Ebb and Flow: New Jersey and Its Rivers

The exhibit explores how activities, both historical and contemporary, along the Delaware, the Raritan, the Maurice and the Passaic – symbolize the importance of fresh waterways, and serve as a template for understanding rivers’ importance in shaping the human experience. Using these waterways as well as two related canals as examples, Ebb and Flow will specifically explore the topics of food supply, settlement, transportation and industry.

Hands-on activities allow visitors to “dredge” for oysters, create a dutch-style tile, listen to excerpts from canal and oyster boat songs, and solve puzzles about the state’s industries.

Send the Word: New Jersey During the Great War

The New Jersey Historical Society has marked U.S. entry into World War I with the exhibit “Send the Word: New Jersey During the Great War”. NJHS’s artifacts, images and manuscripts from its museum and library collections create a stirring testament to the sacrifices and struggles of the state at war. Items from the Historical Society’s trove of wartime posters are displayed, along with soldiers’ uniforms and equipment, an artillery shell and gas mask, family correspondence and personal items illustrating a transformative period in New Jersey’s history. Also included are the sounds of World War I period songs coming from a 1916 Thomas Edison multiphone.

The Long March Home: A World War II Story

A story about a WWII veteran, Robert R. Max, who left a comfortable college life to enlist in the United States Army at the age of 20 in 1942. Bob fought in three major battle campaigns across Europe before he was captured during the climatic Battle of the Bulge and was forced into Nazi slave labor.

“Meet Me under Bamberger’s Clock”: A Celebration of the Life and Contributions of Louis Bamberger

The clock outside Newark’s L. Bamberger and Co. department store did not just tell the time: it was a downtown meeting place for generations of New Jerseyans. The exhibit “Meet Me under Bamberger’s Clock” appears by special arrangement with the Jewish Historical Society of New Jersey. It was designed to accompany the new biography by JHSNJ Executive Director Linda B. Forgosh. The fascinating story of Louis Bamberger (1855-1944), New Jersey’s foremost department store innovator and philanthropist comes to life in a new exhibit, now showing at The New Jersey Historical Society. Relive the days of Newark’s grand and glorious department store L. Bamberger and Co., and learn about its founder Louis Bamberger’s vital but mostly overlooked contributions to the cultural and civic life of New Jersey. The images, texts and artifacts that make up the exhibit “Meet Me under Bamberger’s Clock” are on view for all to enjoy!

Stronger Than Steel: The Senator Wynona Lipman Story

This exhibit encompasses a selection of archival photographs of Senator Lipman, her family, contemporaries, colleagues and friends that grace the walls. The photographs are presented on 16 graphic panels containing text and images dedicated to a topic, specific time or function of the Senator’s life, along with constituents’ letters, articles, plaques and commendations in museum cases and an accompanying slide presentation. Viewers are offered a glimpse into her life as a young woman in LaGrange, Georgia, as a politically connected community servant and her continuing legacy as the founder of Wynona’s House Child Advocacy Center in Newark, located at 185 Washington Street, Newark, NJ. Curated by Mansa K. Mussa and on view through March 2024 – Women’s History Month.

“Albert Einstein: Champion of Racial Justice and Equality”

In honor of Black History Month, this exhibit is a joint project between the nascent Princeton Einstein Museum of Science (PEMS) and the Witherspoon Jackson Historical and Cultural Society (WJHCS) and details Albert Einstein’s relationships with local African American residents and many of the most prominent Black leaders of the mid 20^th century.

WJHCS president Shirley Satterfield, a lifelong resident of the Witherspoon Jackson neighborhood and a childhood acquaintance of the great scientist, explains, “The mainstream press in the mid twentieth century reported on nearly everything Einstein did, except for his involvement with the African American community. Our exhibit highlights this largely unknown aspect of his life.”

PEMS president Elizabeth Romanaux says, “We are proud to team up with the Witherspoon Jackson Historical and Cultural Society to present this important exhibit at the New Jersey Historical Society. Ours will primarily be a science museum, but visitors will need some context about Einstein’s time in New Jersey. They’ll find it in an introductory gallery which will include information about his life, including this largely unknown story about his connections in the African American community, both locally and nationally.”

The Witherspoon-Jackson Historical and Cultural Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the research, preservation, understanding, appreciation and celebration of the rich and proud history of African Americans in Princeton, New Jersey. See princetonwjhcs.org