Mid-West Branch
Contact:
Robert Schenck
rschenckmd@aol.com
Midwest Branch Learns How Henry Hudson Sailed to New Amsterdam
Sixteen Holland Society Members and Friends visited the oldest planetarium in the United States, the Adler,
in Chicago on May 1, 2008. Attendees came from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Washington State. They
enjoyed a wonderful luncheon, with Chicago's beautiful lakefront skyline in the background. Then Midwest Chapter
President Dr. Robert Schenck gave a Power Point presentation on Henry Hudson and his voyages, as well as maritime
instruments and methods sailors used to determine their position by fixing on the sun and the stars. He reported
the Dutch had almost a monopoly on accurate charts of the oceans, and kept that lead for over a hundred years in
the 16th and 17th centuries.
After lunch, Marvin Bolt, Ph. D., Director of the Adler's Webster Institute for the History of
Astronomy introduced us to one of the foremost collections of ancient scientific instruments used for navigation.
We also received a lecture by a trustee of the Adler, who just happened to be of Dutch heritage, demonstrating old
maps of the world, many of them of Dutch origin.
Dr. Robert Schenck, MidWest Branch Holland Society President,
is holding an orange that he used as a visual guide to
demonstrate longitude and latitude, during his presentation about maritime navigation.
Attendees shown in the photo are:
Sitting: Frank Lester, John Schellinger, Marcia Whitney-Schenck.
Standing, Left to Right: Gary Sprong, John Van Etten, Lynn Van Etten, Jack Schermerhorn, Claire Schermerhorn,
John Lansing, Ann Schenck, Dr. Robert Schenck, Diane VanDerbeek, Lynn Van Tassel, James Van Tassel, and John
VanDerbeek, Holland Society National President. Not in picture: Joyce Lester.
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