New York ~ 1664

     New Amsterdam was established in 1624 as part of the Dutch West India Company’s effort to establish the colony of New Netherlands. In 1664 a British fleet entered the harbor of New Amsterdam, and the Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, surrendered the colony to the British. They renamed the colony New York after the Duke of York. 
     In 1688 New York and New Jersey joined the New England Colonies in the Dominion of New England under Sir Edmund Andros who had previously been lieutenant-governor of Guernsey. 
     The map, A description of the towne of Mannados or New Amsterdam as it was in September 1661, was drawn by William Hack, an English chart maker. It was an English copy of a map made for the Dutch by Jacques Cortelyou before the town surrendered to the English.
     The map was known as the “Duke's” map, a reference to the Duke of York, after whom the town was named. It  probably accompanied the town's request to the Duke of York (later King James II) to become its patron. The hand-colored map is dated 1664. On the left side of the map, the vertical boundary is “Wall” street, a defensive palisade built by the Dutch in 1635. The canal on Broad Street can also be seen.

Major Land Purchases

     Two stamps issued by Seychelles in 1976 commemorate two major land purchases by the United States, the Louisiana Purchase by Thomas Jefferson, and the purchase of Alaska by William H. Seward. The Louisiana Purchases has generated several United States stamps and is dealt with in the section on United States Map Stamps.

     William Henry Seward (1801-1872) was Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. In the latter capacity he negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7 million 200 thousand. It was not until gold was discovered in Alaska in 1890 that the territory overcame the reputation of "Seward's Folly." Alaska became a State of the United States in 1959.