Washington Irving as Folk Historian

This chapter examines the material and popular culture of New Netherland, demonstrating their function in A History of New York 's narrative. It considers folk customs, the Dutch habit of pipe-smoking, Dutch dietary customs, folk belief, and spotsagen or tall tales. Carefully selected from what had withstood the changes of time and was part of his personal experience, the popular culture depicted in the History provides rich texture for the relation of historical events and preserves the essence of seventeenth-century Dutch life as it was still lived in the Hudson River region of Washington Irving's youth. This comprehensive accumulation also serves a secondary purpose: whatever is selected frequently supports the point Irving seeks to establish in the narrative. The scope is broadened somewhat beyond New Netherland to include other cultures. Here Irving demonstrates an awareness of the eastern seaboard's diversity; in fact, he repeatedly pretends that the cultural practices of the Dutch and English colonies diverge more than was actually the case. The result is that the History occasionally reflects a welding of separate cultures into one, of which the parts continued to be visible in Irving's day and beyond.