In her first weeks as the new executive director for MCHA, Meg Sharp Walton says she heard the same thing over and over again: "This region has a surprisingly rich and fascinating history, and MCHA could do a much better job of telling these amazing stories." She challenged her team to come up with ways to achieve this, by using social media outlets like Facebook and Instagram, to share the content contained in Association's museum collections and historical houses, as well as the MCHA Library & Archives.
In response, MCHA staff and volunteers collaborated to launch a new campaign of digital communication that is helping to attract new members and followers, and bringing more local history enthusiasts out to visit MCHA facilities and attend events.
"We have so much more in our stored collections of historical artifacts than we can ever display at one time," said Deanna Wilson, MCHA Development & Special Events Coordinator. "So, working with our Director of Collections, Bernadette Rogoff, we are now mining our museum's assets and posting photos and stories from those artifacts that await their next turn to be displayed in the museum."
These highlights from the museum's collection are being posted on MCHA's Facebook and Instagram pages on a semi-regular basis. Updates on MCHA events and activities are being published on the Association's Twitter page as well. The other new MCHA social media feature leverages content mined from the Association's Library and Archives, located at the MCHA HQ and museum at 70 Court St. in Freehold. Titled "This Day in Monmouth County History," these posts relay the biggest and most important events in County history, culture, and society.
"For decades, until electronic resources and the Internet came along, MCHA staff and volunteers clipped news accounts of anything and everything pertinent to Monmouth County history, and filed these by topic," said Dana Howell, MCHA Library Assistant. "Our Archives also include numerous rare or out-of-print books on regional and state history, master's degree theses and doctoral dissertations, private research publications, and other resources that are extremely hard to find elsewhere, if not impossible."
John Barrows, a retired corporate communications executive who assists MCHA as an event volunteer, museum docent and pro bono PR consultant, came up with the idea of organizing the County's most important stories and events by calendar date. Aided by MCHA research librarians, he initiated a series of social media posts to better leverage the content within the MCHA Archives.
"I'm constantly astonished at just how much important history has taken place in this small portion of this small U.S. state," said Mr. Barrows. "We all think it's appropriate for MCHA to be in the lead in telling these stories, and providing people with resources for learning more about our past."
Examples of MCHA "This Day" posts that have been published since this feature debuted in May of 2019 include: The opening day of operations for the Twin Lights lighthouse, Fort Monmouth, the Seabright lawn tennis club, Monmouth Park race track, the PNC Arts Center and the New Jersey Vietnam Memorial; as well as the Middletown Nike missile disaster, the shark attacks of 1916, and, of course, the Battle of Monmouth.
"We have a lot of celebrity stories to tell, from Ulysses S. Grant making Long Branch a center of international interest, to locals born here such as actors Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito," said Mr. Barrows, who noted that the county's most famous celebrity is probably Bruce Springsteen, who will be the subject of a major new exhibit at the MCHA museum entitled, "Bruce Springsteen: His Hometown."
Looking ahead to future subjects, Mr. Barrows said, "Shipwrecks, bootleggers, inventors, Nobel prize winners, scoundrels, athletes, mobsters, entertainers, military heroes and ordinary people who did extraordinary things...every day I dive into our archives, I learn something new and fascinating, and now MCHA can share this with our followers, supporters and history enthusiasts in general, via social media."
The MCHA Library and Archives offers unique resources for both historical and genealogical research, and MCHA research librarians are on staff to help members or visitors pursue inquiries. For more information on the
MCHA Library and Archives, or for research inquiries, please email
library@monmouthhistory.org or call (732) 462-1466.
