NJ Weekend Historical Happenings: 1/25/20 - 1/26/20

 New Jersey Weekend Historical Happenings

A Weekly Feature on www.thehistorygirl.com

Want to submit an event? Use our event submission form.

Saturday, January 25 - Montague Township, Sussex County
Winter Festival - CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER 
Family Friendly Event

Bring the whole family for a day of winter fun at High Point State Park. Activities will include winter-themed crafts, a story corner, guided winter hike, sing-along, hot cocoa and cookies by the fire, winter weather program, sled dogs, curling, snowshoeing, and ice-fishing demonstrations (conditions permitting). Please park in the gravel lot and walk up to the Interpretive Center.

The New Jersey Dog Sled Club will attend and present an education program and sled dog demonstration.

The Plainfield Curling club will share their love of curling on Lake Marcia so be sure to stop by for a demonstration and to tryout the sport for yourself.

  
Interpretive Center:
Bird Feeder & Winter Themed Crafts for Children
Cookies, Hot Cocoa, and Beignets by the Fireplace
Storytime & Sing Along
Guided Winter Hike
Winter Weather Talk with Nick Stefano
Snowshoeing*
New Jersey Sled Dog Club Education Program & Demonstration

Lake Marcia:
Plainfield Curling Club Demonstration*
Ice Fishing Demonstration*
(*Ice and snow conditions permitting)

These programs will be held at the High Point State Park Interpretive Center and Lake Marcia. This event is FREE but a donation of $5 or more per family appreciated. For more information, visit www.friendsofhighpointstatepark.org.

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Saturday, January 25 - Cape May, Cape May County
Emlen Physick Estate Tour
Family Friendly Tour

Take a guided tour of Cape May's Emlen Physick Estate, the magnificent Stick Style mansion attributed to renowned Victorian architect Frank Furness. A tour of the 15 beautifully restored rooms gives you a glimpse into the lifestyle of this Victorian-era Cape May family. Physick Estate Tours take approximately 45 minutes and end with a visit to the 1876 Carriage House where you can see the current exhibit in the Carroll Gallery. Tours will be at 1:45 pm on Saturday. Admission is $15 for adults, $8 for children (ages 3-12). Tickets can be purchased at the Emlen Physick Estate, 1048 Washington Street, Cape May, NJ. Sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC). For more information and to reserve tickets, call 609-884-5404 or 800-275-4278 or visit www.capemaymac.org.

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Saturday, January 25 - Holmdel, Monmouth County
Parlor Games for Wintry Weather  
Ages 6+

On Saturday, visit Historic Longstreet Farm in Holmdel to beat the winter blues - and beat your opponent too! Learn to play forgotten 1890s games like Halma and Basilinda, or old-time favorites like Backgammon, Checkers and Reversi. Open to ages 6 and up. This free events run from 12:00 noon - 2:30 pm.

Historic Longstreet Farm is located at 44 Longstreet Road, Holmdel, NJ. For more information, call 732-946-3758 or visit www.monmouthcountyparks.com.

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Saturday - Sunday, January 25 - 26 - Cape May, Cape May County
Cape May Historic District Trolley Tour

Enjoy a 45 minute guided tour with entertaining and enlightening stories about the nation's oldest seaside resort and how it survived. Accessible trolley available with advance notification. Tours begin and end at the Washington Street Mall Information Booth.

Adults $15 and children (ages 3-12) $8. Tours on Saturday at 1:00 pm and Sunday at 1:00 pm. Sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC). For more information and to reserve tickets, call 609-884-5404 or 800-275-4278 or visit www.capemaymac.org.

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Saturday - Sunday, January 25 - 26 - Cape May, Cape May County
Physick Estate Scavenger Hunt
Family Friendly


Have an adventure the whole family will enjoy at the 1879 Emlen Physick Estate! Use our map to explore the grounds and find the answers to questions about the Physick family and life in Victorian times on this educational scavenger hunt. Turn in your answer sheet at the Carriage House Museum Shop and receive a prize!

Free; donations accepted. Maps and clues available at the Hill House office or the Carriage House Visitors Center at the Emlen Physick Estate. The Emlem Physick Estate is located at 1048 Washington Street, Cape May, NJ. Sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC). For more information and to reserve tickets, call 609-884-5404 or 800-275-4278 or visit www.capemaymac.org.

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Saturdays & Sundays Through January 31 - Upper Freehold, Monmouth County
Curl Up With a Good Book
Ages 5+

We are offering an array of our favorite American historical fiction for adults and children to inspire you to curl up with a good book to peek into our (fictionalized) past. Book Club, read-a-loud family story time, or personal pleasure, we offer selections that may be familiar or may have been forgotten over time - come and see our recommendations on display. Open to ages 5 and up.

This event will take place at Historic Walnford on Saturdays and Sundays from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm.

While there, visit the large, elegant Walnford home built in 1774, the 19th century gristmill and the farm buildings set in a beautiful landscape. Walnford is located at 62 Walnford Road, 08501. For more information, call 609-259-6275 or visit www.monmouthcountyparks.com.

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Sunday, January 26 - Maplewood, Essex County
Annual Open Hearth Cooking Demonstration
Children Friendly Site

In an annual tradition spanning over 35 years, visitors have gathered around Durand-Hedden’s 18th century hearth and experienced how Maplewood residents of long ago cooked, ate, and kept warm during the long winter months. This tradition takes place on Sunday from 1:00 - 4:00 pm.

Durand-Hedden is pleased once again to welcome cook Margaret Quinn to its kitchen. Margaret is the spirited shearer who trimmed the wool from visiting sheep at our From Fleece to Cloth event in April two years ago and will bring the same energy and skill to our fireplace. Margaret has worked in the living history field for over twenty years and has become proficient at wood stove and open earth cooking. She continually expands her culinary knowledge as a participant in the Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums and the Historic Foodways Society of the Delaware Valley.

On the menu this year will be sweet pork sausage and apples sautéed at the hearth in a spider (a short-handled three-legged skillet) then topped with gravy, parsnips stewed in a kettle hanging from the crane over the fire, and beef collops and potatoes also fried in a spider. For a sweet there will be rice pudding, possibly accompanied by a surprise baked in the reflector oven.

As usual, visitors will enjoy learning about the history of the food and the fireside cooking techniques that Margaret is using and will love sampling centuries-old treats. Children can try their hands at old-fashioned cooking chores such as kneading dough and churning butter. 

Durand-Hedden’s mid-winter open-hearth cooking demonstration has become an annual tradition to honor late longtime trustee, Irene Kosinski. Irene, a gifted educator and lover of living history, who oversaw the restoration of Durand-Hedden’s beehive oven in 1981. She went on to establish our perpetually popular open-hearth cooking program, which for thirty years has drawn visitors ‘hungry’ for history. Join us on Sunday and see why many visitors return for this wonderful tradition year after year.

Check out our Country Store’s historic-themed treasures: early American games, books, and toys; facsimile documents; quill pens and ink; historic cookbooks; cookie molds; tin lanterns; and reproductive decorative items and ceramics. There is local honey and the Original 1910 Chocolate Fudge Sauce. You’ll also discover the hard-to-find original Doors of Maplewood poster, Smile, the history of Olympic Park, and the new acid-free reproduction of the charming 1931 map of Maplewood.

Durand-Hedden House is dedicated to telling the history of the development of Maplewood, New Jersey and the surrounding area in new and engaging ways. It is located in Grasmere Park at 523 Ridgewood Road in Maplewood, New Jersey. For more information, call 973-763-7712 or visit www.durandhedden.org.

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Sunday, January 26 - Princeton, Mercer County
Historic Princeton Walking Tour
Children Friendly Tour

Enjoy a 1.9 mile, two-hour walk around downtown Princeton and the University campus as you learn about historic sites in the area, including Bainbridge House, Nassau Hall, the University Chapel, and Palmer Square. The early history of Princeton, the founding of the University, and the American Revolution are just some of the stories from Princeton’s history that you will learn on your tour.

Admission: $7 per adult; $4 children ages 6 to 12; free for children age 5 and under. Tours begin in front of the Bainbridge House, 158 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ. Tour begins at 2:00 pm and ends at 4:00 pm. Walk up ticket sales are cash only; guides cannot provide change. Space is limited. For more information and to reserve tickets, call 609-921-6748 or visit www.princetonhistory.org.

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Sunday, January 26 - River Edge, Bergen County
Brigit’s Day and Candlemas
Children Friendly Event

Are the days too frigid and the nights too long for you at this time of year? Is darkness depressing and the cold’s in your bones? One solution is a trip to the tropics, but if that doesn’t fit your schedule, come celebrate Brigid’s Day and Candlemas at Historic New Bridge Landing along the Hackensack River in River Edge on Sunday from 1:00 - 5:00 pm.

Escape the winter blues as people did for over a thousand years in celebrations of warmth, light, and music. Sit in the main room of the 267-year-old Steuben House and tap your feet to Irish music played by The Racket River Girls. With fiddle, guitar, concertina, and harmonious vocals, they’ll transport you back to old Ireland; you’ll swear you smell the peat fire! Performances are at 1:30 and 3:30 pm.

We are rolling out new exhibits in the Steuben House featuring BCHS’s collections of New Netherland and Jersey-Dutch artifacts including artifacts we received from the George Way estate. Several items, for example a large trivet, are marriage relics featuring hearts. George Way was a collector of 16th and 17th century material culture. Jonathan Friedman benefited BCHS with several objects after Way’s passing.

Make sure to stop by the Out-Kitchen to see how candle-making was done; drop in the tavern for some seasonal refreshments or a peek at the treasures in the gift shop. Wee ones with you? They can make an authentic brideog (a Brigid’s Day doll) from corn husks or fashion an Irish Brigid’s Cross from reeds. As always, the eighteenth century stone houses will be open with knowledgeable interpreters to help you understand the lives of earlier Bergen residents.

Brigit’s Day and Candlemas come midway between the winter solstice and spring equinox, when snowdrops, the first flower of spring, make their appearance, signaling nature’s awakening from winter’s sleep. Candlemas is named for the blessing of candles, used to protect homes and for procession through farm field and orchard. As evidenced by Groundhog’s Day, weather prognostication was commonly practiced in anticipation of spring sowing. Good weather at Candlemas is taken to indicate severe winter weather later. Hence, the saying, “If Candlemas Day is bright and clear, there'll be two winters in the year. Another old English proverb proclaimed, “If Candlemas be fair and bright, winter has another flight. If Candlemas brings clouds and rain, winter will not come again.” Rush crosses, woven for Brigid’s Day, were believed to protect house and livestock from adversity.

All three Jersey-Dutch Houses will be open for tours, with refreshments available in the Campbell-Christie Tavern for an additional charge. Admission: $12 adult, $7 sudents 6-22 years old, and BCHS members free. Historic New Bridge Landing is located at 1201-1209 Main Street, River Edge, NJ. For more information, call 201-343-9492 or visit www.bergencountyhistory.org.

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Through Tuesday, March 3, 2020 -  Morristown, Morris County
Keeping Warm in the 19th Century

During the last half of the 19th century, the northeastern U.S. was pounded by massive blizzards that dropped four to five feet of snow in many parts of the country and temperatures so frigid that the East River froze over more than a dozen times. To cope with these weather extremes, our Victorian ancestors had only a fireplace or their clothing to shield them from the cold.

Morris County Historical Society’s new exhibit, “Warmest Winter Fashions, 1860-1900,” highlights nearly two dozen cold weather garments worn by adults and children, including coats, muffs, and capes.

Designed to complement the 30 garments already on display, “Warmest Winter Fashions” will be available from through Tuesday, March 3.

Before visiting Acorn Hall, check Groupon for discounted tickets with an optional MCHS Family Membership. The membership is a perfect gift or to keep for yourself. Acorn Hall is now open for tours, 11:00 am - 4:00 pm, on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday.

Acorn Hall is located at 68 Morris Avenue, Morristown, NJ. Admission, which includes the exhibits, is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors, $3 for students, and is free for children under 12 and MCHS members. For more information, call 973-267-3465 or visit www.MorrisCountyHistory.org.

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Through June 28, 2020 - Trenton, Mercer County
Preserving the Pinelands: Albert Horner’s Portraits of a National Treasure

The New Jersey State Museum is hosting  Preserving the Pinelands: Albert Horner’s Portraits of a National Treasure from through June 28, 2020 in the 1st floor East Gallery. The exhibit features images which capture the quiet beauty and intimate landscapes of New Jersey’s Pinelands National Reserve by photographer Albert Horner, and artifacts from the NJ State Museum’s collections which tell just some of the stories of the land, animals, people, and industries that make the Reserve a state and national treasure. Horner, a self-taught photographer from Medford Lakes, brings curiosity, reverence and a practiced eye to his craft, recording the forests, cedar swamps, meandering waterways and native wildflowers that make the Pinelands unique. In addition to being home to rare plant and animal species, the Reserve also contains archaeological sites and a vibrant cultural history of craftspeople, industry and agriculture.

The museum is open Tuesday - Sunday from 9:00 am to 4:45 pm. It is closed Mondays and on state holidays. The New Jersey State Museum is located at 205 West State Street, Trenton, NJ. For more information, 609-292-6300 or visit www.state.nj.us/state/museum/index.html.

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Through June 28, 2020 -  Piscataway, Middlesex County
Mid-Century New Jersey Exhibit

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Through 2020 - Ocean Township, Monmouth County

"Votes for Women: The Story of Suffrage"

When the Founders crafted the U.S. Constitution, they gave the authority to decide who could vote to the states. All but one decided it would be men—white, property-owning men, 21 years old and older.

The one exception was New Jersey. For the first few decades of our new nation, property-owning women in New Jersey could vote. But in 1807, state legislators took a step backward and rescinded the right. New Jersey women joined their sisters across the country who were shut off from the ballot.

The new exhibit, “Votes for Women: The Story of Suffrage” opening in the Woolley House, Sunday, tells of the remarkable campaign waged by women across the country to gain (and for New Jersey women, to regain) the vote.

The Start of a Movement
Most historians mark the start of the American suffrage movement from the 1848 Women’s Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Both women had discovered their political voice fighting for the abolition of slavery. Both had felt the sting of being shut out by male-dominated leadership. They were outraged, frustrated, and ready to take on the status quo. 

The status quo at the time was a sorry mess for women. Not only were they barred from public speaking and leadership positions, but married women could not own property, keep their own wages, or enter into any legal contract. Women were shut out of most professions. Divorce was near impossible, even in cases of abuse. A woman’s place was in the home—often an inherited home whose title had been ceded to her husband.

In 1851, three years after the Seneca Falls conference, Elizabeth Cady Stanton met Susan B. Anthony. Though strikingly unlike in appearance and temperament, they became lifelong friends. Together, they made a formidable team that reigned for more than 50 years as the iconic leaders of the suffrage movement.

Anthony and Stanton travelled the country making speeches and gathering support. When Stanton, mother of seven, cut back on travel, she stayed hard a work—writing Anthony’s speeches, organizing supporters, even rewriting the Bible from a feminist perspective.

Both women were bitterly disappointed when Congress refused, following the Civil War, to expand the language of the 15th Amendment to bar discrimination in voting based on both race and sex. Their outrage generated harsh statements from these former abolitionists that created a lasting racial rift among suffragists.

Anthony and Stanton did not give up. In 1878, they pushed for a 16th Amendment to guarantee women the right to vote. The “Susan B. Anthony Amendment,” as it became known, failed in this first attempt and was introduced anew to each session of Congress for the next 42 years! The (by then) 19th Amendment, granting women’s suffrage, was finally ratified in 1920.

They Didn’t Live to see It
Neither Stanton nor Anthony lived to see passage. Their efforts fell short of their goals. But the inroads they gained, the organizations they created, and the national awareness they built set the stage for the next generation—the early 20th century activists who carried the campaign for women’s suffrage to victory.

The Second Wave
Among this second wave of suffragists were the daughters of Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott—and newcomers, including Carrie Chapman Catt and New Jersey native Alice Paul. Catt and Paul were rivals. Their strategies and styles were at odds. Catt favored local campaigns to change state voting laws. She thought militant demonstration unpatriotic after the U.S. entered World War I in 1917.

In contrast, Paul took the fight for a U.S. Constitutional amendment to President Wilson’s doorstep. She lead an 18-month long picketing campaign at the gates to the White House. She welcomed arrest and used the mistreatment of imprisioned suffragists to build public sympathy. Faced with a public relations nightmare, Wilson gave in and threw his support in favor of the federal amendment.

Passage of the Anthony Amendment was “the greatest expansion of democracy on a single day the world had ever seen” (Eleanor Clift, Founding Sisters).

The Township of Ocean Historical Museum, founded in 1984, is a member-supported, non-profit organization. Its headquarters, the Eden Woolley House, is one of the few 18th century structures still in existence in the Township and is open to the public on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays (1:00 - 4:00 pm), Thursday evenings (7:00 - 9:00 pm - March 15 through December 15 each year) and the first and second Sundays of each month (1:00 - 4:00 pm). The Museum also maintains a library and archive, which houses manuscripts, books, and photographs of historical and genealogical interest. For more information, call 732-531-2136 or visit www.OceanMuseum.org.

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Through September 13, 2020 - Trenton, Mercer County
Fine Feathered Friends: Birds as Mainstay and Muse

Birds are everywhere. They occupy our forests, farms, parks, beaches, backyards, and even our homes. It’s no wonder that they have achieved substantial cultural and historical significance.

Through nearly 200 rarely seen objects from the State Museum’s Cultural History and Natural History collections, Fine Feathered Friends explores the wild, wonderful world of birds and their impact on the New Jersey decorative arts. Three bodies of material culture inspired by birds illustrate the premise—needlework samplers, hand-carved duck and shorebird decoys, and the porcelain birds of Trenton ceramist Edward Marshall Boehm.

Birds also inspired New Jersey’s notable decoy-carving tradition, which was also influenced by the state’s location on a key flyway for migrating ducks and shorebirds. A coastal carving tradition centered on Barnegat Bay. A Delaware River tradition developed in river towns near Trenton. What began as a hunting tool evolved into a folk art tradition. Carvers taught their children, who then taught their own children.

In addition to samplers and decoys, the exhibit also explores the magnificent work of Edward Marshall Boehm. Boehm loved birds so much that he built huge aviaries on the grounds of his Titusville, New Jersey home. This allowed him to study the anatomy and habits of his fine feathered friends. At his studio in Trenton, Boehm replicated the avian world in hard-paste porcelain. Boehm’s birds are exhibited side by side with scientific taxidermy mounts and study skins of the same species

The New Jersey State Museum is located at 205 West State Street, Trenton, NJ. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:00 am - 4:45 pm; closed Mondays and all state holidays. Admission is FREE, but donations are always encouraged. For more information, call 609-292-6300 or visit www.state.nj.us/state/museum.

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Through Late November/Early December 2020 - Salem, Salem County

“Hidden History: Unique and Rare Stories of Salem County”

The Salem County Historical Society is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibit entitled, “Hidden History: Unique and Rare Stories of Salem County.” Throughout the history of our region, the diversity of our residents along with their creativity, knowledge, and skills has prompted the development, manufacture and composition of many unique and rare objects and records. Over all these years, whether on a trek to settle here or leaving here for an adventure in the world at large, Salem County residents have traveled thousands of miles. When they traveled, our predecessors would bring to Salem County an object or a story that has become a part of our collective history.

Since the founding of the Salem County Historical Society in 1884, residents, families and friends have donated hundreds of these uncommon and irreplaceable objects to the Society collections. 

Our current exhibit offers a look at some of the most unique and rare items and the stories behind the objects. This eclectic exhibit includes artifacts that have not been displayed to the public for many years and are on display with newly researched backstories that provide further insight into the unique and rare history of Salem County. Concurrently, a new exhibit memorializing our Old Salem Oak Tree will open to the public. This exhibit is in a dedicated room displaying numerous Salem Oak objects, including; old and new artwork, objects made from wood of the oak tree, and past and recent photographs.

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 12;00 noon - 4:00 pm. Admission is $5 per person for non-members. The Salem County Historical Society is located at 83 Market Street, Salem, NJ. For more information, call 856-935-5004 or visit www.salemcountyhistoricalsociety.com.

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Some event listings courtesy of the League of Historical Societies of New Jersey