Remonstrance Exhibit Opens
Photo Jason D. Antos (L. to r.), Queens Borough Public Library Director Thomas W. Galante, Sharon Wilkins of the Association of Public Historians of New York State, Borough President Helen Marshall, Association of Public Historians of New York State President Carol McKenna and Susan Kathryn Hefti, curator of the exhibit and descendent of two signers of the Remonstrance.
A new exhibit honoring the Flushing Remonstrance was opened on Tuesday, November 10 at the Flushing branch of the Queens Borough Public Library.
Borough President Helen M. Marshall began the ceremony opening the exhibit by speaking about the importance of remembering the history of the Flushing Remonstrance, which became the earliest declaration of religious freedom in the New World. “It is not only fitting, but appropriate that this document was written in what today has become America’s most diverse county,” Marshall declared. “Here, in Queens, we take great pride in the Flushing Remonstrance and its legacy of tolerance and liberty.”
Entitled “The Flushing Remonstrance: Who Shall Plead for Us?” the panel exhibit is presented by the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Archive at Queensborough Community College.
Dr. Eduardo Marti, Queensborough Community College president, was enthusiastic about the show’s presence in the area as well. “This represents what Queens and New York City are all about,” Marti said.
The exhibition covers the long historic journey that led up to the creation of the Flushing Remonstrance. Signed in 1657, the document, which would ultimately become one of the foundations of the Bill of Rights, was created by 30 English settlers from Flushing and Jamaica who demanded freedom of worship in the colony of New Amsterdam. The settlers revolted after Peter Stuyvesant, who was the Director General of the colony, demanded that all residents of New Netherland, especially Quakers, swear allegiance to the Dutch Reformed Church, for no other religion was acceptable to him.
Susan Kathryn Hefti, curator and writer of the exhibit and descendant of two Remonstrance signers, hopes that her work will both educate and promote discussion. “The Flushing Remonstrance makes us ask a very important question,” Hefti said. “Why would 30 English settlers, all financially comfortable, risk imprisonment, banishment or even torture, all for the sake of the Quakers, which they themselves were not?”
Hefti said she wants to also reach many other areas of the city and even across the country with this historical exhibit. “We designed this as a traveling show which can be displayed at any museum, library or historical society,” she said. “The panels explore not only the impact this document had on Quakers, but the everlasting impact on all of New York City and throughout America.”
The exhibit will be on display at the Queens Library Flushing branch, 41-17 Main St. near Kissena Boulevard from November 10 through December 31 during the library’s regular hours, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Admission is free.
—Jason D. Antos
