History is cool ™
 Willem Klooster, Ph.D.Professor Klooster received a B.A. & M.A. from the University of Groningen in 1983 and 1987, respectively, and a Ph.D. from the University of Leiden in 1995. He has been at Clark since 2003. Dr. Klooster specializes in the history of the Atlantic world (15th-19th centuries). He teaches classes on comparative colonialism (the Americas), the age of Atlantic revolutions (1776-1824), and Caribbean history. |  Dr. Michael BosDr. Michael Bos is a pastor, author, interfaith proponent, family guy, and adventure seeker. He also serves as chaplain of the Collegiate School, where he teaches Islam. He has written two books with co-author, Dr. William Sachs: A Church Beyond Belief: The Search for Belonging and the Religious Future and Fragmented Lives: Finding Faith in an Age of Uncertainty. He recently completed his Doctor of Ministry at Duke University Divinity School with a focus on leadership in the Christian tradition. |  Professor Paul Otto, PhDPaul Otto chairs the departments of history, sociology and politics at George Fox University. He is an expert in the history of early America and Native Americans. He was awarded a faculty scholarship achievement award by the University in 2010. He spent his 2015-2016 sabbatical as a fellow at the National Humanities Center. His remarkable book The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley has won the Hendricks Award. |  Len Tantillo painting |  Bertrand van RuymbekeBertrand Van Ruymbeke (Ph.D. 1995, Sorbonne-Nouvelle; Habilitation, 2003, Universitéde Versailles-Saint-Quentin) is professor of American history and civilization at the Université de Paris VIII (Vincennes Saint-Denis), senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France (2015-2020), Fulbright scholar (2015), and Chevalier del’Ordre des Palmes académiques (2016). He is a member of the Council of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture (OIEAHC) at Williamsburg, Virginia. |
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 Rembrandt b. Jul 15, 1606 - Leyden |  Humphrey Bogart 1899-1957 |  Round Robin of the Walloons |  Humphrey Deforest Bogart, b. 1899 |  Half Moon in Newburgh Bay, by Len Tantillo |
 Adriaen Courtsen BlockAdriaen Courtsen Block 1567-1627 The Great-grandfather of American trade |  |  Dr. Charles T. GehringDr. Charles T. Gehring has a PhD in Germanic Linguistics from Indiana University and has been the Director of New Netherland Research Center for over forty years. In 1994 Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands knighted him as an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau for his role in promoting awareness of the Dutch role in American history. He has been the pre-eminent translator and editor of the past century on documents from the lost colony of New Netherland. |  |  Jaap JacobsJaap Jacobs (Ph.D. Leiden, 1999) is affiliated with the University of St Andrews. He has specialized in the early American history, specifically the Dutch in the Americas in the early modern period. He has taught at Leiden University, the University of Amsterdam, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, and the University of St Andrews. |
 |  Indira Varma |  Collier painting of Hudson's Last Voyage |
ISLAND chronicles the first three hundred years of colonization of Manhattan Island and its resounding impact on our culture and our world.
Hosted by actor, writer and New Yorker Chance Kelly and historically-guided by world- renowned Dutch scholar and author Dr. Jaap Jacobs, the series illustrates the island that this place is unto itself - not just geographically, but idealistically, philosophically and spiritually.
ISLAND uncovers our true, lost American history. Its indelibly unique telling reveals the city’s effect on religious and ethnic freedoms — not just here — but throughout the world.
This story is personal to both of its creators as Dr. Jacobs has made his life and career in the study of the Dutch colonial world. And Mr. Kelly’s own great, great, great uncle “Honest” John Kelly himself emerged from the slums of “Five Points”, rising up to become a pivotal figure in the development of this incredible city. John Kelly was one of the first Irish-Catholics to serve in U.S. Congress, when he was elected at age 32 in 1854. And after also serving as Sheriff and later as Comptroller of New York, he would eventually be hand-picked to replace the notorious Boss William Tweed, in order to reform Tammany Hall. Among his many functions, not without controversy, John Kelly was a fiercely courageous advocate for oppressed immigrants from everywhere.
ISLAND is the character-driven portrait of the inimitable souls responsible for a place founded on capitalism but perpetuated by an infectious and unapologetic measure of tolerance.
Our narrative begins in 1609 when Henry Hudson happens upon Manhattan and the river that would come to eternally bear his name, and culminates in 1909 when western interloper William Randolph Hearst has infiltrated New York publishing and the fistfight that is Manhattan politics.
Climb aboard this voyage of discovery over three centuries, as we look at what really happened here, en route to forging the epicenter of the free world.
“Our wonderful 17th-century musical arrangements are courtesy of Camerata Trajectina" CLICK HERE TO KNOW