THE night sky gives us great cause for wonder: the more so, if we consider the vastness of the universe, an infinitesimal part of which is visible to our eyes. Those of us who scan the heavens for clues to the cosmos grapple with even deeper truths about space and time: by earthly measures, the … More 088–Dark matter
DUTCH names grow profusely on William A. Whitehead’s family tree. While his surname betrays an English origin, the children of his father’s first marriage traced their maternal ancestry to the Rikers, one of the foremost families of New Netherland. The lineage of Whitehead’s own children went back on their mother’s side to a union between … More 087–Interregnum
IT could be said that, somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Richard Nicolls lost New Jersey. At the behest of his royal master, James the Duke of York and of Albany, Colonel Nicolls went to assert England’s claim on a part of America then ruled by the rival Dutch. In August 1664, his … More 086–Seeds of dissension
IN the opening pages of The History of the Rise and Progress of the United States of North America, James Grahame wrote of the “grateful exultation” an American might feel, born in “a land that has yielded as great an increase of glory to God and happiness to man, as any other portion of the world, … More 085–Light sufficient
WITH a dramatic reading of Henry VIII, Fanny Kemble (Mrs. Frances Kemble Butler until her divorce was finalized later in the same year) closed a series of one-woman performances from the stage of New York’s Stuyvesant Institute. After solo renditions before audiences in Boston, New York City and Brooklyn through the winter and spring of … More 084–Thy book doth live
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 … More 083–Fire-proof
NO stranger to the place, or to history, a Newark newspaper correspondent ascended to the third story of that city’s Library Hall, where beneath the façade’s stone crenellations was lodged the library of the New Jersey Historical Society. On his visit the writer lingered, momentarily, before two of several pictures that hung about the walls: … More 082–A house divided
SIX mornings of every seven, William A. Whitehead stepped aboard a rail car at Newark’s Centre Street depot. His train crept briefly north, then eastward to cross the Passaic River. Getting up speed, the engine trailed a thick plume of smoke and cinders along its flat, straight course through the Kearny meadows. Once over the … More 081–The monopolists
TO the east of the village of Newark, waterways were the natural and, for almost a century, the only practical way of moving produce and passengers. Sloops, flatboats and periaugers took on and discharged their cargoes at landings all along the banks of the region’s rivers and streams. But vessels heading for the New York … More 080–The trembling earth
NEAR a bend in the Raritan River now crossed by hundreds of thousands of motorists every day, there was once little to disturb the routine movements of birds, beasts and tides except an occasional transit by raft or canoe. Here the river was met by what, in the imagination of William A. Whitehead, served as … More 079–Travelling facilities
An attractive presence 