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Archaeology and Ethnology
Learn about New Jersey's American Indians and their 11,000-year history. Highlights of the collection include a dugout canoe, tools, weapons, clothing and 2000-year-old copper beads. Visit Africa, pre-Columbian South America or an unfamiliar place in New Jersey through changing exhibitions that explore the world.
CURRENT EXHIBITION
Colony to Community: The
Story of New Sweden
Through May 17, 2009
Main Building – 3rd Floor Mezzanine Gallery
Organized by the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia, the Delaware Historical Society in Wilmington and the New Jersey State Museum, the exhibition will trace the history of the New Sweden Colony from 1638 to 1655 in the lower Delaware River Valley and the cultural continuance of the Swedish-American presence in the area into the 21st century. Included in the exhibition will be archaeological evidence of the Indians encountered by the Swedish colonists and the relationships they developed, early Swedish material culture and religious mission, physical and cultural survivals of the Swedish presence and contemporary relations between Sweden and the area today.
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Cultural History
The State Museum collects, preserves and interprets objects that help document and describe the existence of people who have lived in New Jersey from the 17th century to the present.
CURRENT EXHIBITION
Lustor of Lenox: Art Revealed
by Industry in New Jersey
Through September 6, 2009
Main Building - 2nd Floor Cityside Galleries
This exhibition will survey the work of Walter Scott Lenox
and his designers. Lenox, a trailblazer in the ceramic
art industry, was interested in competing with the
artwares being made in Europe. The exhibition, drawn
from the Museum's extensive collection, will include
highly decorated objects illustrating both three-dimensional
design (modeling) and two-dimensional design (surface).
The installation will be enhanced by important documents
such as design drawings, trade catalogue illustrations
and historic photographs from the Rutgers Library,
Special Collections - Lenox Archives.
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Fine Art
The State Museum has collected over 12,000 works of art including paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture and photographs. This collection focuses on American art and highlights the work of New Jersey artists in that story.
CURRENT EXHIBITION
71. Fragments of a Dream
June 13 through November 24, 2009, 3rd Floor
Galleries
Photographer Maria Lau was born and raised in New
Jersey. She came to photography after her initial
studies in Latin American history and anthropology.
Her photographs, which often reflects her multicultural
heritage, is a self-explanatory documentary in a fine
art context. She has been photographing Cuba since
1998 as an on-going project to document the Cuban
lifestyle that she dreamt of, but that she could not
be part of, as a child.
The series “71 - Fragments of a Dream”
is a project motivated by Ms. Lau’s hope of
uniting her Cuban and Chinese family. She creates
photographic images through a technique of in-camera
double exposure. There is always an element of chance
in the process; the photographer cannot know in advance
of taking the exposures how the multiple images will
line up in the picture frame – what will stand
out, what new pairings will square off against each
other. This technique allows Lau to explore her Cuban-Chinese-American
heritage and the guesswork of personal identity as
phenomena of multiplicity and chance – culturally,
ethnically and nationally.
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CURRENT EXHIBITION
Rising Tide: Climate Change
and New Jersey
Through January 24, 2010
Main Building - 1st Floor Gallery
The complex subject of global warming is of critical interest to the people of New Jersey and indeed to everyone. New Jersey is a coastal state on the continental margin, the best possible position for scientific observation of sea level change. New Jersey is also an ideal area for time perspective, with a historical record dating from the 17th century, and enhanced by a fine archaeological record. Prehistoric perspective extends back well into the Pleistocene (Ice Age) when much of the Earth's water was tied up in the form of ice. Elephants and other large mammals were then common on the continental shelf, when it was above mean sea level. There will be a discussion of greenhouse gases, and how they act to trap the warmth from the Sun's rays. Fossil fuels will also be considered, showing how their consumption contributes to accelerate global warming. Maps and photographs will document the New Jersey coastline. This exhibition, funded by Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated, will provide the extensive information that educators will need in order to interpret this challenging subject.
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Five consecutive weeks, beginning 7/6/2009
and continuing through 8/7/2009
Kaleidoscope Kids Summer
Academy
Theme – Wildlife Conservation
For more information, call (609) 292-6310
The Museum will again open its doors for five exciting weeks
of the Kaleidoscope Kids Summer Academy from July 6 through
August 7, for young people ages 6-12. The 2009 Summer Academy
will focus on wildlife conservation. Each week we will study
the incredible diversity of plants and animals on our planet
and focus on a single species or group of animals that are
in extreme danger of extinction, and what affects that an
animal’s extinction would have on us.
More
Information >>
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