Past Events Archive
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Events listed above are those officially sponsored and/or officially endorsed and supported by The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills and it's affiliate organizations. |
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For a list of CURRENT EVENTS SCHEDULED for THSSH - 
Event Details
Sunday, December 2, 2007
THSSH Bi-Annual Holiday House Tour
THSSH Bi-Annual Holiday House Tour -
Six Homes & Academy to Receive Visitors...more
Saturday & Sunday, October 13-14,
2007
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Lord Stirling 1770s Festival
Circle the date – October 7th – and join the crowds attending the annual Lord Stirling 1770s Festival, where life in the 18th Century will be portrayed and craftspeople will demonstrate the various occupations and products of the time.
The program, sponsored by the Somerset County Park Commission, is held on the grounds of Stirling Manor, known affectionately by neighbors of the era, as The Buildings, manor estate of William Stirling, Lord Stirling, the colorful Revolutionary War general and good friend of General George Washington.
The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills will again staff a booth, displaying educational materials and artifacts, maps and other related objects of the time. The event is from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M.
Click Here for Directions
Wednesday, May 23th, 2007
Historic Preservation Awards Presentation
Awards for noteworthy historic preservation projects in the Somerset Hills will be presented by the Historical Society of the Somerset Hills on Wednesday, May 23, 2007, at 7:30 in the Bernardsville Public Library. This will be the fourth year for this Historical Society program to recognize local projects preserving historic buildings and enhancing neighborhood character. Presentation of the awards will be accompanied by a narrated slide program about the projects.
This year the Historical Society is pleased to partner with the Bernardsville Historic Preservation Advisory Committee (HPAC) on the presentation. Bernardsville HPAC will be hosting the event, which will also include an exhibit of photographs of Bernardsville landmarks and current award winning projects.
Over the past three years awards have been given to a wide variety of realistic and practical preservation projects that have successfully preserved and adapted familiar landmarks throughout the five communities. This year, five more noteworthy projects that substantially enhance the Somerset Hills communities are being recognized. “It is gratifying to formally acknowledge a group of projects that demonstrate some of the benefits achieved by preserving our familiar and beloved buildings and landmarks,” said Marcella Miccolis, Chairman of the Historical Society.
The public is welcome and encouraged to attend this wonderful ceremony.
For Details on the Nomination Process - Click Here
Bernardsville Public Library Directions - Click Here
Saturday, May 19, 2007
CHARTER DAY MAY 19 CELEBRATES HISTORY, THE ARTS, MUSIC, & FUN
Saturday, May 19, 2007 11am-10pm Rain or Shine (An Annual Event)
Bernards Township's 13th Annual Charter Day on Saturday, May 19, promises to be a fun and festive day with its vendors, displays, service groups and strong emphasis on history. There will be a complete history village!
Expected visitors to the downtown Basking Ridge celebration are about 10,000, with festivities to begin at 11 A.M., with local, County and State dignitaries present. The Town Crier Hank Barre and the Rural Felicity Fife and Drum Corps will conduct opening ceremonies ..more
Monday, December 11, 2006 -7:30 pm - 8:30pm
Navigating The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills on the Internet
With the recent launch of THSSH website, come learn how to navigate this new and exciting window into our historical society. Learn how the site was created, how to utilize it's information, and how to participate in the online community discussions. No computer experience is necessary, and a handout will be provided for new users. Presented at the Bernards Township Library. Come hear Brooks Betz, a Somerset Hills Historical Society Member, who volunteered to create the website.
Thursday, December 7, 2006 - 7pm
Christmas Party!
Celebrating our Historical past- Refreshments, music, interesting games. Bring a "What's It" and stump our panel of experts. At the Brick Academy in Basking Ridge. For Directions Click Here.
November 9, 2006 - 7:30 - 8:45 pm
Bernards Township
Library, Bernards Township
Charlie
Engelhard: The REAL Goldfinger?
Stephen Yautz, Historian, SMY Historical Services - Charles W. Engelhard, Jr. 1917-1971, the man the New York Times dubbed "The Platinum King," was a prominent resident of the Somerset Hills. Learn about the lifestyle that inspired his friend Ian Fleming to create the notorious character, Auric Goldfinger, who attempted to monopolize the world's gold reserves. Join Historian Stephen Yautz for this discussion of Engelhard's extraordinary life. Refreshments will be served. Please register for this program at the Adult Circulation Desk. more
Saturday & Sunday, October 13-14, 2006
Weekend Journey through the Past.
Visit any of 22 local historic sites for free tours, exhibits and family activities
The Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission, in conjunction with local historical organizations, has designated the weekend of October 14-15, 2006, "Weekend Journey through the Past." During the two-day period, twenty-two of the County's significant historic sites will be open at the same time - 10:00 am to 5:00 pm on Saturday and 12:00 am to 5:00 pm on Sunday. Many of the sites will offer special exhibits, programs, and tours. Admission and parking at each site are free.
The Weekend Journey provides the perfect opportunity to take your family on a weekend outing. A visit to the sites will provide a unique educational experience for students, as well as a chance to see some of the Somerset County's most picturesque and unspoiled areas.
Click Here for additional details and participating historical sites
(Three Unique Tour Routes to choose from)
Sunday, October 1, 2006 - Sunday 10:30am - 4:30pm
Colonial history lives at the Somerset County Park Commission's annual 1770s Festival when Lord Stirling's grand manor house and estate come to life in Lord Stirling Park in Basking Ridge, NJ. Colonial craftspeople ply their trades and a Revolutionary War military detachment camp on the former estate lawns and conduct maneuvers. The event promotes historical and environmental education by familiarizing people with the rich local history of Basking Ridge, highlighting an unsung Revolutionary War hero, demonstrating the colonial heritage of New Jersey, and recreating a typical autumn afternoon in 1770. In 2001, the Lord Stirling 1770s Festival won the New Jersey Recreation and Park Association's Excellence in Educational Programming Award. Nearly 50 people attired in replicas of 1770s clothing participate in the festival demonstrating their trades and crafts (no crafts are sold). These crafts people make articles such as buttons, rifles, brooms, furniture, lace, stained glass, redware pottery, and powder horns. Other trades and crafts include a blacksmith, tinsmith, wool spinning, decoy carving, and colonial herbs. Children of all ages enjoy the hay rides, clay crafts using Stirling clay, stenciling, and toy making. Visitors may try on colonial costumes and have their photograph taken while restrained to the Somerset Gaoler's wooden stock.
Suggested donation: $4
Click Here for Directions
See photos from past festivals - Click Here
September 15-17, 2006
Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary route Reenactment
September 15-17, 2006 English Farm, Liberty Corner District - Bernards Twp, NJ
Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary route Reenactment
The French are coming. Come commemorate the 225th anniversary of the Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary route and stop over at the English Farm in the Liberty Corner section of Bernards Township. Click Here for event details. Complete W3C route map and additional information on the Bullion's Tavern Reenactment website.The two-day reenactment will be held Saturday and Sunday on the English Farm, the actual location of the French campsite August 29, 1781. Situated in the picturesque and historic village of Liberty Corner, the working farm has been in the same family since before the Revolutionary War. In addition to routine camp activities, the program will include a variety of craft, military, and weaponry demonstrations. On Sunday, there will be a dedication ceremony for a Rochambeau monument.
THSSH Speaker Series Guest Speakers
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Julie Neu presents ‘Quilts in American History’
Julie Brown Neu has been quilting for more than ten years, focusing primarily on traditional patchwork. She is a member of the Garden State Quilters Guild, a guild of 250 members that meets in Chatham, New Jersey. For the last two years, she has managed charitable activities for the guild and is now the Webmaster (www.gardenstatequilters.com) . She was the Hanging Chair for the guild’s 2005 quilt show and was at the guild show on September 29th and 30th at the Westfield Armory in Westfield. She has demonstrated hand quilting techniques at the Chatham Township Bicentennial fair and at the Fosterfields Living Historical Farm in Morristown.
She lives in Chatham and is an Internet strategy consultant when she isn’t quilting. http://www.julieneu.com/
Click Here for Directions
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Gordon Ward presents a workshop based on his new book “A Bit of Earth” – How to Preserve Childhood, History and a Sense of Place
Do you want to create tangible memories for yourself, children, grandchildren, friends, and posterity? Author and educator Gordon Thomas
Ward leads this hands-on workshop for anyone wanting to begin to preserve their own memories as historical links and reestablish a sense of place for an area in which they live/have lived. This enjoyable workshop includes exemplary readings and photos from Mr. Ward’s book A Bit of Earth: Preserving Childhood, History, and a Sense of Place, tips about gathering regional information, instruction on generating ideas through “creative clustering,” and guidance for individuals to develop and outline their own stories within suggested categories.
Attendees need to bring lined paper, blank paper, a pen, and perhaps a few photos, with which they will design a personalized blueprint for documentation. The process takes individual creativity and various types of media into consideration so that individuals will have the ability to incorporate written word, still photographs, video, audio, or a multimedia collage at a later date. Upon completion of the workshop, its members will have created their own foundation upon which to build, recapture, and celebrate their own “bit of earth.”
Website: http://www.gtwservices.com/
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Fiddlesticks
Nancy Shill & Charlie Pellegrino are lovers of music and of history.
They play music and sing songs from various eras in full regalia. For their Colonial/ Revolutionary War program which reflects such a rich period from this area's past, they will sing such standards as The Girl I left Behind Me and Yankee Doodle.
They will also introduce songs that you have never heard such as Revolutionary Tea and The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn. Originally from New York & New Jersey, and now residing in Pennsylvania, these two feel a strong kinship to the days of the early settlers and their pleasures and struggles.
Charlie plays the Guitar while Nancy plays the fiddle. They both sing. "One song can frequently teach you a new perspective about the times and the people" says Nancy.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
The New Jersey Folk Grave Marker Survey Project
Presented by Gordon Bond & Stephanie Hoagland
Gordon and Stephanie explain what folk grave markers are and their historic, cultural and artistic importance, how we survey them, what we’ve learned to date and plenty of interesting pictures of examples.
Background: Who are we? How do we arrive at our sense of "self"? In many ways, we are each the product of the sum total of our personal experiences. We are shaped by the events of our lives and the influence of people we've known. Our personal histories go into making us who we are. Similarly, groups of people - neighborhoods, ethic groups, religious groups, nations - derive a sense of identity from the sum total of their collective experiences. History, personal or collective, is a common bond we all share.
When we were looking for a name we could use for our historical projects, we hit upon "common bond" for a number of reasons. We view history as a common bond, not only in the sense just described, but also between ourselves. It was one of the things which first brought us together in our personal relationship.
We also tend to gravitate towards the history of the average "common" people and everyday life. So "common" here also means the vernacular.
In short, we are just a couple in New Jersey who love history and are trying, in our small ways, to make a contribution to the study of our shared "common bond." We've created this website http://www.commonbondhistorians.com/index.html to share what we've been doing with others who also enjoy history.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Patriots, Tories, Inebriates, and Hussies: Archaeology at the Abraham Staats House, South Bound Brook, New Jersey
Presented by: Richard Veit
Monmouth University
Department of History and Anthropology
West Long Branch, NJ 07764-1898To modern suburbanites life on a farm may seem hopelessly boring or, alternatively, charming and idyllic. Excavations at the Abraham Staats House in New Jersey’s Raritan Valley, just upriver from New Brunswick, provides a glimpse of the lives of the 18th- and 19th-century farmers who were neither boring nor idyllic. The Staats family, part of the early 18th-century Dutch migration to the Raritan Valley saw their lives transformed by the Revolutionary War, the arrival of Turnpike Roads, the construction of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, the emancipation of slaves, and family squabbles of Macbethian proportions. Excavations at the Staats House undertaken by volunteers from the Friends of the Staats House, the ASNJ, and Monmouth University, combined with the rediscovery of long-forgotten diaries and court records, allow us to better understand the complex realities of rural life in New Brunswick’s hinterlands.
Richard F. Veit, Ph.D. (Biographical Sketch)Richard Veit is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and Anthropology at Monmouth University and Director of the University’s MA program in Liberal Arts. He received his Ph.D. in Historical Archaeology/Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. His dissertation focused on New Jersey’s architectural terra cotta industry. He is the author of the award-winning book Digging New Jersey's Past: Historical Archaeology in the Garden State (Rutgers University Press 2002). Currently, he is involved in an archaeological study of colonial life in central New Jersey focused on the Abraham Staats House, a Dutch-American farm in South Bound Brook.
Link to the Staats House: http://www.staatshouse.com/AboutUs.html
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Speaker Series: Laurie MacDonnell-Gaulke- "Doughnuts for Doughboys - A Salvation Army Lassie on WW1 Battlefields"
Right in line with the observance of Veterans Day (Saturday, November 11th), Laurie MacDonnell-Gaulke of Long Hill Township, will present her discussion in her uniform of the period. Saturday, November 11, 2006 will commemorate the 88th anniversary of the end of World War 1 in 1918. Originally called Armistice Day, it is now observed as Veterans Day. A brief business meeting will precede the program. The public is invited to attend. Refreshments will be served.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Speaker Series: Gordon Ward presents "Ghosts at Our Doorsteps"
Ghost lore is all around us, and it offers an intriguing glimpse into our history and the fabric of our surroundings. Experiences with ghosts have been reported by people of all ages and all walks of life, yet most people only think of ghosts the way they are portrayed in Hollywood movies. So...what are ghosts? How can the phenomena be explained, and what can ghost lore teach us about our past?
This enjoyable presentation is designed to answer these questions, entertain, educate, and perhaps send a few chills up your spine. Based upon many years of interest and study, the program consists of an exciting, semi-formal lecture with Power Point photos regarding classic tales, direct experiences, and site visits. While it includes a review of developing theories, the format also places an emphasis on ghost lore as entertainment and celebrates the importance of documenting local stories and sharing them in the oral tradition, something that is rapidly being lost in today’s world. Specializing in ghost lore regarding historic sites, many of the accounts are from the Somerset, Hunterdon, and Morris County areas of New Jersey with occasional references to stories from other counties, states, or regions. This presentation is lots of fun and perfect for a variety of audiences at any time of year...NOT JUST HALLOWEEN!
Thursday, Sept 21, 2006
Speaker Series: David Cowell-"Turn your plate over and have a good Read!"