|
December, 2015
Dear sponsor, friend and relation,
The end of the year is a logical time to give you some updates on the New Holland Foundation (NHF) and their cultural activities worldwide. This year NHF organised two fundraising events in related museums. The first one, on 29th January, at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, was special because of the possibility to show some of the museum's exceptional pieces and because of the attendance of the NHF-Patron, His Highness Prince Maurits van Oranje-Nassau, van Vollenhoven. The second event took place on 18th June in the Maritiem Museum Rotterdam, where a small but special exhibition about Dutch Brazil was set up for the occasion. For some 50 guests Prof. Dr. Henk den Heijer of Leiden University gave a lecture about Dutch naval hero Piet Heyn and his travels to Brazil, ending with a tasteful Brazilian cocktail.
For the ‘Forts Project’, where the aim is an overview of all Dutch fortifications worldwide, researcher Lodewijk Hulsman finished his report on Brazil this year. In Dutch archives he traced forgotten documents and maps concerning the building methods and backgrounds of the former engineers of these military works in the Tropics. For the North American part of the ‘Forts Project’ historian Jaap Jacobs finished his research on Dutch fortifications, as part of the Atlas of Dutch North America. In cooperation with the New Netherland Institute Jacobs did thorough work in archives in the Netherlands and the U.S.A., where he found new and useful information for future archaeological research and conservation. The two reports have become greatly informative and for the first time an overview of the Dutch fortifications in Brazil (c. 1585-1654) and North America (1614-1676) is presented. Reports are both published on the NHF-website.
For 2016 the NHF is actively involved in the upcoming Dirk Hartog 400-year Commemorations. Dirk Hartog was a Dutch explorer who, on his way to the East-Indies, accidentally stumbled upon Australia, where he nailed a tin plate with inscription to a tree. He was presumably the first European to set foot on the newly discovered continent. Especially in Western Australia Dirk Hartog is a famous character, and all kids learn about him at school. In the Netherlands Dirk Hartog is barely known. In cooperation with the Australian Embassy, NHF is planning to change this by setting up some events in the next year to inform the Dutch population about the forgotten hero Dirk Hartog and his landing in Australia, which happened 400 years ago.
On the occasion of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro the NHF will present a coffee table book with a special focus on Brazilian-Dutch history. At the beginning of 2016 an expedition will take place to take professional pictures of the most photogenic forts and buildings of this heritage, nowadays mostly hidden in urban areas or jungle. Together with pictures of colourful maps and objects this luxury edition will be an ideal presentation object for many to illustrate the relations which have lasted for over 400 years.
Recently NHF established an innovative cooperation with izi.TRAVEL. This is an app in which people can create tours for places of their choice. Hearing about NHF’s expertise on Dutch heritage overseas izi.TRAVEL has contacted NHF to cooperate on creating new tours on Dutch heritage in the U.S.A., Brazil, South Africa and Australia. In this way Dutch tourists and many others can easily learn about Dutch heritage on location.
This year NHF is honoured to welcome three new members to the NHF Committee of Recommendation. These are Mr. Ad Geerdink, managing director of the West Fries Museum, Mr. Willem Andreae, former ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Australia, and Mr. Frits Loomeijer, managing director of the Maritiem Museum Rotterdam. We are looking forward to a fruitful cooperation with all of them and are grateful for their support.
NHF wishes you a very healthy and energetic year with a lot of international connections, based on shared histories.
For now,
Grande abraço,
Karin Smokers
Public Relations
New Holland Foundation
|
|
|
|
