I am pleased to be at the Avalon Library on Saturday, September 16, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. to explore the fascinating subject of temperance and prohibition in New Jersey. This talk, part of the Avalon History Center’s speakers series, will shed light on the region’s unique perspective on the centuries-long effort to control and regulate alcohol consumption while placing it in a national context.
During the lecture, we will delve into compelling stories of rumrunners, moonshiners, bathtub gin, Coast Guard rum patrols, and the intriguing personalities that emerged during this era. We will also navigate the intricate landscape of Garden State politics, organized crime, and the influential role of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.
Understanding the growing interest in this captivating period, I am excited to discuss these matters with particular consideration for the New Jersey context.
The program will be held at the Tennis Building at 250 39th St., Avalon, NJ. Remember to mark your calendar for Saturday, September 16, 2023, at 3:00 p.m.
For more information on this free program, please visit the History Center link on the Visit Avalon NJ website. I look forward to this engaging discussion as we examine and consider intriguing insights into the prohibition in New Jersey.
1932 beer parade in Detroit, Michigan (Detroit News Photo, Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University)
Chronicling America at the Library of Congress has updated its digital newspaper database with the inclusion of two historic Salem County newspapers: The Monitor and the Monitor-Register. These Woodstown, NJ papers, spanning 1884 to 1925, are now digitally accessible for historical and family history research.
The publications were successfully added through the New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project (NJDNP), a partnership involving Rutgers University Libraries, New Jersey State Archives, and New Jersey State Library. These institutions worked together to ensure this valuable resource was accessible to the public for free through a text-searchable database.
This collaboration followed their previous contribution to the online resources for Salem County when they added the Penns Grove Record in 2021. The record, which started publishing in 1865, covers 1882 to 1923.
Researchers now have an invaluable, free tool to explore various aspects of South Jersey history. The Salem County periodicals provide a window into politics, culture, business, religion, and daily events that shaped everyday life over the generations.
The comprehensive access provided by Chronicling America at the Library of Congress makes it easier than ever before for historians, genealogists, students, and anyone to delve into the rich history of South Jersey and unlock a treasure trove of information about family and local history.
One of the Salem County newspapers, the Monitor Register, available at Chronicling America at the Library of Congress.
During the Great Depression and World War II, the United States Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information hired photographers to document American life. The documentarians, working between 1935 and 1944, captured 170,000 pictures. This included many in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
It is described as one of the most famous documentary photography collections of the twentieth century, “creating visual evidence of government initiatives alongside scenes of everyday life during the Great Depression and World War II across the United States.”
Once the program ended, The Library of Congress became the custodian of this work. They were placed in public file cabinets where researchers could browse the prints, searching for visual clues of earlier times. In March 2011, Yale University received a grant to create an interactive web-based open soured visualization platform for these images. The free online platform, Photogrammar, allows a rapid search of the large photographic data set. Easy to use, it includes an interactive map, which facilitates locating images of interest.
If you are interested in the images of the photographers who documented America during the Great Depression and World War II check out this free resource https://photogrammar.org/maps
“Dorchester County, Maryland. The congregation of this church are all waterman.” Jack Collier, Feb. 1942. U.S. Farm AdministrationDORCHESTER COUNTY — “Dorchester County, Maryland. Home of an Eastern shore waterman.” Jack Collier, Feb. 1942. The U.S. Farm Administration
I am investigating the nature of work for African Americans in the public sector during the Jim Crow Era, specifically in healthcare, local government, and public safety. Drawing on archival research, interviews with local experts, and oral histories with tradition-bearers and pioneers who broke barriers, this research examines the opportunities, obstacles, and challenges for Black Americans before the passage of modern Civil Rights legislation.
Atlantic City is one place I have included in the study. There a large, vibrant Black community contributed to the growth, development, and culture of the resort. As a result, the city had more public-sector employment opportunities. But it was far from equitable as Black people struggled to break through the barriers of discrimination and segregation. This complicated history is a perspective I am working to understand as I contextualize the opportunities in the public sector as Jim Crow lost its hold over the country.
As Black Americans held a variety of government and nonprofit positions along the Jersey Shore, this has led me to ask about the first police officers, firefighters, nurses, and doctors. Noting those who went first is crucial to understanding the forces at work. The published literature, especially the Northside by Nelson Johnson, is of immense help in understanding the healthcare professions and firefighters.
However, law enforcement needs more research as this part of the history of policing is largely unexplored. When did the first Black officer receive his appointment? What was his life story? After he broke the color line, what struggles did he face? These are some of the questions under consideration as I research the first cohort of early pioneers in police work.
Members of what is believed to be the Atlantic City Police Department pose for a photographer, probably around the turn of the twentieth century. There are two African American policemen in the image. (Source: Bob Ruffolo)
The Atlantic City Daily Press published this photo of “Chief Harry C. Eldrige, who died on May 4, 1906. (Atlantic City Daily Press, May 5, 1906)
This line of inquiry led me to Princeton Antiques Book Service in Atlantic City. The proprietor, Bob Ruffolo, was of immense help. He has an expansive collection of 20,000 local images and a vast knowledge of the past along the Jersey Shore. In the collection, he had this photograph of police officers, which he thought was from Atlantic City around the turn-of-the-twentieth-century. Standing in the uniformed ranks are two Black police officers.
I am still working on comparing this picture with other images from the force around that time, but only a few surviving images exist. So I will keep at this. However, in the old microfilm reels at the Atlantic City Library, I located an image of Chief Harry C. Eldridge. He passed away in 1906. There appears to be some likeness to the chief in the group photo.
Finally, the Atlantic City Free Public Library (ACFPL) identified the first Black female police officer. In 1924, Margaret “Maggie Creswell became a seasonal officer and in 1927 she became a permanent member of the force. According to the library, she was the first female officer in the city and the state. Office Creswell retired in 1964.
