W ithin the glass cases and on the back-room shelves of New Jersey’s history institutions rest the props from nearly 350 years of Garden State heritage. From documents to locomotives to manmade landscapes, each helps to tell the story of New Jersey, from colony to state. In the fall of 2012, GSL asked New Jersey’s historic sites, museums, archives, libraries, and groups to identify up to three artifacts from their collections which they most-prize for their historic significance. The response has been wonderful! So much so, that an expanded book is being planned for release in time for the 350th anniversary of New Jersey’s founding in 2014. If your NJhistory organization is not in this article, but would like to be part of the book, please send an email to [email protected] the word “Artifacts” in the subject line. This promises to be a creative way to promote your organization and a great fundraiser—as well as celebrate the Garden State’s rich and varied heritage. Note: This article is organized in alphabetical order by the name of the organization. Prized Artifacts of the Garden State • www.GardenStateLegacy.com December 2012 The American Labor Museum is housed in the 1908 Botto House National Landmark. The American Labor Botto House was built for and owned by Italian immigrant and silk mill worker, Pietro Botto Museum/ Botto House and his wife Maria. The museum features changing exhibits, restored period rooms and Old National Landmark World Gardens that reflect the lifestyle of an immigrant family of the early 1900s, a free 83 Norwood Street lending library, and a Museum Store. Exhibit receptions, lectures, poetry readings, teachers' Haledon, NJ 07508 workshops and other special events are offered. The Museum's education program www.labormuseum.net provides on-site fieldtrip programs, including Millworker/Millowner and Labor Education (973) 595-7953 Tour, and virtual fieldtrips via videoconferencing. A prized object in the American Labor Museum's collection is an original program from the "Pageant of the Paterson Silk Strike," performed by the Paterson silk mill workers themselves on the stage of (the former) Madison Square Garden on June 7th, 1913. The Pageant represented collaboration between New York City intellectuals, artists "bohemians" and the workers. Its purpose was to raise funds for the strike's relief effort. Though it failed in this purpose, it proved to be the greatest effort to get publicity for the strikers' struggle for an eight-hour day, safer working conditions, and an end to child labor. The program's powerful cover image was created by the artist Robert Edmund Jones. The multi-page program contains photographs and essays explaining the events of the strike. There are also advertisements on the back cover. This collection piece is currently safely stored in our Collection Room. Prized Artifacts of the Garden State • www.GardenStateLegacy.com December 2012 The Avalon Free Public Library History Center, formerly the Avalon Museum, serves as an Avalon Public Free informational and cultural Gateway to Avalon for all residents and visitors. The Center’s Library History Center visitors explore Avalon’s past, present, and future in visually exciting, intellectually accessible, and emotionally evocative new exhibits and public programs. The History Center 215 39th Street is an educational institution that serves to engage and inspire a large and diverse audience Avalon, NJ 08202 with links to the past, understanding in the present, and guidance for the future by www.avalonhistorycenter.com preserving regional history and presenting the American experience with a southern New (609) 967-0090 Jersey influence, particularly Avalon. The object the Avalon Public Free Library History Center considers most-treasured to its History Center is their circa 1930s paddleboard. Before the advent of all the new lifesaving methods and materials, the lifeguards in Avalon used this paddleboard for rescues. As the decades past, and the lifesaving crew of Avalon modernized, the paddleboard ended up being stored in a garage for some 50-odd years. By the time it made its way to the History Center, it was in a state of near disrepair, with a totally rotted rear panel, and filled with holes in the front. After undertaking a conservation project, with the help of a master shipwright, Timo White of the Tuckerton Seaport Museum, the The “paddleboard” as it looked paddleboard was restored to its prior to restoration by master shipwright Timo White from the former glory of the early 20th Tuckerton Seaport Museum. century. Other objects in the collection definitely have larger price tags and "flash" value, but nothing so captures the spirit of the resort community of Avalon like this lifesaving paddleboard. Crowning the conservation work was an appearance of the paddleboard on Philadelphia CBS News 3's program, Kathy Orr at the Shore. It felt like the full circle had been completed. Prized Artifacts of the Garden State • www.GardenStateLegacy.com December 2012 Camp Evans was once the 1914 Marconi Belmar Trans-Atlantic Wireless station, opened Camp Evans / world-wide wireless communications, played an important role in WWI Trans-Atlantic InfoAge Center communications, the first campus of The King's College, played a key role the development of radar as an effective WWII secret weapon, opened space communications in 1946, was 2201 Marconi Road a cold war technology site, a nuclear weapons research site, visited by Senator Joseph Wall, NJ 07719 McCarthy as he suspected a communist spy ring may have been operating here, the www.campevans.org birthplace of satellite based hurricane tracking, was a pre-NASA space research site, and is 732-280-3000 a black history site. Now also home of the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Camp Evans, a former military base associated with Fort Monmouth, may have one of the largest artifacts—the TIROS weather satellite antenna. Sixty feet across by six stories tall, it was built in 1957 for command and control of the Television InfraRed Observation System (TIROS) from Camp Evans in Wall, New Jersey. TIROS I was the first successful weather satellite, launched by NASA and partners at 6:40 a.m. EST on April 1, 1960, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The first image sent to Earth from the satellite was developed into a photograph. It was considered so great a feat, that the print was flown to Washington D.C. for presentation to then-President Eisenhower. A few days later the discovery was made that hurricanes could be seen from space. Hurricane tracking was born in New Jersey on April 9th, 1960. Since that time hundreds of thousands of persons owe their lives worldwide to the early warnings from satellites. Prized Artifacts of the Garden State • www.GardenStateLegacy.com December 2012 The Civil War Museum consists of Civil War artifacts and pictures left to us by the three Civil War Museum Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Posts that operated in the Trenton area. They are of the General James A. Garfield displayed in two rooms. The Frederick Dauber Room contains artifacts and pictures from Camp No. 4 Sons of Union Veterans the Civil War including the National Colors of the 3rd NJ Militia Regiment carried across the of the Civil War Potomac River into the Confederacy in May 1861, Springfield rifle-muskets that were National Guard Armory manufactured in Trenton under contract, and other weapons, personal gear, and items of 151 Eggerts Crossing Road equipment used during the Civil War by New Jersey soldiers. The second room contains Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 (609) 671-6634 New Jersey GAR artifacts. Top:Future Medal of Honor recipient, Sergeant John Beech, carried these National Colors of the 3rd New Jersey Militia Regiment over the Long Bridge into Virginia on the morning of May 21, 1861 as part of the Union Army's first advances into the Confederacy. Bottom Left:This elaborate presentation grade officer's sword features a figural grip and a gold- washed etched blade. The sword was made by Trenton-based Emerson and Silver, one of the more prolific manufacturers of swords for the Union Army. Bottom Right: These six Model 1861 Springfield Rifle Muskets were manufactured under two simultaneous contracts, for 50,000 arms each, at $20 per arm, that the federal government awarded to Addison M. Burt and James T. Hodge of the Trenton Arms Company, located in a closed down Trenton Locomotive and Machine Manufacturing Company facility. Only 21,995 Trenton Rifle Muskets of the 100,000 originally contracted were produced due to financial and production problems. The State of New Jersey purchased 10,000 and an unknown number were produced for other states and private sources. Prized Artifacts of the Garden State • www.GardenStateLegacy.com December 2012 Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park The Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission was established in October, 1974, when See website for parks. Governor Brendan Byrne signed the D&R Canal State Park Law. www.dandrcanal.com The canal system was dug mostly by hand tools, mostly by Irish immigrants. Work began in 1830 and was completed in 1834, at an estimated cost of $2,830,000. When the canal first opened, teams of mules were used to tow canal boats through it (the steam engine was not yet applied to such uses). The canal's greatest usage occurred during the 1860s and 1870s, when it was used primarily to transport coal from Pennsylvania to New York City, during the Industrial Revolution. On May 18, 1872, the D&R Canal Company was merged with several parallel railroads into the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company, and leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Over time, the importance of the D&R Canal waned as railroads were used to perform, more rapidly, the same function as canals, but it remained in operation until 1932. In 1974, most of the canal system was declared a New Jersey state park. It remains one today, and is used for canoeing, kayaking, and fishing. The Delaware and Raritan Canal was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Prized Artifacts of the Garden State • www.GardenStateLegacy.com December 2012 The Doo Wop Preservation League is a 501 c3 non-profit organization. The Doo Wop The Doo Wop Experience Experience is a vintage gallery, food/gift concession, neon sign garden, and outdoor stage and Neon Sign Garden for concerts. Our mission is to foster awareness and appreciation of the popular culture and imagery of the '50s and '60s and to promote the preservation of the largest 4500 Ocean Avenue concentration of mid-century (Doo Wop) architecture in the USA. We preserved the former Wildwood, NJ 08260 Surfside Diner built in 1963, and used the superstructure to house our prized artifacts. www.doowopusa.org When the diner became endangered we raised money and put the columns and beams in (609) 523-1958 storage. The diner was re-assembled at its current location in 2006. The "Welcome to Zaberville" sign sat outside Ed Zaberer's legendary restaurant since 1954 and welcomed visitors at the north entrance to the Wildwoods in the Anglesea section of the barrier island. The sign found a home in the Doo Wop Experience. "Eventually, he [Zaberer] offered 12 dining rooms with seating for 1,600, 6 bars requiring staff of 35 bartenders, and 10 lounges. Each night, Zaberer served 4,000 people. Among those who frequented the famous eatery were Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, New Wildwoods saw exceptional Jersey Governor Richard Hughes, growth when the Garden State Jimmy Durante, Don Rickles, and Parkway was completed in 1955 Muhammad Ali. The secrets to and with ever-increasing beaches Zaberer's success were Wildwood Crest expanded atmosphere, quality, and fair eastward toward the ocean with pricing. The term ‘to Zaberize’ new sections of motels. came into usage for anything that Approximately 100 motels were was done in a big way."* built between 1954 and 1964 in the Wildwoods. The neon garden outside the Doo Wop Experience contains some of The building, sign garden, and the signs from demolished motels; "Zaberville" sign are all located at the White Star is a motel that got a the Doo Wop Experience. The new sign and later changed its building is open in the summer, name. Las Vegas has a neon and off-season you may call for an graveyard, but ours are lit appointment. whenever possible so they are very much alive. They remind us of our * Francis, David W. and others. "Wildwood by the heritage as a family destination for Sea: The History of an American Resort." Ohio: post-war vacationers. The Amusement Park Books, Inc. 1998. Prized Artifacts of the Garden State • www.GardenStateLegacy.com December 2012 The Fleetwood Museum was established in 1985 and exhibits the camera collection of Fleetwood Museum of Benjamin Fleetwood and the oil paintings of his wife, the late Matilda Fleetwood. Art and Photographica Sponsored by the Green Acres Commission of the Borough of North Plainfield, New Jersey 314 Greenbrook Avenue and the Plainfield Foundation, the museum is housed in the Vermeule Community Center, North Plainfield, NJ 07063 an early 19th century mansion. The museum contains over 800 cameras, illustrating the www.fleetwoodmuseum.org 150 year evolution of camera design, and examples of many of the photographic processes (908) 230-5946 which evolved during that period. The mission of the museum is to preserve and display these artifacts and to use them to stimulate interest in the art and science of photography. This attractive camera—the Jem Jr. 120—with two lightening bolts, is a metal box camera which was made by the J.E. Mergott Company, a metals firm, in the 1940s. The company, founded in 1894, was located on, Jeliff Street in Newark. Advertisements boasted that the camera took eight 2-1/4 x 3-1/4 negatives on standard size 120 roll film. Directions for taking pictures in the instruction manual read, “Hold camera firmly against body at waist level. Sight your subject in the viewfinder, and, when ready, press shutter lever gently but firmly down as far as it will go, then let it return.” It sold for $4.95. The Fleetwood’s Jem Jr. 120 is in excellent condition and is on display in our box camera collection. The Fleetwood Museum of Art and Photographica has a large collection of Weston Exposure meters. Edward Weston, the prolific Newark inventor, and a founder of the Newark College of Engineering predecessor to NJIT, produced his first exposure meter in 1932. His meters were a favorite of prominent photographers like Ansel Adams. Prized Artifacts of the Garden State • www.GardenStateLegacy.com December 2012 The land that was to become Haddon Heights was settled in 1699 by John Hinchman. In The Haddon Heights 1713, John Siddon built a farmhouse near Hinchman's property. John Thorn Glover Historical Society dammed King's Run and constructed a mill race and fulling mill on this property before 1776. Jacob Hinchman built a frame dwelling no later than 1720 that was later enlarged by PO Box 118 American Revolutionary War hero Col. Joseph Ellis. New Jersey governor Joseph Bloomfield Haddon Heights, NJ 08035 later purchased this property. Benjamin A. Lippincott, with Charles Hillman, filed a grid www.hhhistorical.org street plan with Camden County to develop a community. They named it Haddon Heights because of its proximity to Haddonfield and its high elevation. Top: The railroad came to Haddon Heights, New Jersey, in 1877 with the Philadelphia and Atlantic City Railroad. In 1890, Benjamin A. Lippincott was given permission by the company to construct a passenger station. Lippincott and other property owners around the station began to subdivide and sell their land, leading to the growth of the community and the incorporation of the Borough of Haddon Heights in 1904. Lippincott also constructed a freight storage station in 1906. Passenger service continued until 1965 and the tracks are still used for freight service. Haddon Heights is one of the few towns in the Garden State with both the passenger and freight stations intact around which its community grew. Bottom: In 1936, nearly a thousand boy scouts, girl scouts, and visitors assembled in the Haddon Heights municipal park to witness the dedication of a log cabin built by the Boy Scouts as a meeting place. Measuring 25-feet by 40-feet and including a fireplace built of stones the scouts dug from a nearby park, the cabin served the community's youth for decades. By the dawn of the 21st century, however, it had fallen Prized Artifacts of the Garden State • www.GardenStateLegacy.com December 2012 into a state of disrepair, so the Mayor and Council approved its rehabilitation. Today, it remains a center of Haddon Heights' community life as a space available for rent for private parties and functions. Top: In 1903 a drinking fountain was placed at the intersection of White Horse Pike and King's Highway, dedicated as a memorial to Chalkley Albertson by his son, John J. Albertson. Alberston senior served in the New Jersey State Assembly in 1863, 1864, 1867, and 1873. It was meant to slake the thirst not of travelers, but their horses. In 1938, however, automobiles had replaced enough of the animals that, after it fell out of use, the John J. Albertson (1858-1928) erected the water fountain in memory of his father. fountain was moved to a park. Alberston junior served as Camden County The times had changed enough Engineer from 1892-1928 and Borough that after many years most Engineer for Haddon Heights, Audubon, Barrington, Magnolia, Oaklyn, and people in town had no idea what Collingswood, New Jersey. it was. It was returned to its previous vicinity in 2003 where it is displayed prominently with an The Haddon Heights Historical Society has explanatory marker. The fountain erected plaques near the train station, log cabin, and drinking fountain, explaining is especially significant as a their significance to the community’s reminder of life and travel in the development. early part of the twentieth century. Prized Artifacts of the Garden State • www.GardenStateLegacy.com December 2012