The Jacob Leisler Institute was delighted yesterday to host Karlijn Waterman, wife of late trustee Kees-Jan Waterman, who donated to the Institute her husband’s extensive collection of materials relating to colonial European-Algonquian and Iroquoian relations in New York and New Jersey. Ms. Waterman, Coordinator of Dutch as a Foreign Language at Nederlandse Taalunie, brought with her several more of her late husband’s files to be added to the Institute’s collections.
“Sandgrube,” built in Basel, Switzerland, in 1746 as the home of Achilles Leissler (1723-1784), became this month the new location of the European Global Studies Institute in Basel. Achilles Leisler was a grandson of Jacob Leisler’s brother Franz Leisler. The Jacob Leisler Institute and the Europainstitut of Basel University are now collaborating in recovering the global connections of the Leisler family.
Thank You to Travis Bowman for an illuminating lecture, to Tina Lesem for organizing it, to the Hudson Area Library for hosting, and to everyone in the standing-room only crowd for attending.
The Leisler Institute is pleased to announce that Mary Collins has joined the Institute as our Librarian. Ms. Collins has a Master of Library and Information Science with a concentration in rare books and special collections, a nearly completed Master of Arts from the City University of New York Graduate Center, and holds the Certified Genealogist credential. She is former librarian at the Holland Society of New York. We are delighted to have her join us as a colleague.
As part of our on-going lecture series, the Leisler Institute, in conjunction with the Gotham Center, and the Hudson Area Library History Room, present, Slavery and Dutch – Palatine Farmers: How did middle class farmers in Colonial New York interact with slavery? In New York State slavery existed for 200 years and recent interest and research, particularly focused on the Hudson Valley area, confronts this reprehensible fact. This lecture is an opportunity to learn how slave labor led to the prosperity of many families in the region and also may have eventually influenced the abolition movement.
Travis Bowman examines how slavery evolved in New York under the Dutch, British, and American systems of government and how the institution was utilized at a local and personal level among middle class farmers in the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys. Mr. Bowman is the Senior Curator of the New York State Bureau of Historic Sites, where he is responsible for the research, care, and exhibition of the collections at New York State’s historic sites and parks.
There is a question and answer period and refreshments after the talk.
Hudson Area Library
51 North 5th St.
Hudson, NY.
http://hudsonarealibrary.org/programs/history-room-programs/
Mr. Stehr is a sophomore at SUNY-New Paltz majoring in history. He hales from East Meadow, Long Island. We look forward to working with Mr. Stehr during the coming months. Mr. Stehr comments, “I am honored to be working under the tutelage of Dr. Voorhees and with the others at the Leisler Institute.”
Volunteer Jim Hoon cataloging the Kees-Jan Waterman Collection of colonial European-Indian interaction in the Hudson River Valley at the Jacob Leisler Institute today. Acquisition of the eight boxes of the Kees-Jan Waterman Collection of materials relating to colonial European-Indian relations in the Hudson River Valley was made possible by Kees-Jan Waterman’s heirs and through the support of the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York.
The Jacob Leisler Institute is pleased to announce the election of Sarah Burrows Winch as a Trustee. Ms. Winch is a writer, poet, historian, and photographer. She is a graduate of Hobart and William Smith Colleges with a B.A. in English and history, and has a business background in sales with multiple companies, including Boston publishing company, CFO Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of The Economist, London. She is currently Chair of Safety for the Big Moose Property Owner’s Association (Big Moose Lake, Adirondacks, New York) and holds various other volunteer positions. Her soon to be published works, based on ancestors, under the nom de plume Sarah Tracy Burrows, include the nonfiction manuscript, Affectionately Yours, Osgood: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Osgood Vose Tracy, 122nd New York State Volunteers, to his Mother, Sarah Vose Osgood Tracy, 1862-1865, which she collaborated on with Civil War historian, professor and author, Ryan Keating, and a historical novel inspired by the true story, titled Fighting for Nellie. A native of Syracuse, New York, she currently resides in Wenham, Massachusetts, with her husband, with whom she has three sons. Her website is sarahtracyburrows,com. She is also a direct descendant of Jacob Leisler’s through his daughter Hester.
The Jacob Leisler Institute will be among the 43 exhibitors at the Tenth Annual Hudson Children’s Book Festival on Saturday, May 5. 
“The Hudson Children’s Book Festival, established in 2009, is held each year in the historic city of Hudson, NY, and strives to create, sustain, and nurture a culture of literacy in partnership with our community and schools. This free, public event fosters a love of reading as families meet and greet world-class creators of books for children of all ages.” The festival, one of the largest children’s book fairs in New York State, is taking place at 215 Harry Howard Avenue, Hudson, NY. Please stop by our table and say “hello” and help us encourage young people to explore the exciting, adventurous, and mysterious world of early New York history. For more information see, https://hudsonchildrensbookfestival.com/
For this second presentation in the Jacob Leisler Institute lecture series, Dr. William A. Starna will speak on “American Indians in the Mid-Hudson Valley.” Dr. Starna is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the State University of New York College at Oneonta. He has held lecture, visiting, and adjunct appointments at the State University on New York at Albany, Binghamton University, and Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario). He was a National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities at Hartwick College and an adjunct curator of ethnology at the New York State Museum. He is author of numerous books and articles on American Indians. The Jacob Leisler Institute lecture series is cosponsored by the Hudson Area Library and the Gotham History Center. Dr. Starna’s presentation will take place in the Community Room at the Hudson Area Library, 51 North Fifth Street, Hudson, on Thursday, April 19, at 6:00.