FORMED in 1807 to map the nation’s shorelines and chart its coastal waters, the United States Coast Survey was beset for much of its early life by military, political and economic pressures, slowing and sometimes halting the progress of the first scientific agency ever established by the federal government. But the value of its aims … More Between the lines
“LIFE to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden.” So heavy was the gloom that descended upon poor Tom Sawyer, before his inborn cleverness got other boys believing that to whitewash thirty yards of fence was anything but drudgery. Facing a similar task, William A. Whitehead seems to have found nothing about life burdensome. … More Whitewash
NOT until the end of its second century could New Jersey’s oldest permanent English settlement and first seat of government begin to call itself, officially, the City of Elizabeth. Through a referendum and an act of the state legislature in the 1850s, the Township and Borough of Elizabeth came together at last under a unified … More 089–If so many
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
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
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
SELDOM are scholars, scientists or other devotees of learning able to practice their devotions apart from institutions, whether it’s by choice or necessity that they work with or under them. The power wielded by the likes of learned societies, religious organizations, schools or governments at any level, and their shifting propensities to foster or frustrate … More 056–Our man in London
An attractive presence 