Dutch-Protestant Immigration to the Americas Online: The Stallinga-Ganzevoort Collection, 1890-1960

This collection documents the activities of the Stichting Landverhuizing Nederland (SLN) in Brazil, the United States, and (predominantly) Canada. These materials were microfilmed at the former Algemeen Rijksarchief in The Hague, where most of the original materials have been destroyed. Much of the material came from the Canadian offices of the SLN, which was established in 1931 and lasted till the late 1950s with the purpose of selecting and assisting Dutch emigrants. Before the body of original documents was destroyed, the Canadian scholar Herman Ganzevoort had it microfilmed with the support of Gerrit Stallinga.

The collection contains correspondence, reports, lists, and pamphlets regarding Dutch emigration to the Americas (mostly in English), including correspondence from and about individual immigrants (mostly in Dutch).

As does the van Stekelenburg collection, this specific set of documents illuminates the complex history of Dutch emigration by expanding traditional narratives chronologically, thematically, and spatially. In particular, the Stallinga-Ganzevoort collection has the additional merit of taking into account the experiences of emigrants belonging to different Christian denominations (predominantly Protestant), thus further expanding the variety of cultural backgrounds, religious beliefs, and personal identities at play. While praising the work done by the Christian Reformed Church in facilitating the emigration to and settlement in Canada of Dutch agriculturalists, the Canadian SLN officers also stressed the importance of an ongoing educational campaign that the Church was conducting at home in the Netherlands since it aimed at training and instructing professional figures whose expertise was much needed and requested on the other side of the Atlantic. [Document]

At the same time, this collection provides information about Dutch emigrants who decided to settle in countries other than the United States, such as Canada and Brazil. In these settings, Dutch people encountered different and partly novel problems and could not always rely on pre-existing Dutch networks or communities. For instance, a document titled “De Emigratie Naar Brazilie” [The Emigration to Brazil] presented Dutch people with the costs, challenges, and opportunities of moving to that Latin American country, inviting them to become truly “goede Brazilianen” [good Brazilians] in the same ways in which Frisians and Brabanters at home had been able to overcome their regional differences and become part of a unique Dutch national family. [Document]

This collection comprises 17,011 scans and is part of Transatlantic Relations Online: Digital Archives of the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies, which is the result of ongoing cooperation between the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies and Brill.