The Rockaway Valley Railroad spanned twenty-five miles from White House, New Jersey to Morristown and it operated between 1888 and 1913. The line was primarily built to deliver peach harvests to market from Morris County orchards located near the southern terminus. At peak harvest season, the Railroad shipped as many as seventy carloads of peaches per day.

The railroad’s designer lacked formal civil engineering training and chose to route the line through severe grade changes and curves that led some locals to refer to it as the “Rock-a-Bye-Baby”. Nevertheless, the line served a genuine need for the region’s farmers and the company endeared itself to residents by offering excursions from Morristown to the countryside and providing school children a shortcut on their walk to and from school.

A peach blight in 1904 killed many of the region’s peach trees and subsequent attempts to revamp the railroad’s business model were unsuccessful. By 1913, the business struggled to meet payroll and its final trip concluded on October 18, 1913. Morris County hikers can still traverse portions of the original RVRR route along stretches of Patriot’s Path near Morristown and the Rockabye Meadow Preserve in Peapack Gladstone.

Archivist Jeffrey Moy preserved, arranged, and described the collection. A finding aid to the records may be found here, and they are available for review in the History Center’s reading room during normal Library hours.

William and Nathan Brittin emigrated from England to Long Island in 1635 and later became farmers and innkeepers. Notably in 1670, Nathaniel was involved in negotiating the sale of Staten Island from the Lenape to English colonists . The history of their lineage from the 1600s through the early 1940s is outlined in the Brittin Family Genealogy Collection, which Assistant Archivist Katelyn Leffler recently processed.

The materials include letters, notebooks, genealogy charts, and manuscripts. Also of note are nineteenth century receipts for William and Abraham Brittin and L.H. Brittin’s incomplete autobiography draft. A finding aid to the collection can be found here, and the papers may be consulted in the History Center’s reading during normal Library hours.

Anyone who tried visiting the History Center in late January noticed we were closed following a significant leak that occurred on January 22^nd and impacted several floors of the Library. Fortunately, our librarians and archivists acted quickly to move the historical collections out of harm’s way and evaluate nearby materials for water damage while first responders dealt with the emergency upstairs. Library staff assisted Department Head James Lewis, Digital Librarian Chris Larlee, and Library Assistant Cynthia Muszala to vacate the affected storage room.

Of the thousands of rare books, photographs, and maps that were at risk, damage was limited to a few dozen items which are now offsite for conservation. The Library remained closed for several days as disaster recovery professionals dried flooded areas of the building, and History staff were onsite through the weekend checking for damage, stabilizing affected items, and assisting other departments of the Library with their cleanup efforts. Archivist Jeffrey Moy led the disaster response team over the following three weeks while coordinating with recovery workers to ensure storage areas were repaired, as well as overseeing conservation efforts.

As the main building reopened and resumed operations a week later, History Center staff continued performing collection recovery work while contactors completed repairs to our storage areas. Unfortunately for our visitors, the only available space to temporarily keep the displaced materials was the reading room where they occupied every flat surface including rolling book carts.

Department Head James Lewis responded to questions from researchers eager to resume their work and coordinated day to day logistics. Library Assistant Leigh Whitworth conducted the time-consuming task of checking each book as Assistant Archivist Katelyn Leffler inspected the condition of the glass plates. Digital Librarian Chris Larlee provided crucial collections management support throughout the recovery effort.

With storage room repairs completed in early February, staff returned collections as quickly and carefully as possible and reopened the reading room to a steady stream of researchers beginning February 11^th. We appreciate everyone’s patience throughout the disaster recovery process and look forward to helping you explore history soon. For additional information on the History Center and its collections, as well as where to follow us on social media, please visit our About Us page.