Historic Happenings Blog

American Labor Museum/Botto House National Landmark Sponsors Annual Sol Stetin Golf Open Haledon, New Jersey –  The American Labor Museum/Botto House National Landmark will sponsor its Annual Sol Stetin Golf Tournament on Thursday, June 25th, 2020 at the Pebble Creek Golf Club in Colts Neck, New Jersey. A shotgun start will be at 12:00 PM. Lunch and dinner will be served. The Golf Tournament is named in honor of a founder of the Museum, Sol Stetin. Mr. Stetin was the former president of the Textile Workers’ Union of America. The entrance fee for the event includes a golf cart, a full day of golf, lunch, dinner, and terrific Pro Shop prizes. Hole Sponsors are welcome to advertise their company or organization’s name for a nominal fee. Reserve early! The event is quite popular. The deadline for registration or sponsorship is June 15, 2020. For further information, please visit the Museum’s website   www.labormuseum.net...

Union Made: Fashioning America in the 20th Century January 15, 2020 - April 25, 2020 | 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm | Changing Exhibits The Museum proudly opens the exhibit   Union Made:  Fashioning America in the 20th Century   by Denise Green, Ph.D., and Patrizia Sione, Ph.D. on Wednesday, January 15th, 2020.  The exhibit features union-made garments, union memorabilia and multi-media to highlight the role unions played to improve working conditions and safety standards, wages and benefits and promotion of the U.S. fashion industry during the 20th century. Union Made:  Fashioning America in the 20th Century  is a collaboration between the Kheel Center and Cornell Costume and Textile Collection at Cornell University to celebrate 20th-century fashion trends alongside the history of organized labor and union labeling efforts in the United States. Dr. Denise Green is an assistant professor of fiber science and apparel design and director of the Cornell Costume and Texti...

March 29 2020 scrapbook talk in Clifton, NJ Historic house museums appeal to our desires to imagine ourselves into different lives, lived in different surroundings. It’s always complicated – in extreme cases when plantation recreations invite us to enjoy the spoils of slaveholders, and ignore the slave quarters, for example. Scrapbook House, Strong Museum collection Schoolroom in scrapbook house, Strong Museum collection Scrapbook house parlor, including black servant, Strong Museum collection But wandering through someone else’s house is intriguing. Nineteenth-century children played with the desire to try out different homes in their house scrapbooks, where they created rooms and scenarios in them from catalog and magazine pictures. On Sunday, March 29, 1 pm, you can visit a 19th-century farmhouse and hear about historic scrapbooks. And if you have old scrapbooks in your family, bring them. I’ll bring some from my collection, too – and of course, lots of great pictures of how our...

Wednesday, February 5 – Passaic County Black History Exhibit Explores the Achievements of Patersonians     The Paterson Museum is excited to announce the opening of its newest changing exhibit,  “Thus Shall They Upward, Onward Press: An Exploration of the History of African Americans in Paterson from 1600-Present .”     Installed in honor of Black History Month, the exhibit is a survey of the accomplishments of many of Paterson’s African American citizens. The exhibit will feature some familiar citizens, such as Larry Doby,  but visitors will also learn about some individuals like Dr. Norman Cotton , Minerva Miller and Henry Otis Harris who also made an impact on our community. The exhibit will be in place from Wednesday, February 5 th  through Saturday, March 28 th  in the Hannah Memorial Gallery. Please join us at the Museum on Saturday, February 8 th  from 1pm-3pm for the opening reception.  The program will be led...

Celebrate  International Women's Day 2020  and the  Centennial of Women's Suffrage  at the Museum on Sunday, March 8th, 2020 at 1PM-3PM.  Listen to distinguished speakers, join a short women's empowerment march, receive a flower in appreciation, and view exhibits about union women and women's suffrage as we raise awareness, celebrate achievement and rally for change to help forge a more gender-equal world and show our commitment to being #Eachforequal. This celebration is part of New Jersey's Nineteenth Amendment Centennial Initiative, which commemorates the passage of the Constitutional amendment which granted women across the country the legal right to vote.  While this parade honors women's solidarity, activism, and achievements, it also acknowledges the inequities and challenges New Jersey women of all backgrounds have faced and continue to confront from 1920 to the present day. March 8th is a significant day because it is a global day of celebrating th...

May 7 to May 30 -- Passaic County Free Labor Arts Classes for Children, March 7th - May 30th Students grades 3-5 are invited to register and attend classes designed to introduce them to the history and contemporary issues of working people and immigrants through the visual and performing arts. Students are provided with the opportunity to participate in hands-on activities by which they are encouraged to develop their understanding and appreciation of an immigrant worker's home, lifestyle and workplace as a means of comparison to the same issues today. The classes are conducted at the Museum on Saturdays 11:30AM - 1PM.  Pre-registration is required . It is not necessary to attend every class. Classes begin on March 7th and end on May 30th, 2020. (Class will not be held on May 16th.) The Saturday Labor Arts Classes are funded, in part, by a generous grant from the Puffin Foundation. For further information and a registration form, please call the Museum at (973) ...

Saturday, February 29 – Passaic County Free Historical Program in The honor of Black History Month      Join us on Saturday, February 29 th  at 1pm at the Paterson Museum as we welcome Public Historian Sue Kozel. A researcher whose area of study focuses on the areas of power and equality, Kozel will present Why Wench Betty’s Story Matters: The Murder of an NJ Slave in 1784. Learn about Betty, her murder and the court proceedings that followed. How does her story fit into the larger picture of slavery in New Jersey in the 1780s? What can it tell us about the life of America’s enslaved populations? This program is free and open to the public. This program is funded by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, an independent non-profit and state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.     The program will take place at the Paterson Museum, located at 2 Market Street (on the corner of Market and Spruce Streets) in the hea...

United We Bargain, Divided We Beg exhibit by Zach Horn   The Museum proudly opens the exhibit  United We Bargain, Divided We Beg  by Zach Horn on Sunday, September 1st, 2019 at 1PM.   United We Bargain, Divided We Beg  is an exhibition of contemporary, heroic-scale portraiture of labor union workers.  The workers are presented in a series of drawings created specifically to fill the exhibit spaces at the Museum.  Each drawing highlights a different labor union and features individual and group portraits that represent the diversity and strength of the Labor Movement. The general public is invited to an exhibit reception on Saturday, October 19th, 2019 at 1PM during which Mr. Horn will talk about  United We Bargain, Divided We Beg . Zach Horn, who is a Lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Boston and at Boston University, notes that he "comes from a long-line of proud union members."  "In many ways," he states, "they are our unsung ...

Through December 1 -- Passaic County 'Tis the Season for the Lambert Castle Holiday Boutique!     This year the Lambert Castle Holiday Boutique will be open for four weeks! From November 2 nd  through December 1 st  at Lambert Castle (home of the Passaic County Historical Society) at 3 Valley Road, Paterson NJ, the Passaic County Historical Society will be presenting the 32 nd  annual Lambert Castle Holiday Boutique.  Open Wednesday through Friday from 10am to 8pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 5pm, enjoy shopping for this year’s assortment of festive holiday gifts, jewelry, seasonal decorations, crafts, collectibles, and gourmet food in the historic atmosphere and ambiance of Lambert Castle.    Admission to the Boutique is $7 for opening weekend, November 2 nd  -3 rd  and $6 for the duration of the show. All admission fees include two return visits. Children under 12 years are admitted free of charge. No child strollers o...

Wednesday, November 13 – Passaic County     On Wednesday, November 13th at 7:00 p.m. at the Louis Bay II Library, 345 Lafayette Ave, Hawthorne NJ, the Passaic County Historical Society is hosting  Mario Medici as he presents the Civil Rights Movement. The civil rights movement was a struggle by African Americans in the mid-1950s to late 1960s to achieve civil rights equal to those of whites. No social or political movement of the twentieth century has had as profound an effect on the legal and political institutions of the United States. Learn how this movement sought to restore to African Americans the rights of citizenship guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which had been eroded by segregationist Jim Crow Laws in the South.    Mario Medici is a retired Information Technology executive with 50 years of business experience, 30 of which were with the airline industry. Having traveled the world extensively, and with a love for am...

FORMER RUMSON MAYOR, US SENATOR TO BE HONORED FOR HOLOCAUST RESCUE EFFORTS November 1, 2019 Born in Monmouth Beach, Sen. W. Warren Barbour served as a councilman and mayor of Rumson before entering Congress. Throughout his life, he was a passionate advocate for equal rights for all citizens. In 1943, he introduced a bill in Congress that would have given refuge in the United States to 600,000 Jews and other minorities targeted by the Nazis for the duration of the war. Photo courtesy The Jewish Historical Society of North Jersey By Eileen Moon It was a time of racial, ethnic and religious divides; a time of turmoil marked by protests and polarization over immigration, threats of war and worries over economic uncertainty. For Jews and other minorities targeted by the Nazis, the madness spreading across Europe in the 1930s and 1940s was a death sentence. As the rest of the world argued about what to do, whether to intervene or isolate, whether to opt for conscience or complacency, some sp...

Saturday, November 2  - Paterson, Passaic County Native American Heritage Month at Paterson Great Falls NHP Join the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park on Sunday for a Native American Heritage Month Celebration.  At 10:00 am, meet historian Tony DeCondo at the Paterson Museum located at 2 Market Street, Paterson, NJ 07501 for a tour of the Lenape exhibit. All other events will be held in the amphitheater in Overlook Park, located at 72 McBride Ave, Paterson NJ, 07501 Opening Ceremony by Turtle Clan Chief Mann of the Ramapough Lunaape will start at 11:30 am.  Performances by The Silver Cloud Singers and Dancers will start at 12:00 noon and 2:00 pm.  Storytelling by Patrick Littlewolf and Emelie Jeffries will start at 1:00 pm.  Closing Ceremony by Turtle Clan Chief Mann of the Ramapough Lunaape at 2:30 pm. For more information and updates, visit  www.nps.gov/pagr .

Lambert Castle Holiday Boutique Wine and Cheese Preview Night tickets are on sale now! On Friday, November 1st from 5pm to 9 pm in Lambert Castle, the Passaic Co unty Historical Society will be presenting its annual Wine and Cheese Preview of the Lambert Castle Holiday Boutique. Be the first to enjoy this year’s assortment of festive holiday gifts, jewelry, seasonal decorations, crafts, collectibles, and gourmet food in the historic atmosphere and ambiance of Lambert Castle. Admission to Preview Night is $15, which includes two return visits. Free wine and snacks provided while supplies last. To purchase tickets in advance, call (973)247-0085 x201. Tickets will also be available at the door. Children under 12 years are admitted free of charge. No child strollers or carriages are permitted inside the Castle. Visa and Mastercard are accepted for purchases. All proceeds from this fundraiser benefit the Passaic County Historical Society.

Saturday, October 19 – Passaic County Kids Harvest and History Day at Lambert Castle      Join us on Saturday, October 19 th  between 3pm and 6pm on the North Lawn of Lambert Castle (home of the Passaic County Historical Society) at 3 Valley Road, Paterson NJ, as the  Passaic County Historical Society ushers in the autumn season with history, food, and fun fall children's activities. Children can participate in fall crafts and games, learn about our local historic sites, drill with some Revolutionary war soldiers and much more. The day concludes at 5:30 pm as we read a version of Washington Irving’s classic story. You might even have a chance to meet the Headless Horseman in person!  Bring your own blankets or lawn chairs. Recommended for children age 3-12 years. Free admission, donations requested. No Rain Date.    The Passaic County Historical Society, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, was founded to cultivate interest among individuals and...

Saturday, October 19 – Passaic County The American Labor Museum/Botto House invites you to an  exhibit reception with Zach Horn , October 19th at 1PM     On Saturday, October 19th at 1PM, the museum proudly welcomes the general public to an exhibit reception with artist Zach Horn. Mr. Horn will offer a tour of his exhibit United We Bargain, Divided We Beg and will answer questions. The exhibit features contemporary, heroic-scale portraiture pf labor union workers that were specifically created by Mr. Horn for the exhibit space at the museum.      Light refreshments will be served, and the museum store will be open for browsing and shopping. Zach Horn is a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Boston and at Boston University. In many ways, Zach Horn observes, union members are our unsung heroes. United We Bargain, Divided We Beg will be on view at the Museum through Dec. 31st, 2019. Presentation by Jonathan Lurie, Oct. 19 at 2PM at ...