“With scenes graphically resembling those of war-devastated France, a dozen towns in northern New Jersey were in a shattered condition this afternoon as a consequence of the munition disaster,” read the Evening Public Ledger out of Philadelphia on the night of October 5, 1918. With explosions lasting into the next morning, and fires bruning for three days, the Morgan Depot Explosion was a devastating blow to the town of Sayrevile and surrounding neighborhoods. In total, over 300 buildings were destroyed and over $18,000,000 of damage was done, while it is believed that around 100 people lost their lives. Read more about it!

The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.

The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.