Design
'Staaten Eylandt' and Other Awesome Spellings on Original Maps of New Netherland
A look at early renderings of the U.S. East Coast, courtesy of the Dutch.
It's been 392 years since the Dutch West India Company received its charter for the "New Netherland," a colony that stretched from current day Delaware to Albany, New York.
Three years later, ships delivered the first wave of settlers, livestock and supplies to New Netherland. In 1625, settlers began construction on Fort Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan, later renamed New Amsterdam after Peter Minuit chose the site as New Netherland's capital.