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Arrival of Mail in New Amsterdam by Karl R. Free
Photo CreditCarol M. Highsmith Photography
Arrival of Mail in New Amsterdam
Photo CreditCarol M. Highsmith Photography

Arrival of Mail in New Amsterdam

Artist
Year1938
Classification painting
Medium oil on canvas
Dimensions78 1/2 x 163 in. (199.4 x 414 cm)
Credits Commissioned through the Section of Fine Arts, 1934 - 1943
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
Location
  • Arrival of the Mail in New Amsterdam depicts an imagined scene around 1650 in the thriving, multicultural city of New Amsterdam (now New York City), in the Dutch colony of New Netherland. The central figure dressed in black is Peter Stuyvesant, director-general of New Netherland from 1647 to 1664, who strolls near the wharves on the East River with his wife, Judith Bayard. There, he meets Captain Jacob Vandergrift, commander of the Dutch West India Company vessel Zwolle, who removes his hat and gestures toward a cart of mail that has just arrived from Holland. Absent an organized domestic post, mail arriving on American shores from Europe was distributed in town by neighbors and friends. Further inland, it was delivered by merchants and American Indians. Free described the portion of the scene at the left as a townsman asking a farmer to deliver a letter for him to an outlying district. The man pushing the mail cart, who is depicted in a crouched posture with torn clothing, bare feet, and a downward gaze, appears to be an African American. At this time in New Amsterdam's history, many African Americans lived in the city. Initially brought from Africa as slaves of the Dutch West India Company, most became part of the labor force in New Amsterdam that, although not officially codified as slavery, in some ways closely resembled it.