Many of the New-York Historical Society's founders and nineteenth-century members had deep roots in New York; a significant number of them descended from families who immigrated in the seventeenth century. These early members were also deeply committed to exploration, and as such, they collected and donated to New-York Historical many artifacts that help tell the story of the Age of Exploration, and its trajectory, which led to the Dutch founding and settling of New Amsterdam.
Most of the objects illustrated here are rarely-seen, early treasures from New-York Historical's collections, including its 1542 Ulpius globe, which documents Verrazano's North American discoveries; an exceptional early-eighteenth century hand-painted Indian wall hanging; seventeenth-century maps and renderings of New Amsterdam and New York; and the only known portrait of Peter Stuyvesant painted during his lifetime.