Lunch and Learn – Living on the Edge in New England, New Netherland, and New Sweden

Virtual Presentation!

Join us for a virtual presentation as Elizabeth Hines, New England Regional Fellowship Consortium grantee, explores imperial entanglement in seventeenth-century North America.

Settlers in the Dutch colony of New Netherland and the English colony of Connecticut argued repeatedly about the borders between them. They finally settled their territorial boundaries with the Treaty of Hartford in 1650 and sent the treaty to Europe. This talk investigates why, six years later, the Netherlands decided to officially ratify the treaty. Elizabeth argues that they did so in order to annex the neighboring Swedish colony of New Sweden. The broader imperial context of the decision to ratify the treaty, and the history of Dutch investment in the Swedish empire, shows that we need to study the Dutch, English, and Swedish empires together to understand early American history.

This virtual event is free and open to the public. Get tickets to receive the Zoom link.

Questions? Contact Jen Busa, Public Programs Coordinator at jbusa@connecticutmuseum.org.

About the speaker: Elizabeth Hines is an Axson Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. She received a PhD in history from the University of Chicago in 2024. Her work has been supported by institutions including the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium, the American Historical Association, and the Omohundro Institute, and she has held fellowships at the British Library, the New Netherland Institute, and the Huntington Library.

Image: Dutch map of North America, Digital Public Library of America.