LL-L "History" 2008.06.08 (09) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 08 June 2008 - Volume 09
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From: Pat Reynolds <pat at caerlas.demon.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "History" 2008.06.07 (06) [E]

In message <57c981290806071503j7ee6d4c3yc51b9b6ed4f24935 at mail.gmail.com>,
Lowlands-L List <lowlands.list at GMAIL.COM> i.e. Fred van Brederode writes

> In the beginning of this year I announced on our LL list the trip I was
> going to make a trip to San Francisco. I have been back for ages again, but
> looking at the pictures I remember a large building in the city center
> flying a Dutch (Netherlands) flag: the horizontal tricolor of red, white and
> blue bands. It was not the Dutch consulate or something and I remember
> having seen this on the east coast (at least in New England) on a rather
> large scale. Especially antique shops there fly the tricolor flag. Sometimes
> they have the word "open" printed in the middle (white) band.
>
> The legend says that Dutch was only this close to becoming the official
> language of the US. We are quite convinced these days that this truly is a
> legend, but the flying tricolors on the other hand are really there. Could
> it be true that the independent US always regretted the British took over
> and longed back for the Peter Stuijvesandt era with the good old red, white
> and blue bands. Will this explain their flagging behaviour? Or would there
> be some other explanation?
>

Interesting .... my first question would be 'does this flag really refer to
the Netherlands, or is it co-incidental, or is there a link but not one that
the flag-fliers would necessarily be aware of?  This page:
http://www.americanflagshoppe.com/flagstore/searchresult.aspx?CategoryID=12suggests
there is no Netherlands reference.  'Red white and blue' may seem
the 'natural' flag colours in the US because they are on the US flag.
 Americans don't seem to think it has anything to do with the Netherlands:
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/733717

On the other hand, I do think that 'becoming American' was seen by many of
the descendents of people who settled in the 'Dutch' colonies was viewed as
a positive change from being/becoming a 'British colonial'. In part that was
because even at the point where the British took over, even Manhattan was
not Holland-in-America: for one thing the diversity national and ethnic
backgrounds of people here was remarkable: 'being Dutch' was also an issue.

Can I recomend 'Holland Mania' by Annette Stott?  This charts the re-use of
Dutch icons in the United States

Cheers,

Pat
-- 
Pat Reynolds

It may look messy now ...
       ... but just you come back in 500 years time (T. Pratchett).

•

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