New Jersey Historical Commission Awards Funds
for Heritage Projects Statewide
Trenton, NJ - At its end of year meeting, the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State, awarded 35 grants totaling $479,041 to support history projects of organizations and individuals.
Among the projects supported by grants were oral histories of women workers in World War II, an exhibition about the glass industry in New Jersey, and a website designed to teach students about immigration.
According to Michael Fernandez, acting chair of the Historical Commission, "We had an 18 percent increase in the number of applications we received this year, which shows a growing public interest in the heritage of our state."
A list of the grant recipients is below.
Bergen County
Ridgewood Public Library, Ridgewood. $3,600 to microfilm 28 city directories, 1897-1973.
Burlington County
Alice Paul Institute, Mount Laurel. $18,000 to support the enhancement and development of a New Jersey Women's History website.
Preservation Partners, Crosswicks. $10,000 to prepare a New Jersey and National Register nomination for the Wallace Chapel AME Zion Church in Summit.
Camden County
Home Port Alliance for the USS New Jersey, Camden. $15,000 for an exhibition on Admiral William Halsey, focusing on his time on the battleship.
Cape May County
Historic Cold Spring Village, Cape May. $10,000 to upgrade its orientation exhibit.
Cumberland County
Cumberland County Cultural & Heritage Commission, Bridgeton. $3,520 to conserve the freeholders' minute book, 1798-1844.
Wheaton Village, Millville. $5,300 in support of the research, writing and production of a catalog to accompany an exhibition on the history of the glass industry in Millville.
Essex County
New Jersey Historical Society, Newark. $20,000 for fabrication and installation of an exhibition on the role of the state's rivers in its development. $16,000 for an oral history project to interview New Jerseyans about Newark's civil unrest in 1967.
Gloucester County
Jennifer Armiger, Woodbury. $16,000 Smith Fellowship for dissertation research on women workers at the Western Electric plant in Kearny.
Hudson County
Hoboken Historical Museum, Hoboken. $14,047 to publish three chapbooks of oral histories of Hoboken residents $14,400 for an exhibition detailing the many firsts and special achievements associated with Hoboken.
Mercer County
Historical Society of Princeton, Princeton. $15,500 for an exhibition on Princeton's connections to the Civil War.
Old Barracks Museum, Trenton. $12,000 for an exhibition on William Richards, a merchant and entrepreneur of the Revolutionary period.
Trenton Downtown Association, Trenton. $14,600 in support of Patriots Week, a series of events commemorating central New Jersey's role in the American Revolution.
William Trent House, Trenton. $15,000 to prepare an outline and preliminary script for its orientation exhibit.
Middlesex County
Carey Library, School of Management and Labor Relations, New Brunswick. $16,000 to describe, preserve and make accessible the papers of several former faculty members important in the labor movement.
History Department, Rutgers University, New Brunswick. $9,300 for a conference on the history of industry in New Brunswick and the Raritan Valley, 1830-2005. Special grant of $6,050 to support the undergraduate history internship program.
Rutgers University Press, Piscataway. $45,000 special grant in support of the New Jersey atlas project.
School of Communications, Information & Library Studies, RU, New Brunswick. $5,999 for a scholarship to the Preservation Management Institute for a manager of a New Jersey history collection.
Special Collections & University Archives, RU, New Brunswick. $18,000 for continued work on a bibliography of contemporary publications on railroads in New Jersey
Monmouth County
Monmouth County Archives, Manalapan. $10,000 to microfilm clippings from the Red Bank Register, 1971-1988.
Monmouth County Historical Association, Freehold. $15,000 to digitize and make accessible research images from the Pach Brothers collection of glass plate negatives. $15,075 to conserve seven pastel portraits done by 19th century folk artist Micah Williams.
New Jersey Caucus, Mid Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, Long Branch. Special grant of $8,000 for the archival evaluation program.
Morris County
County College of Morris, Randolph. $7,550 for a project to digitize oral histories of women workers in World War II and related material and place it on the college's website .
Jewish Historical Society of MetroWest, Whippany. $10,000 for research and design of a traveling exhibition on Elvings Theatre and its role in Newark's Jewish community.
Passaic County
William Paterson University, Wayne. Special grant of $19,200 for New Jersey History Day.
Salem County
Salem County Historical Society, Salem. $16,000 for archival processing of several important manuscript collections.
Somerset County
Crossroads of the American Revolution Association, Bound Brook. $13,900 to support workshops at which site personnel would develop interpretive themes and designs for exhibitions and media.
Save Ellis Island, Gladstone. $15,000 to design and launch an education-based website for teachers, students and the general public.
Union County
Plainfield Public Library, Plainfield. $10,000 to preserve, print, digitize and exhibit transportation images from its collection.
Out of State
Hudson West Productions, Croton-on-Hudson, NY. $20,000 to support production and completion of a one-hour documentary for public television on the Bordentown School.
Julia Rabig, Brooklyn, NY. $16,000 Smith fellowship for dissertation on the role of nonprofit political and social organizations in late 20th-century Newark.
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