Read more 2018 Third Annual Library Photo Contest Awards Winner: Luke Gong ›

You can now read Setting up Our Own City online. An oral history project by Cheryl C. Turkington with interviews by Helen Baker Conover, Setting up Our Own City traces the history of the African-American community in Morristown, New Jersey.  It explores how the African American community lived, worked, worshipped, celebrated and sustained itself, and the lives of men and women who quietly created a vibrant African-American middle class in Morris County. The material for this story was woven together through numerous interviews and the resources of the North Jersey History & Genealogy Center. Includes index.

 

Auchincloss and Schnell Family Papers, 1835 – ca.1987.

 Personal papers and genealogical information from two New York and New Jersey families and their work in the publishing and engineering fields.

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DeChiara Family Papers, 1905 – 2005.

Personal and business papers of the head of urban renewal responsible for planning Morristown’s Headquarters Plaza redevelopment project.

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Home Garden Club of Morristown

Administrative and working papers of Club activities, programs, and community beautification projects.

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Morris County Political Ephemera Collection, 1844 – 2018

Political campaign flyers, constituent communications, and political pins from Morristown, state, and national elections.

The North Jersey History & Genealogy Center is pleased to announce that it has opened the Henry W. Pilch Collection to researchers. The papers contain extensive documentation of land usage within the state from the early 18th through the 20th centuries that Pilch collected in the course of his law practice. In addition to tracing property ownership throughout Morris County and Northern New Jersey, the records follow the family histories of numerous prominent and longtime residents.

Henry’s lifelong interest in history and genealogy resulted in countless hours conducting research in the Morristown & Morris Township Library’s local history department, to which he donated his notes and legal papers in 1987; they consist of over 310,000 pages of family and town histories, along with a vast collection of maps, deeds, mortgages, and surveys.

The papers illustrate centuries of residential development, agricultural use, as well as the acquisition of land for public infrastructure needs. The records are particularly valuable to genealogists, homeowners and businesses owners, and scholars of state and local history.

Archivist Jeffrey Moy began processing the collection in 2014 and completed its arrangement and description in May 2018. Related collections include hundreds of historic and hand-reproduced maps that Pilch had previously donated, along with a group of records from the Minton and Day law firm. The finding aid to the Henry W. Pilch Collection may be found online and the papers are available in the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center during normal Library hours.

Our photo contest challenged anyone with a passion for photography to capture images of Morristown and Morris Township and share them with the library. In response, we received many excellent submissions portraying numerous places of interest in our community.

Here are the winning photos for our 2017 contest, and our 2016 contest.

The North Jersey History and Genealogy Center invited interested persons to enter our second photograph contest to celebrate our local history through the art of photography. More details for our 2018 contest will be announced soon!

Winners of the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center’s 2017 Photograph Contest

First Place – Morristown Views

View from Fort Nonsense Looking East
by Thomas Conroy

Honorable Mention – Morristown Views

Cannon at Fort Nonsense
by Luke Gong

First Place – Morris Township Views

“Whippany Farms” House and Gardens at Frelinghuysen Arboretum
by Swapna Penugonda

Honorable Mention – Morris Township Views

Fosterfields in Winter
by Mia Mutascio

Winners of the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center’s 2016 Inaugural Photograph Contest

First Place

Aerial View of Morristown, by R.J. Meyer

Second Place

Cattano and Speedwell Clash, by Stefan Glut

Third Place

Speedwell Dam, Morristown N.J., by Meredith Ross

Honorable Mention

Churchyard at the Presbyterian Church of Morristown, by Jayme Siegel Harvey

Honorable Mention

 Tractor at Fosterfields, Morris Township, by Luke Gong

Here you can find posts written by the NJH&GC staff about interesting and often lesser known historical places, people and events of the Morris area, using the History Center’s extensive research materials. This is an ongoing collaboration with The Morristown Green.com, so check back often.  We encourage you to use our history library to research any aspect of the Morris area’s past.

The North Jersey History and Genealogy Center announces that many reels of the early years of the Newark Evening News will be offsite, beginning July 24, 2018, for a preservation project for an undetermined length of time.  The reels date from September 1, 1883 to September 10, 1918.  Anyone interested in viewing those reels or getting copies of articles from those dates should contact the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center by calling 973-538-3473 or by e-mailing us at njhgc@jfpl.org.  We apologize for any inconvenience this project may cause but assure users that the end goal will be worth the wait.