Dutch Immigrant Voices
- Iowa Letters: Dutch Immigrants On The American Frontier (Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America)
by Johan Stellingwerff, Robert P. Swierenga, and Walter Lagerwey -- 701 pages. Hardcover
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (December 31, 2004) ISBN-10: 0802826687 -- $49.00
Iowa Letters is one of the most important, known collections of immigrant letters relating to the Midwestern frontier. More than one hundred are published here for the first time. The others were first published in the Dutch language in Amsterdamse Emigranten (1976), edited by Johan Stellingwerff. All are now translated into English by Walter Lagerwey. The letters were written 1840-1870 by religious dissenters from the Netherlanders Reformed Church between family members who remained in the homeland and those who colonized Iowa in the mid-nineteenth century. They provide unique and fascinating insights into the experiences of Dutch immigrants on the North American prairie. - Dutch American Voices: Letters from the United States, 1850-1930 (Documents in American Social History
by Herbert J. Brinks (ed) -- 480 pages. Hardcover
Cornell University Press (May 1995) ISBN-10: 0801430631 -- $54.95
This volume offers a rich sampling of correspondence from the Dutch Immigrant Letter Collection at Calvin College. Sent from immigrants to friends and family in the Netherlands, the letters describe the writers' new lives and the daily experiences of becoming American. "Dutch American Voices is a wonderful scrapbook that should be a part of every library in the Midwest and every home of those Americans of Dutch ancestry. Brinks should be commended not only for this volume but also for a lifetime of collecting and preserving this precious legacy in the Dutch Immigrant Letter Collection at Calvin College. His work is a labor of love as well as a service to scholarship."--Michigan History Magazine - Dutch Immigrant Memoirs and Related Writings
by Lucas, Henry Stephen
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Revised edition (December 1996) ISBN-10: 0802842240
$29.95 – godutch.com from - $48.87 – amazon.com (used)
This classic collection of mostly nineteenth-century, 114 first-person travel accounts and personal reminiscences by Dutch immigrant pioneers provides a unique perspective on the colourful history of Dutch immigration to the U.S.A. Compiled by respected University of Washington historian Henry Lucas - he is perhaps even better known for another classic (out of print) 'Netherlanders in America'. Beginning with the “new Dutch immigration” in 1846, this expansive volume explores the daily course of life during the early days of Dutch settlements in places like Holland, Michigan, and concludes by examining Dutch migrations to states like Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Striking is the writers’ faith and trust in God as they penned their captivating stories of struggles, hardships and triumphs. Index, some letters in original Dutch text with English translation., 1225 pages, Paperback. - Write Back Soon - Letters from Immigrants in America
by Brinks, Herbert J.
CRC Publications (October 1986) ISBN-10: 093026522X
$12.95 – godutch.com - $38.83 – amazon.com (used)
This book attempts to provide some essential background for the correspondence by immigrants from the Netherlands, while allowing them to speak for themselves. Brinks was able to find letters from every major Dutch-American settlement in the U.S.A. He also published the more extensive 'Dutch American Voices'.Exclusive, illustrations, 133 pages, Paperback - American Travels of a Dutch Hobo
by Leeflang, Gerard
Iowa State University Press; 1st ed edition (1984) ISBN-10: 081380888X
$12.95 – godutch.com - $5.46 - $39.32 – amazon.com (used)
In 1923, Dutch seaman Gerard Leeflang fell in love with America and soon was an illegal alien. He had become entranced with what he had seen of New York City. He jumped ship and absorbed the excitement of the cities and jobs, and both urban and rural American cultures. His impressions are those of an observant foreigner who would have loved to put down his roots but couldn’t....The book explains why. Written with a bit of a Dutch twist, Leeflang offers an interesting view of life during the 1920s.Exclusive, illustrations, 162 pages, Hardcover.