By Carly Cannavina
On Saturday, Jude Pfister insisted: “Everything’s about New Jersey, I’m telling you.”
To prove it, the chief of cultural resources for the Morristown National Historical Park exhibited a myriad of manuscripts from U.S. presidents and their First Ladies, from the Washingtons (George & Martha) to the Roosevelts (Franklin and Eleanor).
Nearly all had a Morristown- or Morris County connection — fitting for the Morris County Tourism Bureau’s Discover Morris County summer series.
Pfister’s annual lecture differs slightly each year. This time, he used each manuscript to introduce an anecdote to delight history buffs at the Washington’s Headquarters Museum.
A letter from Martha Washington, for example, gave a little more information about American troops’ locations than was wise at the time.
Pfister also displayed a letter from Abraham Lincoln to a commander of the Union Army written two weeks before his assassination, and another from Woodrow Wilson in which he lamented the Paris Peace Conference rejection of the League of Nations.
Wilson, former New Jersey governor and president of Princeton University, eerily detailed his worries about the future of world peace.
There was no shortage of conversation about local history, either.
Pfister showed a letter from John Quincy Adams addressed to Philip Hone, a former mayor of New York City who had relatives living in Morristown’s Acorn Hall during his lifetime.
Dolley Payne Madison, wife of president James Madison, is thought to have been related to a former mayor of Morristown, and William Henry Harrison’s wife was born in Morris County.
Pfister, author of The Creation of American Law, John Jay, Oliver Ellsworth and the 1790s Supreme Court, even recounted the story of a strand of George Washington’s hair found in Morris County.
“This is a casual event,” Pfister stated at the beginning of his lecture. “Questions and trivia are encouraged.”
The crowd took advantage of this at the program’s end. Some, inevitably, made references to our current commander-in-chief.
“In 100 years how, will you curate tweets?” one audience member asked.
“I don’t know the answer to that question; that’s why I live in the past,” Pfister replied with a laugh, gesturing toward the antique documents.
Two more walking tours are on the 2018 summer docket for the tourism bureau: Discover Victorian Morristown on Aug. 4 and Discover Colonial Morristown on Aug. 7. Patrons also can look forward to tours by Morristown National Historical Park staff every Saturday throughout October, including a ghost tour of the Ford Mansion.
M. Russell is correct.
If the changes of the last 20 years hadn’t taken place, Morristown would be in rough shape indeed. The transformation from an outdated George Washington-slept-here (yawn), worn-out community to what it is today is very impressive.
I hope the development continues. I’d love to see more high rises downtown and more corporations moving in.
M. Russell is citing exactly the kind of trend chasing that caused all the pst declines in Morristown when they ignored the needs of the tax paying residents in favor of developer profits that rarely enriched the town for the anticipated amounts expected.
The only thing that has kept Morristown alive over the last two decades IS the development. The infusion of new residents has added rateables to the tax base, new sources of revenue for our merchants and has made our downtown vibrant again. Retail has not been able to do that nor has tourism.
Morristown is going through a metamorphosis and the sooner everyone accepts that the better off our entire town will be.
Morristown greatest treasure is its history, so close at hand and yet this opportunity to promote our tourist industry has been overlooked in favor of developments that prove not nearly as interesting or lasting.