Dutch Americans
While the Netherlands was a small country, the Dutch Empire was quite large so emigrants leaving the mother country had a wide variety of choices. New Amsterdam was not high on their list, especially because of the Native American risk. The major Dutch cities were centers of high culture, but they still sent immigrants. Most new arrivals were farmers from remote villages who, on arrival, in America scattered into widely separated villages with little contact with one another. Even inside a settlement, different Dutch groups had minimal interaction. With very few new arrivals, the result was an increasingly traditional system cut off from the forces for change. The people maintained their popular culture, revolving around their language and their Calvinist religion. The Dutch brought along their own folklore, most famously "Sinterklaas" (the foundation of the modern day Santa Claus) and created their own as in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". They maintained their distinctive clothing, and food preferences and introduced some new foods to America, including beets, endive, spinach, parsley, and cookies.
Dutch Bantam
Diminutive chickens of similar coloration to today's Dutch Bantams have been seen in the Netherlands for hundreds of years, but the exact origin of the breed is unclear. It is likely that the ancestors of the Dutch Bantam were Southeast Asian bantams brought back by sailors from the Dutch East Indies. Historically, it is supposed that these tiny chickens were selectively bred because only small eggs could be kept by peasant farmers, while larger ones were required to be sent to the kitchens of the landed gentry. The first written reference to the Dutch Bantam as a distinct breed is in the "Hand- en standaardboek" of R.T. Maitland, director of the of The Hague, published in 1882; he referred to them as , "partridge bantams". The Nederlandse Hoender Club, the Dutch national poultry club, recognized the breed in 1906. A breeders' association, the Hollandse Krielenfokkers Club, was formed in 1946.