Marketing New Amsterdam
Marketing New Amsterdam
Visscher’s famous map of New Netherland with profile view of New Amsterdam, and the reprint of it in a small book of Adriaen van der Donck’s Description of New Netherland show how the WIC wanted New Amsterdam to be seen in the defining years of the city’s growth. In these maps the profile significantly contributed to the marketing of New Amsterdam as comparable to Amsterdam, with similar legal and commercial rights and privileges. These views, which continued into the eighteenth century after New Amsterdam became New York, presented the city as a civilized settlement and significant trade center. This chapter sheds light on the context of these printed maps within the scope of the WIC’s negotiations with colonists in the years leading up to New Amsterdam’s city charter and Amsterdam publishers’ desire to profit from these events. The role of visual media and how colonists at New Amsterdam and WIC directors used the European city as a model to negotiate for their respective roles is discussed.
Keywords: Claes Jansz Visscher, Van der Donck, New Amsterdam, WIC, West India Company, New Netherland, maps
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