The Holland Society of New York - Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 179 text:

lecture ltllfally tsrtain. Y Itself of this 'H with 3 place 2 Fifth tl this rhurch arliest erland. l look listers their Dutch ersity Istory mm so usual r has ity in new. tized ngth in its ents iave and POII are n in :tl 3 I I 3 a dy- lre- 1 ifl ted ipf II3 various cities our lecturer has been invited to dis CUSS his subject. This interest did not exist b f e ore the beginning of these lectures, and it is certainl d y ue to the initia- tive of the Holland Societ th t ' ' y a It exists at all. From the point of view f h o t e University, we can- not too warmly commend this W k or of enlighten- ment, which we sincerely hope the Holland Society may see Ht to perpetuate. Respectfully, WM. H. CARPENTER. 1. fr' .,. , .' f -7 QQ2 I If ni. 7 ,V no 'mira' 'r f' fb 45? si is 6 a .N 4 ' i .N 6 S' oe, I , . 0 . I , X nf l .J ,l . 20' 4 1

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II2 population, Columbia, on account of its many lecture courses, has developed a clientele, who naturally look to it for this phase of intellectual entertain- ment and who expect to go to the University itself to find it. Many of these people did not for this reason go to the new place. Aside from these disadvantages of location with respect to the University, no more appropriate place could have been chosen than the chapel of the Fifth Avenue Collegiate Church in which to hold this course of lectures on Dutch Literature. The church edifice is not only a result of one of the earliest organizations and foundations of New Netherland, but from the walls of the lecture-room itself look down the portraits of several of those early ministers of the Collegiate Church who preached to their congregations in New Amsterdam in the Dutch language of the Mother Country. The University feels itself under great obligations to the Consistory of the Collegiate Church for placing this room so generously at its disposal. The lectures this year need more than the usual cursory word of commendation. The lecturer has come to be recognized as the principal authority in America on the literature of Holland, old and new. His whole treatment of his material is characterized not only by a knowledge of his subject in its length and breadth, but by a sympathetic feeling for it in its inherent qualities that only his Dutch antecedents and his present contact with Holland could have made possible, and this his audience has felt and appreciate . Wholly aside from the actual attendance upon the lectures themselves, the very fact that they are given, and are announced and commented upon in the publications of the University, has attracted a very general and growing attention to this neglected Subjecttin America. We are constantly in receipt of inquiries as to the manner and means of study- Ing the Dutch language and literature, not infre- quently from members of your own Society, and in V9.1 CUE I' of 1 tivf I not mei maj

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R 1 - f ' ' , ' gp fb rg. R 'C1 'Li s - ' G , ' DUTCH WORDS, PHRAsEs, ETC. CIRCULAR, of which a copy follows, has been sent out by Professor Carpenter of Columbia University, the object of which will commend itself to the members of the Holland Society, and all others who recall memories of childhood in which are mingled Dutch accents spoken by parents and grandparents to whom that tongue was the language of the home. DEAR SIR: The early Dutch settlers on Long Island, in New Jersey, and up through the valleys of the Hudson and the Mohawk and the radiating country have left behind them in the language of to-day the evi- dence of their mother-tongue, not merely in single words like szfoop, boss, cooky, Waller, etc., which have passed into the common vocabulary, or like vb, kzli clove, etc., which have become parts of local nomenclature, but in phrases still retained in local usage, and, in particular, in nursery rhymes remem- bered in more or less perfect form by their de- scendants. Such reminders of our origins have a distinct historical and linguistic value, and this particular one is of altogether exceptional interest. It is desired by the undersigned to make a care- ful collection of this material, as complete as may be, to be kept as a permanent record to illustrate a 114