The Dutch-American Connection: Culture, Politics and the Founding of the United States
Join the Holland Museum, Van Raalte Institute, and Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Chicago for a special morning exploring the lasting Dutch influence on the United States. The program begins with check-in, breakfast bites, and an opportunity to mingle with fellow attendees before featuring presentations from acclaimed author Russell Shorto and professor Matthijs Tieleman. Together, they will examine how Dutch immigrants, culture, and political traditions helped shape America in its earliest years.
Saturday, November 21, 2026
9:30 am–1:00 pm
Winants Auditorium, Graves Hall
Hope College Campus
263 College Ave., Holland, MI 49423
Admission: $10 for Holland Museum members | $20 for non-members
Schedule of Events
9:30–10:00 am | Check-in, Breakfast Bites & Mingling
Start your morning with coffee, breakfast bites, and time to meet fellow attendees.
10:00–11:00 am | Taking Manhattan: How the Dutch Shaped America
Presented by Russell Shorto
Before New York was New York, it was New Amsterdam: the capital of a small Dutch colony whose influence would far outlast its 40-year existence. This talk tells the story of New Netherland, from the Dutch taking of Manhattan Island from its Native inhabitants to the English wresting it from the Dutch. Along the way, the Dutch developed a remarkably diverse and commercially driven society. And while the English took over in 1664, they did so in a way that preserved much of what the Dutch had created, allowing traditions of pluralism, capitalism, and individual enterprise to survive and flourish. The result was a city unlike any other in English America, and a Dutch inheritance that would ultimately help shape the character of the United States.
11:00–11:15 am | Break
11:15 am–12:15 pm | Patriots in the Atlantic World: The Dutch and the American Revolution
Presented by Matthijs Tieleman
The Boston Tea Party, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution: these moments in the history of the American Revolution have traditionally been viewed as exclusively American affairs. But what if the Dutch proved deeply entangled in these and many other founding events of the United States? In this talk, Matthijs Tieleman will discuss the profound connections between the American Patriots and their Dutch counterparts in the eighteenth century. He will examine how the Dutch shaped the American founding, and how the birth of the United States also ignited a revolution in the Netherlands.
12:15–12:30 pm | Group Discussion & Reflection
Continue the conversation with Phil Tanis, Director of the Van Raalte Institute, as he leads a group discussion reflecting on the morning’s presentations and the enduring connections between Dutch and American history.
12:30–1:00 pm | Book Signing
Meet Russell Shorto and have a book signed following the program. Copies of The Island at the Center of the World and Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America will be available for purchase. Attendees can also pre-order Professor Tieleman’s forthcoming book, The Patriot Atlantic: How the Americans, Dutch, and Irish Forged the Age of Revolution.
About the Speakers
Russell Shorto
Russell Shorto is the author of The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America. He is director of the New Amsterdam Project at the New-York Historical Society and a senior scholar at the New Netherland Institute. In 2009, Shorto was awarded a knighthood by the Dutch government for his contributions to advancing awareness of Dutch-American history. In 2018, he was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame.
Matthijs Tieleman
Matthijs Tieleman is an Assistant Professor of Early American History at Illinois State University. He is the author of The Patriot Atlantic: How the Americans, Dutch, and Irish Forged the Age of Revolution, forthcoming in May 2027 with the University of Virginia Press. In 2021, he received his Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His award-winning writings have appeared in academic publications, as well as Dutch and American national media. He hails from the Netherlands.
Program Partners
Van Raalte Institute and Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Chicago
