The Dutch held on to their New Netherland colony for some forty years. They lost it to the English twice, at gunpoint in 1664 and by treaty in 1674. But although officially gone, the Dutch were not forgotten. In addition to their cultural legacy, the Dutch language held on stubbornly across the region for a long time.

How long? That’s the question Dr. Kieran O’Keefe answers in “When Did New York Stop Speaking Dutch? The Persistence of the Dutch Language in Old New Netherland” (New York History journal, 2024). He tracks the long history of Dutch-language speakers across the centuries, finding traces of it in Revolutionary War records, cemetery headstones, contemporary travel accounts, and in enslaved people like Sojourner Truth, taught it by their Dutch owners.

We unpack it all in this interview, touching on old Brooklyn, the Queens-Nassau border, Albany, and other enclaves up the Hudson Valley. Along the way Martin Van Buren and Sinterklaas make an appearance as evidence of Dutch influence.

Despite their short-lived enterprise on the East Coast, the Dutch (along with their language) made a long-lasting impression. When did New York stop speaking Dutch? The answer will surprise you.

Further Research

• O’Keefe, Kieran J. “When Did New York Stop Speaking Dutch? The Persistence of the Dutch Language in Old New Netherland.” New York History 104, no. 1 (2024): 150-170.
• Dr. Kieran O’Keefe at Lyon College
• The New Amsterdam Project
• A Tour of New Netherland (New Netherland Institute)
• Featured image: George Henry Boughton (1833-1905), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Music
  • Intro music: https://homegrownstringband.com/
  • Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0

The science of the brain was changing throughout the 19th century. Medical researchers were peering ever deeper into cerebral mysteries and one question piqued their interest more than any other: who has the biggest brain?

On today’s episode we turn for answers to Dr. James R. Wright, medical historian and retired professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Calgary. He introduces us to brain clubs, mutual autopsy societies and above all, the American Anthropometric Society of Philadelphia. The AAS had a particular interest in collecting and studying the brains of prominent scientists and intellectuals. You can imagine their excitement then, when Walt Whitman died in 1892 not far from their laboratory.

Wright walks us through the ensuing complicated tale uncovered by him and other historians. Did Whitman really donate his brain to science? Why did Henry Ware Cattelll, who performed the autopsy, keep changing his story? And how does eBay and the 1931 movie Frankenstein play into it all?

Join us for a special Halloween episode that is not for the feint of heart.

Further Research

• Wright Jr, James R. “Henry Ware Cattell and Walt Whitman’s brain.” Clinical Anatomy 31, no. 7 (2018): 988-996.
• Hecht, Jennifer. The end of the soul: scientific modernity, atheism, and anthropology in France. Columbia University Press, 2005. (Find in a library via WorldCat)
• Burrell, Brian. “The Strange Fate of Whitman’s Brain.” Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 20, no. 3/4 (2003).
• Gosline, Sheldon Lee. “” I Am a fool”: Dr. Henry Cattell’s private confession about what happened to Whitman’s brain.” Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 31, no. 4 (2014).
• The Walt Whitman House. Camden, NJ
• Music
  • Horror Music by Tele50 via Pixabay.
  • Glass Jar Tap by ekfink. License: Creative Commons 0
  • Funny Halloween by FASSounds via Pixabay

Edward Lange was a German artist who started his career on Long Island in the late 19th century. He meticulously captured the landscape and built environment across the island from Flushing to Sag Harbor in water color paintings rich in detail and charm.

Preservation Long Island has just published Promoting Long Island: The Art of Edward Lange, 1870-1889 by chief curator and director of collections Lauren Brincat and former curatorial fellow Peter Fedoryk. The book features over 100 color reproductions of Lange’s work along with essays from Brincat, Fedoryk, and contributors Jennifer L. Anderson, Thomas Busciglio-Ritter, and Joshua M. Ruff.

On today’s episode, Brincat and Fedoryk discuss their work on the book including the new research that fills in the gaps of Lange’s family and education. We also talk about his entrepreneurial drive, his love of photography, and the life of a landscape painter on a Long Island that was rapidly turning from bucolic farmland to a vacation destination.

Further Research

• Order the book
• Authors Talk and Book Signing 11/16/24
• Edward Lange exhibition
• The Art of Edward Lange
• “The Tile Club at Play“, Scribner’s Monthly, February 1879 (Google Books)
• William Sidney Mount (National Gallery of Art)
• Music
  • Intro music: https://homegrownstringband.com/
  • Outro music: Capering by Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0