Historic Happenings Blog

Tuesday, October 22 -- Middlesex County Join the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance on Tuesday, October 22nd at 4:15 pm for a showing of the new documentary film "Farming in the Millstone Valley." There will be a discussion afterward with filmmaker Brad Fay.  It will be shown in the Pane Room, first floor of the Alexander Library, Rutgers-New Brunswick, 169 College Avenue. The NJSAA business meeting will precede the film at 3 pm and both are free and open to the public. The Millstone Valley of central New Jersey, settled by Dutch farmers three centuries ago, helped NJ earn its Garden State nickname, and became the breadbasket of a booming New York City metropolis.  That story, culminating in today’s farm-to-table movement, is told in this 35-minute film. It is based on a historic account by Jessie Lynes Havens of Montgomery Township, and made by the Millstone Valley Preservation Coalition of Rocky Hill, in association with the Van Harlingen Historical Society of Montgomery....

NEW JERSEY STUDIES ACADEMIC ALLIANCE AUTHORS’ AWARDS PROGRAM ~ 2019 CALL FOR NOMINATIONS by Deborah Mercer February 25 to April 30, 2019 The New Jersey authors’ awards were instituted in 1994 to encourage and celebrate books about New Jersey. Awards are considered for works in five, non-fiction categories:         edited works                 popular                scholarly                reference                reproduction of primary resources All works nominated should provide a new understanding of New Jersey’s history and culture, demonstrate evidence of original research in the application of New Jersey resources and/or reveal new insi...

Tuesday, February 5 – Middlesex County    The New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance ( www.njsaa.org ) welcomes  Carla Cielo who will speak on "Domestic Outbuildings of Northwest Central New Jersey."  The talk will begin at 4:15 pm in the Pane Room, first floor of Alexander Library (around the corner past the circulation desk), Rutgers University, 169 College Avenue, New Brunswick. Free and open to the public.      Domestic outbuildings were historically built for tasks deemed inappropriate for a dwelling and include the root cellar, smokehouse, outkitchen, springhouse, milkhouse, washhouse, icehouse, pump-house, dryhouse and bakehouse.  They were often purposefully designed to combine two or more functions in separate dedicated spaces. Carla Cielo has documented over 60 domestic outbuildings since 2006. In her talk, she will identify and illustrate over 20 different combination plan types built in northwest central New Jersey. She will al...