The Society of Daughters of Holland Dames is a hereditary organization founded in 1895 whose purpose is to preserve and promote the historical legacy of the seventeenth-century Dutch settlers of New Netherland.
[3] Complementing an initiative by the Holland Society of New York, the Society partnered with the New Netherland Institute (NNI) to promote the availability of online transcriptions and translations of the original seventeenth-century New Netherland administrative records housed at the New York State Library and Archives.
[4] The translation of these manuscripts has contributed to an understanding of the impact of the Dutch on the founding of the United States of America and became the historical basis of Russell Shorto's book Island at the Center of the World and many other scholarly works.
The Society commissioned a stained-glass window documenting the arrival in 1609 of Henry Hudson's ship the Halve Maen.
Another window donated by the Society is found in St Mark's Church in-the-Bowery to acknowledge Peter Stuyvesant's contribution to New York City.