INITIALLY, William A. Whitehead had doubts that a state historical society for New Jersey could succeed. He wondered whether members and public support could be found “in any one of our towns or cities” sufficient to assure the survival of such an institution.1 After its founding, however, there was scarcely room for skepticism: the historical society of the state belonged in Newark.
The claims of Trenton, the centrally located seat of state government, were well argued by highly respected adherents, but under a veneer of impartiality Whitehead steadfastly supported the merits of New Jersey’s largest city.
His ties to Newark were of the most personal kind. His mother’s ancestors had settled and farmed there, participated in its public life for much of the last century, and lay buried in its churchyards. The Newark Banking and Insurance Company appointed his father its first cashier, and in its cashier’s quarters he was born. The town of Newark was the arena of his mental and moral upbringing, the nursery of several lifelong friendships, and the city of Newark became home once more, when he arrived as an adult with a family, feeling himself already to be “part and parcel” of the place.2
But it’s probably safe to say that few of these factors influenced Whitehead’s opinion as to where the New Jersey Historical Society’s home should be. Had his preference been swayed by emotions, or affection for a particular location, he would likely have favored Perth Amboy, a largely forgotten colonial capital where he felt much stronger bonds of sentiment and memory, and where he first imbibed the delights of history.
Newark’s advantage lay, not in what it had once been, but in what it had since become: a minor metropolis in a still largely agrarian state, a nexus of transportation for the whole East coast, a city whose mills, forges and furnaces–turning out all manner of things useful, beautiful or both–constituted an engine of formidable wealth, however uneven its enjoyment. While old families, some with irrefutably Loyalist pedigrees, held precious evidence of New Jersey’s past, without support from the more newly prosperous citizens of Newark–bankers, lawyers, book- and newspapermen, industrialists, many with offices in the incomparably larger and less salubrious city over the Hudson–the remnants of that history couldn’t be gathered, preserved or studied with the necessary care. On the refinement and liberality of such men, and a few women, the success of New Jersey’s historical enterprise must depend.
Once the contentious decision was made to locate the Historical Society collections in Newark, the wisdom of the choice seemed to reveal itself. Within a few years of their concentration in the Library Association’s building on Market Street, the shelves of its room were “filling up with valuable and curious books, manuscripts, maps and newspapers….” There was enough interest to keep the historical library open, for “members and others properly introduced,” every weekday evening and two afternoons a week, through the winter.3
While attention to the Society’s activities lessened significantly as the distance from Newark increased, additions to the collections continued to flow in from near and far, and the Newark location seemed to be a selling point. One donor, Congregationalist pastor Stephen Dodd, despite many years’ residence outside his native state, had painstakingly assembled a near-complete run of the weekly Sentinel of Freedom, published in Newark beginning in 1796. In 1852, having acquired more than a half-century of the newspaper “through all its changes, of size, proprietors and editors, and prices,” Dodd gave the entire series, “bound in volumes and in excellent preservation,” for the use of the Society library, “so long as it remains in the city of Newark….”4
On the occasion of the May meeting that year, Dodd’s gift “attracted much attention,” and member Lucius D. Baldwin rose to recommend that in view of the collections’ “constantly increasing value … a fire proof building should be secured at as early a day as possible.”5 That evening, James Gore King, a sometime New York financier and politician then resident in New Jersey, took up Baldwin’s idea in an eloquent, urgent plea “that the diamond sparks which emanated from these historical memorials should not have their lustre dimmed, nay, annihilated by any untoward event.”
King continued:
Were the alarm bell to announce to the citizens of Newark that a fire was devouring the accumulated treasures of the Society, was there one who would not be impelled to the scene in the hope that something might be rescued? and should they have to stand before a heap of blackened ashes, their only remains, would not their consciences upbraid them for neglecting to provide in season a suitable receptacle?
James King’s brother, the president of Columbia College, noted that efforts were afoot in New York to guard the holdings of that state’s historical society from just such a tragedy. The collections of New York’s association, some acquired many years before the founding of New Jersey’s, had been recently endangered by fire. He had no doubt that Newark, “renowned for its intelligence and enterprise,” would respond generously and promptly to the call for a building “that would so redound to its honor.”6
The Society’s originators had vowed at the start to erect a fireproof building as soon as possible, realizing that future benefactors must be confident in the safety of their donations.7 But as long as the location of the library was undecided, there could be no action on a place to house it.
Inquiries by a committee of three–hat manufacturer Peter Duryee, railroad executive John P. Jackson, and Lucius Baldwin as chairman–found that about $8,000 could secure “a suitable lot and edifice” for the collections. They pressed the Society at large to consider such a building “essential to its prosperity”: any significant loss to fire would be devastating; the mere possibility was known to discourage some from enriching its collections with items they held privately. Baldwin’s committee was therefore empowered to raise money, and even purchase a site if it found one agreeable.8
In November 1852, Library Hall was the target of a Sunday-night burglary. “Every room was entered, and every drawer broken open.” The Society’s losses were modest: a case of rare silver coins, obtained from a donor the year before. But here was “another argument,” according to the executive committee, for “a building which would be at once proof against fire and robbers.”9
Disappointed that Baldwin’s committee had as yet made no progress, the Society on a motion of Whitehead’s began a subscription drive. With the realization that soliciting pledges was beyond the capacity if not also the scope of Baldwin and his colleagues, an expanded “committee on the fire-proof building” was named, consisting of James King, Peter Duryee and five others, to assume that function and to administer the building fund.10
The new committee issued a circular letter in June, announcing “a fund for the purchase of a proper site, in the City of Newark, and the erection thereon of a fireproof building….”
“The room at present occupied for the Library,” it stated, “although conveniently situated, is already too small for the proper exhibition of the books, maps, and other property of the Society; and its location is such as would inevitably cause most serious loss, if not their entire destruction, should the building take fire, to which, on many accounts, it is particularly liable.”
The circular letter stressed the demoralizing effect of such a potential calamity, which “would be an irreparable loss to the State, as most of the manuscripts, and a large number of the volumes, could not be replaced; and the operations of the Society would be most injuriously affected, inasmuch as the labors of many persons who have aided in building it up would thus be lost, and but little hope left of a renewal of such labors.”
The committee also portrayed the New Jersey Historical Society as “emphatically a State institution,” and one deserving of national recognition as well. No other organization of its kind had in such a short time “collected more ample materials for history, done more to excite a spirit of historical research, or contributed more largely to the historical literature of the country.”11
James King himself made a generous pledge to the fund, and a handful of subscriptions followed. King was intent on repeating the gesture, but died that October. With his passing, the Society lost one of the most ardent advocates of “a suitable and secure deposit” for its collections.12
Hoping others would be inspired by the generosity of the committee’s lamented leader, Peter Duryee counseled that a rapid increase in the fund would permit the purchase of a site at a reasonable price, but such opportunities were fleeting. His plea must have had some effect, for in May 1854 he reported the purchase, at a cost of $2,500, of a narrow strip of land steps from Broad Street, on what was then called Park Church Place–later West Park Street. Those who through the arduous contest over the library’s location had stood for Newark felt vindicated and confident that a new building would soon be rising on the site.13
Little headway was made, however. The fireproof committee’s success to date mainly consisted in having paid for and obtained the deed to a plot of land “considered one of the most eligible in Newark….” A sudden drop in financial markets led the committee to pause its solicitations for the rest of 1854, without concealing its disappointment that prospective donors in other parts of the state, “whose names are identified with its history,” had not responded to its fundraising efforts.14
These struggles were in no way isolated from the disaffection caused by the decision to locate in Newark. While inviting historical interest in all sections of the state, the Society sought to keep local groups informal, with no organizations or distinct collections.15 Some saw its appeals to safeguard its holdings as one more arrogant imposition by an urban élite.16
A by-law change that would remove the requirement that the annual meeting take place in Trenton provoked much discussion about the evident apathy felt towards the Society outside Newark’s orbit. An opponent of the change said that, if it passed, he would propose the name of the organization be altered to “The Historical Society of the city of Newark.” Pointing to the scant turnout of Trenton members at meetings held in the state capital, and the sometimes complete absence of members from the south, Whitehead favored the by-law revision, but in the end it was not acted upon.17
Increasingly, even Whitehead had to acknowledge the disadvantages of the library’s current situation. He regretted that scholars from other parts of the state, including some of “the most valuable members of the society,” could accomplish very little on their brief visits to the Newark library. Moreover “the room was not always warm, the librarian not always in attendance, and many other obstacles were in the way of satisfactory researches….”18
The practice having been to allow entry to the Society’s room, even in the librarian’s absence, Whitehead was distressed to find books missing from the shelves and unaccounted for. He didn’t think they were taken for other than such commendable ends “as the preparation of papers for the Society, &c.” But, finding such removals risky, inconvenient and even “an act of injustice” to other users, he introduced a series of regulations to align the library’s practice with that of other institutions. These proposed rules prompted much debate, but only one point was settled: henceforth, permission of the librarian and the chairman of the executive committee must be obtained to remove any item from the collection.19
The Society’s financial picture was far from hopeful. Membership dues went unpaid, attendance at Society meetings had fallen off, and the prospect of a fireproof building seemed even more distant. The library, however, continued to grow in size and value, and with it the scholarly productions that it facilitated. A writer for the Newark Daily Advertiser declared that “the citizens of the State are under no slight obligation to the members of the Society for what they have done….”20 Yet these accomplishments were the work of comparatively few, unsupported by those citizens or their representatives in government.
At the May 1858 meeting, Peter Duryee conceded that fundraising for a new building on the West Park Street lot had made no new progress; “for the present it would seem that the Society must be satisfied” that its real estate “was increasing in value yearly.” Duryee recommended a change of direction, and members agreed: the committee would now look for “some suitable fire-proof room as a depository for the Library.”21
In January 1859, Whitehead brought to the Society’s attention a novel proposal from its counterpart in Wisconsin. The association there planned to ask Congress to fund state historical societies, and in particular the building of fireproof repositories, through appropriations of “public lands” under federal control–a precursor to the “land grants” that would fund many colleges and universities under the Morrill Act. New Jersey’s society, seeing no appreciable change in the balance of its building fund, endorsed the Wisconsin plan, but it seems to have come to nought.22
It was clear by that year’s Newark meeting, in May, that the matter of the fireproof building must somehow be settled. The subject had been “thought of, talked about, and hoped for,” the Daily Advertiser complained, “without attaining any result.” It was regrettable that Newark had no munificent millionaire come forward, as George Peabody had done in Maryland, or Amos and Abbott Lawrence in Massachusetts. None of the many men “to whom Newark has given wealth and prominence” had thought to “raise for himself a monument which will endure and reflect more honor on his name ten-fold than many of the phantoms which are so fatuitously pursued.” There seemed only one way forward: “to secure the occupancy of a portion of some fire proof building already erected, or about to be.”23
The building that presented itself was almost new, and hard to miss. In 1856, the Newark Banking Company had demolished its fifty-year-old headquarters at the corner of Broad and Bank Streets, itself designated an “elegant and spacious fire-proof building” when it first opened. It would be replaced in two years with a far grander collaboration by a pair of noted architects: John Welch, then of Newark, and Richard Upjohn of New York.24
Its floors of iron and brick and its massed walls of local brownstone made the corner structure as fireproof as any building in the city. Of the four stories above ground, the first was reserved for the banking rooms, the fourth for the freemasons of St. John’s Lodge, and the two in the middle held offices for rent. Stone steps at the northeast corner gave access to the upper floors. Whitehead with librarian Samuel Congar and a few others readied the rooms during the first three weeks of April 1860, and on Saturday 21 April employees of Peter Duryee and of two other Newark manufacturers moved the Society’s possessions from the third story of Library Hall on Market Street to three third-floor rooms at Broad and Bank, a block and a half away.25
Lease of the rooms was secured through a “generous friend of the Society”–not a member–who agreed to pay one-quarter of the rent for life.26 That largesse sprang from a relationship Whitehead had cultivated over the past fifteen years with two unmarried sisters, Mary and Louisa Rutherfurd, whose home across the Passaic River housed a valuable collection of colonial-era manuscripts.27
The sisters had supported Whitehead’s research and many of the Society’s initiatives, and after Louisa Rutherfurd’s death in 1857 Mary was eager to see the collection securely preserved. To the members assembled for the first time in the Society’s new home, Whitehead made an announcement that was, at least for him, momentous: the donation by Miss Mary Rutherfurd of the Ferdinand John Paris papers, which he had long thought were to be sought in England. He said, without hesitation, that “no gift of equal historical value had ever been received by the Society.”28
At that meeting was formed a new standing Committee on the Library, to include “the officers residing in Newark.” Whitehead, as Corresponding Secretary, would be among them. Its duties, spelled out in considerable detail, included the making of rules and regulations for supervision of the rooms, and for the use, exhibition and preservation of library materials.29
This new committee was also given authority to lease the lot on West Park Street. The goal of a proper building for the Society, on that site or elsewhere, was not abandoned.30 But its May meetings and its library would, for the rest of Whitehead’s life, remain in these quarters, over the rooms of the Newark Banking Company and the very spot where he first drew breath.
Copyright © 2023-2024 Gregory J. Guderian
[1] G. P., “New Jersey history,” Newark (N.J.) daily advertiser 30 January 1845 2:3.
[2] Whitehead’s Newark roots and boyhood are touched upon in some of my previous posts, especially In a country town, A quiet lady, The seeds of industry, and The long finger of learning. Whitehead wrote of his identification with Newark in an unpublished memoir, “Childhood and youth of W. A. Whitehead 1810-1830,” of which transcriptions are held by the Florida Keys Center, Monroe County Public Library, Key West, Florida, and by the P. K. Yonge Library of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida; see esp. pages 52-53.
[3] “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 25 January 1851 2:6; “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 19 January 1852 2:5; Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society (hereafter “Proceedings”) [ser. 1] 5:3 (1851) 92, 6:2 (1852) 50.
[4] Proceedings [ser. 1] 6:2 (1852) 18 (66), 27-29 (75-77); “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 24 May 1852 2:4. For the career of this native of Bloomfield, see Stephen Dodd, comp. A family record of Daniel Dod, who settled with the colony of Branford, 1644, where he died in 1665: and also of his descendants in New Jersey (s.l., 1839) 15. The Sentinel (originally Centinel) of Freedom was Newark’s second newspaper. It continued as a weekly digest of the Newark Daily Advertiser a year after the latter’s début in 1832.
[5] A graduate of Union College in Schenectady, Baldwin was at this time “actively engaged” in the business of quarrying Newark and Belleville stone. In 1853 he became a member of Newark’s Common Council, and served as its president the following year. “Death of Lucius D. Baldwin,” Newark daily advertiser 24 November 1882 2:3.
[6] “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 24 May 1852 2:4; “Proceedings of the Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 25 May 1852 1:6; Proceedings [ser. 1] 6:2 (1852) 20 (68), 22-23 (70-71). The New-York Historical Society, then located at New York University, had in 1849 secured $20,000 from the state legislature towards a fireproof building, but was unable to raise enough from private contributions. The New York Observer scolded its readers, alleging that “Bostonians would raise the whole by subscription.” “Wise liberality,” The Albion n.s. 8:12 (24 March 1849) 7:1; New-York (N.Y.) observer 26 January 1850 3:3; The evening post (New York, N.Y.) 20 February 1852 2:5-6. The long-sought fireproof building opened at Second Avenue and East 11th Street in 1857.
[7] A circular letter “To the Citizens of the State of New Jersey,” first printed in “Address of the N. J. Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 9 April 1845 2:1-3 and The sentinel of freedom (Newark, N.J.) 15 April 1845 1:4-6, promised only “to erect or hire a suitable depository … where books, pamphlets, and manuscripts, will be safe at once from the corrosions of time and dampness, and from the destructive power of accidents….” When published in pamphlet form in May 1845, the circular included an additional paragraph: “As soon as the wants of the Society and their means will permit, a fire-proof building will be provided as a permanent receptacle for all the property of the Society, where their collections will be as far as possible beyond the reach of the destroying influence of time or accident; so that all persons disposed to make contributions to its library or cabinet, may have the strongest confidence that they will be securely preserved. Until this is done every regard will be paid to their safety and preservation.” Constitution and by-laws of the New Jersey Historical Society. With the circular of the executive committee. (Founded February 27th, 1845.)(New-Jersey: Press of the Historical Society, 1845) 18. The statement was repeated virtually unchanged in an 1846 reprint, and slightly revised two years later when “the wants of the Society” were no more in question.
[8] “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 10 September 1852 2:4; Proceedings [ser. 1] 6:3 (1852) 99-100.
[9] “Burglary,” Newark daily advertiser 15 November 1852 2:3; “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 24 January 1853 2:5; Proceedings [ser. 1] 6:4 (1853) 157, 163. The collection of mostly Dutch coins “of various dates, properly arranged and catalogued,” was the gift of Adrian Scharff: “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 17 May 1851 2:6; Proceedings [ser. 1] 5:4 (1851) 163. For a list of the coins and their values see ibid. 173.
[10] Newark daily advertiser 21 January 1853 2:3; “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 24 January 1853 2:5; Newark daily advertiser 19 May 1853 2:3; “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 20 May 1853 2:2.
[11] “The New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 28 June 1853 2:2.
[12] “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 23 January 1854 1:5-2:1; Proceedings [ser. 1] 7:2 (1854) 50, 52, 54-56.
[13] Newark daily advertiser 18 May 1854 2:2; “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 19 May 1854 2:5; Newark daily advertiser 19 January 1855 2:3; Proceedings [ser. 1] 7:3 (1854) 87, 7:4 (1855) 121. The 1856 executive committee report noted that subscribers from Newark had made possible the purchase of the West Park Street lot. “It must be evident, that the advancement of the Society must and should depend on the unanimity of its members, without regard to any geographical limits, or to the location of its depository, which is now in the midst of the largest population in our State, and near to the great Metropolis.” Proceedings [ser. 1] 8:1 (1856) 2.
[14] “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 23 January 1855 1:5, 17 May 1855 2:3, 18 May 1855 2:4; Proceedings 7:4 (1855) 131.
[15] A proposal to encourage formation of county associations was rejected in 1847, a decision one critic felt would be “a matter of regret to many.” “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 23 January 1847 2:1; Proceedings [ser. 1] 2:2 (1847) 52-53; S., Newark daily advertiser 25 January 1847 2:4. In 1856, the Society began a series of “conversational meetings” devoted to county-level history, but these took place in Newark: The sentinel of freedom 20 May 1856 4:1; Proceedings [ser. 1] 8:1 (1856) 35; Newark daily advertiser 12 June 1856 2:2, 8 July 1856 2:4, 9 July 1856 2:5, 12 August 1856 2:4, 13 August 1856 2:4, 10 September 1856 2:5.
[16] That its work “excites so little general attention throughout the State” was a recurring complaint of the Society’s leaders. “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 25 January 1851 2:6; Proceedings [ser. 1] 5:3 (1851) 92. By the annual meeting in 1857, when the fireproof building fund contained only $150 but unpaid dues amounted to nearly $2000, two of those in attendance could credibly assert that no contributions to the building fund “need be expected from gentlemen in the Southern part of the State….” “N. J. Historical Society–Annual meeting,” Newark daily advertiser 16 January 1857 2:3. The drive to produce an edition of the early Newark town records overlaps, perhaps not coincidentally, with the campaign to secure the collections in Newark. However, this too was a struggle: the Society received permission to publish the records in 1853, and they were transcribed at the city’s expense, but chiefly for want of funds didn’t appear in print until late in 1864. “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 23 January 1854 1:5; Proceedings [ser. 1] 7:2 (1854) 51, 8:1 (1856) 34; “Records of the Town of Newark,” Newark daily advertiser 18 November 1864 2:2.
[17] A report of the 1857 annual meeting in Trenton observed that “there seemed to be but one opinion as to the impolicy of meeting again where so little desire to sustain the Society or to advance the objects it has in view was manifested.” “N. J. Historical Society–annual meeting,” Newark daily advertiser 16 January 1857 2:3. For the by-law amendment, see “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 23 January 1855 1:6, 17 May 1855 2:3, 18 May 1855 2:4; Proceedings [ser. 1] 7:4 (1855), 122-123, 132; “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 18 January 1856 2:3-4; Daily true American (Trenton, N.J.) 18 January 1856 3:2-3; Proceedings [ser. 1] 8:1 (1856) 7-9; Newark daily advertiser 21 May 1857 2:4; “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 22 May 1857 2:3; Proceedings [ser. 1] 8:2 (1856[-1857]) 62; Newark daily advertiser 22 January 1858 2:6; Proceedings [ser. 1] 8:3 (1858) 90-91.
[18] “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 26 September 1856 2:2; Proceedings [ser. 1] 8:2 (1856[-1857]) 35.
[19] The sentinel of freedom 20 May 1856 4:1; Proceedings [ser. 1] 8:1 (1856) 36-37; “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 26 September 1856 2:2; Proceedings [ser. 1] 8:2 (1856[-1857]) 35. Two years before, librarian Samuel H. Congar was aware of no more than two or three missing volumes, and had stamped all the books with the name of the Society to prevent “any future appropriations by unscrupulous borrowers.” “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 23 January 1854 1:5; Proceedings [ser. 1] 7:2 (1854) 50.
[20] “The New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 20 May 1857 2:4.
[21] “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 21 May 1858 2:3; Proceedings [ser. 1] 8:3 (1858) 115, 116. Proposals to sell, exchange or add to the lot on West Park Street, and even to cooperate with another organization in constructing a shared building, were pursued at various times: see The sentinel of freedom 20 May 1856 4:1; Proceedings [ser. 1] 8:1 (1856) 35-36; “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 22 May 1857 2:3; Proceedings [ser. 1] 8:2 (1856[-1857]) 62; “State Agricultural Society,” Newark daily advertiser 22 May 1863 2:3.
[22] “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 21 January 1859 2:3-4; Proceedings [ser. 1] 8:4 (1859) 137-138, 141; “Public lands for historical societies,” Newark daily advertiser 3 June 1862 2:1; “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 21 May 1863 2:3; Proceedings [ser. 1] 9:4 (1863-1864) 153-154. On the Wisconsin proposal see Leslie Whittaker Dunlap, American historical societies 1790-1860 (Madison, Wis. 1944) 117.
[23] “Historical Society Library,” Newark daily advertiser 10 June 1859 2:2. Cf. “The New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 19 May 1859 2:3; Proceedings [ser. 1] 8:4 (1859) 150; “The meeting of the Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 21 January 1860 2:8. In concluding an unsigned account of the library discussed in my previous post, Whitehead declared its limitations to be “rather a reflection upon the intelligent citizens of the State, that the appeals frequently made to them for funds to erect a fire-proof building upon the lot owned by the Society, in West Park street, should not have been favorably responded to.” “An hour in the historical library,” Newark daily advertiser 27 February 1860 2:2.
[24] Newark daily advertiser 12 June 1856 2:4, 28 September 1858 2:5. For the earlier building see The sentinel of freedom 14 May 1805 2:1.
[25] Newark daily advertiser 18 May 1857 2:3, 8 September 1858 2:4, 28 September 1858 2:5, 21 April 1860 2:4; “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 31 March 1860 2:4, 17 May 1860 2:3; Proceedings [ser. 1] 9:1 (1860) 25-26; W. A. Whitehead, Newark 5 April 1860, to John P. Jackson, Manuscript Group 47, John P. Jackson Papers, New Jersey Historical Society, Box 1/5.
[26] “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark (N.J.) daily Mercury 9 March 1860 3:1. Cf. “The Historical Society Library,” Newark daily advertiser 7 March 1860 2:3.
[27] Whitehead reported on his visits to the Misses Rutherfurd, and on their donations to the Society’s collections, beginning in September 1845. “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 6 September 1845 2:2. He singled them out for thanks in published works, notably in his edition of the papers of colonial governor Lewis Morris, “for the privilege so freely accorded him of consulting their large and interesting collection of manuscripts; a favor which they only can properly estimate who, from similar undertakings, have learned the value of authentic original materials.” The papers of Lewis Morris, governor of the Province of New Jersey, from 1738 to 1746 (New York 1852) ix.
[28] “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 19 May 1860 2:7; Proceedings [ser. 1] 9:1 (1860) 27-28.
[29] “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 19 May 1860 2:8; Proceedings [ser. 1] 9:1 (1860) 28-29.
[30] In its first report, the Committee on the Library favored keeping the lot and building on it. “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 18 January 1861 2:8; Proceedings [ser. 1] 9:2 (1862). The crowded conditions in the library led members to adopt a resolution in support of such a move. “New Jersey Historical Society,” Newark daily advertiser 21 May 1863 2:3; Proceedings [ser. 1] 9:4 (1863-1864) 152-153.
An attractive presence 