What Was 17th Century New York City Like?

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]400 years ago, the Dutch founded New Amsterdam, the settlement that would become New York City. What was life like there? Works from Dutch masters at the time, including Rembrandt van Rijn, >> [music] >> Frans Hals, and Jan Steen, can tell us a lot. In Old Masters, New Amsterdam, [music] now on view at the New York Historical, paintings let us envision what life would have been like, and how the Dutch [music] influenced the New York that we know today. In the 1600s, the Dutch ruled the waves. International commerce [music] meant new openness and adaptability, and New Amsterdam was unusually diverse and religiously tolerant. At the same time, the story of New Amsterdam [music] is also one of exploitation, of slavery, and the displacement of indigenous people. Old Masters, New Amsterdam [music] reveals the complex and often contradictory lives that New Amsterdammers led. We see moments of leisure, people making music, enjoying home life, and playing sports.

[00:00:54]There are depictions of commerce, from fur accessories made from animal pelts to vendors selling food. Masterly portraits give us a sense of the developing [music] Dutch understanding of a rich inner life of people from all walks of life. This awareness of the power of [music] the individual coincided with the rise of capitalism in the 1600s, and led to [music] New Amsterdam's ascent, and ultimately New York's. Visit the New York Historical soon, and step back in time to New Amsterdam.