Ann Waggaman's President General's Project is supporting the New Netherland Institute (NNI).
For more than three decades, the New Netherland Institute (NNI) has helped cast light on America's long-neglected Dutch roots. Created in 1986 as the Friends of the New Netherland Project, it has supported the transcription, translation, and publication of the 17th-century Dutch colonial records held by the New York State Archives and State Library. These records constitute the world's largest collection of original documentation of the Dutch West India Company and its New World colonies. They represent an irreplaceable resource for researchers exploring this important chapter in American history, with its legacy of cultural traditions, and its qualities of tolerance, diversity and entrepreneurship.
As an independent, non-profit, nongovernmental organization, NNI now supports the New Netherland Research Center (NNRC) in partnership with the New York State Office of Cultural Education (OCE), the parent agency of the State Library and State Archives. In 2009 Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Willem Alexander and Princess Máxima of the Netherlands visited Albany to launch the NNRC with a three-year matching grant to NNI. In conjunction with the grant, OCE participates in the International Mutual Cultural Heritage Program of the Nationaal Archief of the Netherlands. This international collaboration of nations and states holding collections of Dutch colonial materials is working to make the documentation of the Dutch West India Company in all its possessions around the Atlantic rim accessible for study worldwide.
NNI relies heavily on us to continue its work. A variety of corporations and foundations also contribute to NNI's mission. NNI publicly recognizes corporate, foundation, and individual donors.
For more information, please see www.newnetherlandinstitute.org
