Exhibitions

Over the past ten years, the Historical Association has presented over thirty changing exhibitions exploring Monmouth County life. Some of our recent exhibitions have included "Angels In The Household: Childhood Life in Monmouth County" (1999), "The Karagheusian Rug Mill" (2000), "Steamboat!" (2002), "Revolution in Monmouth" (2003), and "Home Front: Monmouth County in World War II" (2005). The Association offers at least one changing exhibition each year exploring a facet of Monmouth County life.

Current Exhibitions

"By The Sea: Monmouth County Shore Resorts, 1800-1950"
September 23, 2007 through June 30, 2009
Washington and Hartshorne Galleries

The charms of Monmouth County’s seashore have attracted visitors for centuries. Long before European settlement, the native Lenape visited what is now Sandy Hook each year to fish and gather the summer harvest of beach plums. In 1609, an officer on Henry Hudson’s ship Half Moon wrote that the shore of theAtlantic Highlands was a “very good land” and "pleasant to see."

As early as the 1790's, boarding houses with bathing facilities were established in Long Branch, and in 1797 it was noted that "much genteel company from Philadelphia and New-York resort here during the summer months for health and pleasure." In the decades following the Civil War, Long Branch, with its grand hotels and elegant social scene, reached its peak as the "American Brighton" -- the most fashionable seaside resort in the country. By the early 20th Century, a growing tourist economy supported the need for lodging, dining and entertainment along the shore.The years following the Civil War saw the real peak of the summer resorts in such towns as Long Branch, Sea Bright, Asbury Park, and Ocean Grove, offering hotels and boarding houses for every pocketbook, entertainments of all sorts, and, of course, the beaches.

Aspects of Shore culture highlighted in this exhibition include the Victorian Era, proper attire, entertainment and diversions, communities and clubs, business at the Shore, and disasters and lifesaving. The Shore culture that developed in Monmouth County is explored through objects, photographs, documents, diaries, newspapers, posters, and illustrations from the Historical Association’s collections as well as from local private collectors. Such items as a wicker boardwalk cart for two, used along the Asbury Park boardwalk at the turn of the century, is included in the exhibition, as well as nineteenth and twentieth century bathing suits and resort costumes worn in Monmouth County. Rare posters, photographs, and documents are shown from the Association’s Library & Archives collection. Businesses that catered to the summer visitors are also depicted through a number of storefront and shop interior views as well as artifacts from the collection.

"The Battle of Monmouth"

The Discovery Room

"Early New Jersey Stoneware."

Selections from the Monmouth County Historical Association's New Jersey stoneware collection are now on view at the Main Museum, 70 Court Street, Freehold.

Pictured above from left to right: Stoneware crock, attributed to the Kemple potters, Ringoes, NJ circa 1750. Marshall P. Blankarn Purchasing Fund, 1956. Stoneware crock, unknown maker, possibly Old Bridge area, dated 1802, made for Monmouth County resident Chrineyonce Schenck. Museum Collection. Stoneware crock, Kemple potters, Ringoes, NJ, circao 1750. Marshall P. Blankarn Purchasing Fund, 1956

This exhibit features 27 crocks, jugs, and jars made between 1750 and 1820. Stoneware makers such as the Kemple pottersof Rongoes, the Morgan family of Cheesequake and the firm of Van Wickle and Morgan in Old Bridge are represented in the exhibition. New Jersey resident Robert J. Sim (1881 - 1955) investigated early New Jersey stoneware potters. His research, conducted from the late 1930's up until his death in 1955, included archaeological digs at the sites of many of the original potteries. Fragments of the stoneware vessels uncovered by Sim durig his digs are also on view in the exhibition. The exhibit also ncludes six significant stoneware pieces on loan from a private collector.

Monmouth County Historical Association has one of the leading early New Jersey stoneware collections in the country. This exhibit represents only a portion of the Association's collection.

"Early New Jersey Stoneware" is currently on display on the second floor of the main museum until March of 2009.

Future Exhibitions

"Micah Williams: Journey of an Artist"

Between 1819 and 1828, traveling artist Micah Williams (1782-1837) made repeated visits to Monmouth County to produce dozens of pastel portraits of local farmers, doctors, businessmen, and their families. Williams is recognized as one of America’s early portrait artists, yet little research has been completed on this profoundly talented man. The Monmouth County Historical Association collection contains twenty-two pastel portraits by this artist.

New Brunswick, Middlesex County, resident Williams produced hundreds of vibrant portraits during his over twenty-year career, many of which are in numerous American museums and in private collections across the country. The Association is planing an exhibition and publication on the life and work of this fascinating artist. The exhibit is currently scheduled for September of 2009 at the Association’s main museum in Freehold. For further information, please contact Curator Bernadette M. Rogoff at (732) 462-1466.