Fort Orange - New York State Museum
*The event has already taken place on this date: Sun, 07/02/2023
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Fort Orange was the first permanent Dutch settlement in New Netherland, built as a trading post by the West India Company in 1624 at the location of present-day Albany along the Hudson River. Between 1624 and 1664, the fort’s role in the development of New Netherland changed—from a point of contact and trade between Native Americans and Europeans, to an enclosure with dwellings and private enterprises, and finally an abandoned space consumed by the development of Albany.
Centuries later, Fort Orange on the surface had long disappeared. But in a six-month period in 1970 and 1971—just ahead of Interstate 787 construction—a small archaeology team from the State Historic Trust (predecessor to the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, or OPRHP), headed by Paul Huey and composed mostly of volunteers, made remarkable discoveries about life in the Dutch colony at Fort Orange. In 2016, a collection of 36,000 artifacts from Fort Orange was transferred from OPRHP to the New York State Museum.
This exhibition is supported as part of the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York and in partnership with Historic Albany Foundation. Special thanks to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for their support in promoting understanding of New York State history.
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