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Country
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US
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Language of name of institution
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eng
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Contact information: postal address
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Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street
Third Floor, Room 328, New York, NY 10018
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Contact information: phone number
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001 212 930 0801
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Contact information: email
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manuscripts@nypl.org
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Reference number
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MssCol 2131
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Type of reference number
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Call number
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Title (official language of the state)
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New Netherland papers / Bontemantel Collection
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Language of title
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eng
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Creator / accumulator
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Hans Bontemantel
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Date(s)
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1630/1660
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Language(s)
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eng
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Extent
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1.2 linear meters (3 boxes and 1 microfilm reel)
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Physical condition
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Good
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Scope and content
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The New Netherland Papers are part of the Bontemantel Collection, which the New York Public Library holds. It comprises letters of governors, petitions, extracts of letters, and other papers received in the colony of New Netherland. Given the importance of the Sephardic community in trade and commerce around different parts of colonial territories, some documents refer to members of the community, namely:
No. 506: extract of a private letter of Peter Stuyvesant to the West India Company, dated October 28, 1655, from Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland, in which he opposes Jewish liberty, arguing that it could be “very detrimental, because the Christians cannot compete against them, and in case they receive liberty the Lutherans and papists cannot be refused.”
No. 520: extract of a missive of Director and Councillors in New Netherland dated June 10, 1656, with information on the Jews settled there: “concerning the Jewish nation as far as trade is concerned, they are not hindered, but trade there with the same privileges and liberties as other inhabitants. They have many times petitioned us for the free and public exercise of their abominable religion. Time will teach what they can obtain from Your Honors.”
Nos. 1016/1017: Nicasius de Sille’s New Amsterdam house census on July 10, 1660, reveals that the Jews of the city did not live separately from the rest of the society in any ghetto, despite some efforts by local authorities and groups to have them segregated.
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Archival history
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This collection resulted from Hans Bontemantel's role as director of the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company. The directors of the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company kept close and constant correspondence with the New Netherland's colonial council to ensure that it followed the requirements for civil society and hearing and determining the council's requests and concerns. As a consequence, many of the papers of this collection are Bontemantel's extracts from the originals, including letters from either Director-General Peter Stuyvesant, writing privately, or Stuyvesant and the council, writing as the colony's ruling body, as well as from other villages in the colony and the occasional individual. There is also correspondence from the Amsterdam Chamber to the council on various subjects.
The New York Public Library acquired the collection from George H. Moore in 1894.
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(source: Shattuck, Martha Dickinson, and Dingman Veersteeg, eds. 2011. New Netherland Papers, c. 1650 -1660. New York: The New Netherland Research Center and the New Netherland Institute)
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Administrative / Biographical history
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Hans Bontemantel (1613–1688) was a "schepen" (magistrate) of the city of Amsterdam from 1655-1672 and a director of the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company.
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System of arrangement
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The collection is divided into manuscripts that refer to different types of documents (coats of arms, petitions, and letters). Each should preserve its original order, being organised presumably in chronological order.
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Access, restrictions
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The entire collection is microfilmed. Readers must use microfilm instead of originals.
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The collection is also available online:
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NYPL Digital Collections
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Author of the description
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Kevin Soares, 2023
