Mapping Early New York

 

New Amsterdam History Center.

The New Amsterdam History Center has an amazing interactive feature called Mapping Early New York, allowing visitors to click on various locations of early Manhattan and see imagined video scenes recreating life in the colony (see the map overlay above on the historic Castello Plan for New Amsterdam). The Castello Plan is the earliest known map of what became New York City.

View of Broadway. New Amsterdam History Center.

This website also includes an extensive encyclopedia with links to records. As an example, see the entry for the ship New Netherland, arriving in 1624. The website is a fantastic resource. A sample search result is below, showing Philippe du Trieux and Lodewyck Post from the encyclopedia records.

Source: Mapping Early New York.

Lodewyck's entry reveals a fascinating story I'll pick up in an upcoming post, on his service as captain of the rattle watch. Philippe's entry includes images of his 1640 land patent on Manhattan (see also here: https://encyclopedia.nahc-mapping.org/lots/originalgrantsandfarmsphilip-de-truy-1640-05-22). It is incredible we still have these documents available today.