Early Manuscript Maps of New Netherlands

Joan Vinckeboons
"Pascaert van Nieuw Nederlandt Virginia, ende Nieuw-Engelandt . . ."
[ Digital ID# g3320 lh00817 ]

"Noort Rivier in Niew Neerlandt,"
ca. 1639
[ Digital ID# g3802 ct001070 ]

Reputedly drawn by Joan Vinckeboons, cartographer to the Prince of Nassau for the West India Company of Holland, these two manuscript charts depict the early seventeenth-century Dutch colony of New Netherlands, where the major settlement focused on the Hudson (Noort) River.

The maps were part of a larger manuscript atlas compiled for the West India Company, reflecting the Dutch trading and settlement interests in the Western Hemisphere. The map displayed on the left shows the Hudson River divided in two segments, with the lower river and Fort Amsterdam (Manhattan) pictured above and the upper river and Fort Orange (Albany) drawn below.

Manuscript maps
Geography & Map Division
Gift of Henry Harrisse, 1915 (17.12, 20.5)