A Dutch door (American English), stable door (British English), or half door (Hiberno English), is a door divided in such a fashion that the bottom half may remain shut while the top half opens. They were known in early New England as a double-hung door. The initial purpose of this door design was to keep animals out of farmhouses or to keep children inside while allowing light and air to filter through the open top; essentially combining a door with a fairly large window. When the top half was open they also allowed a breeze, but stopped the wind from blowing dirt into the house. This type of door was common in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century and appears in Dutch paintings of the period. They were also commonly found in the Dutch cultural areas of New York and New Jersey before