Editor’s Note: We are delighted to welcome the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center to the family of Morristown Green contributors, and look forward to many fascinating discoveries about our history!
By James Lewis
If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard a visitor to the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center say, “I’ve been to this library, I don’t know how many times, and I never knew you existed!” I’d be rich. Well, not quite. But you get the point. The department is located in the lower level of the Morristown-Morris Township Library at One Miller Rd.
Why should you care?
This department has great collections that are used by people from far and wide. Just recently someone noted in our sign-in book, beside How did you hear about us?, “I heard about you in Santa Clara, California in 1981!”
As the library is located in an historic district, and in the State and National Historic Registers, we have a fair collection of books on historic home preservation.
One of the fastest-growing hobbies in the country is genealogy. We have materials, both print, and electronic (as in free access to ancestry.com, heritage quest online and genealogybank, to name just a few of our electronic databases) to help beginners get started. We have genealogical resources on the original 13 colonies as well as a strong collection of clipping files on families from northern New Jersey (Morris, Somerset, Sussex and Warren Counties).
Not interested in the study of your family or families?
We collect books on the entire state, we have maps of the entire state, some dating back to the Revolutionary War era, and a few photograph collections including the Frederick Curtiss collection from 1903-1938. Curtiss photographed everyday life and events in Morristown and Morris County.
Maybe you would like to look up a newspaper story that mentions your high school sporting exploits. You can do so here, by searching the Daily Record, from 1901 to today. (Please call before coming to search the Daily Record, as our copy is out being preserved. We hope to have it back by the end of the month.) We also have The Newark Evening News, from 1883 to Sept. 15, 1945. We digitized Morris County newspapers from the 1800s and they can be read on computers in the department.
Artists and art lovers can find original pieces by Thomas Nast (1840-1902), the political cartoonist who lived around the corner from the library; A.B. Frost (1851-1928), who lived for a time in Convent Station, and was known for illustrating Brer Rabbit and the Uncle Remus Stories, as well as painting hunting scenes; and World War Two veteran John De Pol, to name a few.
The department is also home to three collections of landscape architecture blueprints from the firms of Brinley and Holbrook, who designed landscapes for public buildings, mansions and parks; Ethelbert Furlong, who designed grounds in the tri-state area from 1913 to 1984 (although we have examples of his work from 1913 to 1965); and Joan Greentree (1929-2012), one of the first women admitted to the American Society of Landscape Architects and a Boonton native for the last 30 years of her life.
Watch this space to learn more about our collections and your community. For more information visit us online, or follow us on Twitter. If you have any questions and cannot visit us, please call us at 973-538-3473 or e-mail us at njhgc@jfpl.org.
MORE FROM THE NORTH JERSEY HISTORY & GENEALOGY CENTER
Re: John DePol
Far more than being just a WWII veteran, John DePol was a nationally recognized book artist, fine letterpress printer and illustrator who lived the latter part of his life in northern New Jersey. The North Jersey History Center has one of the better collections of his prints and illustrated books, as well as research material and personal notes about his life and work. The collection is still being processed but should be available to researchers by early 2015.