Manitoban receives Hendricks Award for dissertation

NNP honours Mark Meuwese

ALBANY, New York - Dr. Mark P. Meuwese of Winnipeg, Manitoba, has become the 18th recipient of the New Netherland Project’s Hendricks Award. He was recognized for his 2004 dissertation, for which he received his PhD in History at the University of Notre Dame.

Meuwese, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Winnipeg, compared Dutch colonial governance in northeastern Brazil and New Netherland, later renamed New York. The book ‘For the Peace and Well-Being of the Country: Intercultural Mediators and Indian-Dutch Relations in New Netherland and Dutch Brazil, 1600-1664’ was published by the University of Notre Dame.

Holding a Masters Degree from the University of Leiden, Meuwese, has written a number of publications on the subject of early Dutch colonialism, both in New York and in Brazil.

The NNP was established under the joint sponsorship of the New York State Library and the Holland Society of New York and has as its primary objective to complete the transcription, translation, and publication of all Dutch-language documents in New York repositories relating to the seventeenth - century colony of New Netherland. This unique resource already has been invaluable to scholars in a wide variety of disciplines. It also has heightened the awareness of the Dutch contributions to America over the centuries, long under-evaluated in part due to the language barrier and unavailability of the sources.

The interest in the Dutch connection and contributions took an upswing in the era around the first centennial of the American Revolution, which was followed by a period now known for its Hollandmania.