van Varick in the East: Traces of a Life
Marybeth De Filippis

Chapter 4. “It has pleased the Lord that we must learn English”: Dutch New York after 1664
Jaap Jacobs

Chapter 5. A Portrait of Women in Seventeenth-Century New York
Joyce D. Goodfriend

Chapter 6. Flatbush in the Time of the Van Varicks
David William Voorhees

Chapter 7. Margrieta van Varick in the West: Inventory of a Life
Ruth Piwonka

About an Inventory
A Conversation between Natalie Zemon Davis and Peter N. Miller

Catalogue of the Exhibition

Appendix

Will of Rudolphus van Varick

Will of Margrieta van Varick

Inventory of the Estate of Margrieta van Varick

Glossary

Supplementary Sources

Bibliography

Index
Contributors
Natalie Zemon Davis
Henry Charles Lea Professor Emeritus in the Department of History, Princeton University, and Adjunct Professor of History, University of Toronto

Marybeth De Filippis
Assistant Curator of American Art, New York Historical Society

Joyce D. Goodfriend
Professor of History, University of Denver

Jaap Jacobs
Independent scholar specializing in the Dutch presence in North America

Els Kloek
Senior Researcher, University of Utrecht

Deborah L. Krohn
Associate Professor and Coordinator for History and Theory of Museums, Bard Graduate Center

Peter N. Miller
Dean and Chair of Academic Programs, Bard Graduate Center

Ruth Piwonka
Independent Scholar

David William Voorhees
Director, Papers of Jacob Leisler Project

Kees Zandvliet
Director of the Department of Exhibitions, Research and Education, Amsterdams Historisch Museum