Historic Happenings Blog

Saturday, October 26 - West Orange, Essex  County Book Launch Reception at Edison National Historical Park To celebrate the publication of  Edison , the new biography of Thomas A. Edison by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edmund Morris, Random House will host a book launch reception from 2:00 - 4:00 pm on Saturday at the park’s laboratory complex. The event is free and open to the general public. Random House editor Andrew Ward will offer brief remarks at the reception and Thomas Edison National Historical Park will announce the details of “One Book, One Town: West Orange Reads Edison,” a community-wide reading experience to encourage all to read and discuss the biography together. Copies of  Edison  will be available for purchase, and on display in the park archives will be rarely-seen historic documents accessed by Edmund Morris while he researched the biography. Edison  is the first major biography of Thomas Edison to be published in the last twenty years. Edmu...

Saturday, October 12 – Mercer County Talk, Book Signing, and Treats – A Taste of History Learn about the foods and food habits of colonial America from the renowned chef of Philadelphia’s City Tavern      The Trent House Association is honored to host Chef Walter Staib for a talk and book signing as part of the celebration of the historic house’s 300 th  anniversary. A third-generation restaurateur with more than four decades of culinary experience, Chef Walter Staib is an author, Emmy Award-winning TV host, James Beard-nominated chef and culinary historian. He is currently the driving force behind Philadelphia’s City Tavern, a faithful recreation of an original 18th-century tavern, host of  A Taste of History©  on PBS and author of four cookbooks for sale and signing before and after the lecture.  The program will begin at  4 pm on October 12, 2019, in the Chapel of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 801 West State Street, Trenton, NJ 08618 . ...

Monday, September 16, 2019 at 7 PM – 8:30 PM Ridgewood Public Library 125 N Maple Ave, Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450 RPL Author Event: Amy Stewart—"Kopp Sisters on the March" Join author Amy Stewart as she returns to the Ridgewood Public Library to talk about her newest installment in the Kopp sisters saga, "Kopp Sisters on the March"! This is the fifth book on the Kopp sisters, based on the real-life experiences of Bergen's own Kopp sisters—who worked as private detectives in a time where women could not even vote! Stewart became fascinated with the Kopp sisters after discovering a newspaper article about them. (Her books were based on research provided by GSBC's Trustee Emeritus, Ree Hopper.) From the publisher: "In the fifth installment of Amy Stewart’s clever and original Kopp Sisters series, the sisters learn some military discipline—whether they’re ready or not—as the U.S. prepares to enter World War I. It’s the spring of 1917 and change is in the a...

Book signing at Six Mile Run Reformed Church (3037 State Route 27, Franklin Park, NJ 08823) on Saturday, September 14 at 2 pm. The church played an important part in the events discussed in the Franklin Park Tragedy book including the funeral for the murdered mother and child. On March 1, 1894, two African American men broke into a home in rural Franklin Park and murdered a white woman and her daughter before her husband fought and killed the attackers. The newspapers called it the “Franklin Park Tragedy,” and the story captivated public attention nationally and abroad. Another tragedy came afterward, with the racist forced expulsion of many local African American residents.      Author Brian Armstrong, Vice-President, Central Region, of the League of Historical Societies of New Jersey and former President of the South River Historical and Preservation Society, will tell the shocking story of this “sundown town” and how it evolved into the diverse comm...

Sunday, July 28 – Mercer County Trenton Museum Society at the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, Trenton, New Jersey    Readings, Signing and Reception 4 pm      On Sunday, July 28 at 4 pm, at the Trenton City Museum, Ellarslie in Cadwalader Park, area writers read selections from The Bookshop on Lafayette Street, a collection of stories and poems published by Ragged Sky Press and inspired by Trenton's own Classics Books. Free will donations are gratefully accepted at the door.    Everything to love about bookstores is in the collection: the sense of wonder and discovery, the cozy clutter, idiosyncratic book lovers, the feeling of being in a magic haven buttressed against the cruelties of the world, and, of course, the adventure of books themselves.    Contributors include Ilene Dube, Jeff Edelstein, Barry Gross, John Gummere, Yusef Komunyakaa, Doc Long, Eric Maywar, Leon Rainbow, Jackie Reinstedler, Nancy Scott, Thomas Web...