Related Resources

This page includes additional resources on New Jersey from the Library's website.

American Folklife Center State Resources

American Folklife Center Collections: New Jersey
American Folklife Center (AFC) collections from the U.S. state of New Jersey document expressive culture throughout the length of the state and span nearly a century. Beginning with disc recordings of singer Jenny Devlin and continuing with StoryCorps interviews made today, AFC collections illustrate the rich variety of folklife found in this state. Particularly noteworthy are Civil Rights oral histories, occupational folklife, and documentation of the New Jersey Pinelands.

Bibliographies and Guides

New Jersey: History of Printing and Publishing
Library of Congress collections include many examples of early printing in the state of New Jersey. This guide provides historical information, online research materials, and links to curated primary and secondary resources in a wide variety of formats.
Resources for Local History and Genealogy: New Jersey
Compiled by Reference Specialists in the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room, this site identifies key resources for pursuing family history, and state, county and municipal historical research by state.

Exhibitions Featuring New Jersey

Creating the United States

Through the trials of war and peace the founders created a unique government - a republic across an enormous geographic region and encompassing a vast variety of cultural complexities. Although living up to the principles of humanity laid down in the Declaration of Independence has been an arduous journey, the exhibition demonstrates that the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are living instruments that are central to the evolution of the United States.

View the Creating the United States Exhibition

A selection of highlights from this exhibition includes:

Madison Responds to Paterson’s New Jersey Plan
William Paterson’s New Jersey Plan proposed a unicameral (one-house) legislature with equal votes of states and an executive elected by a national legislature. This plan maintained the form of government under the Articles of Confederation while adding powers to raise revenue and regulate commerce and foreign affairs. James Madison commented on Paterson’s proposed plan in his journal that he maintained during the course of the proceedings. Madison’s notes, which he refined nightly, have become the most important contemporary record of the debates in the Convention.
The New Jersey Plan
The New Jersey delegates to the Constitutional Convention, led by William Paterson (1745–1806) proposed an alternative to the Virginia Plan on June 15, 1787. The New Jersey Plan was designed to protect the security and power of the small states by limiting each state to one vote in Congress, as under the Articles of Confederation. Its acceptance would have doomed plans for a strong national government and minimally altered the Articles of Confederation.
Washington Congratulated on New Jersey Victory
When the American Army commanded by George Washington forced the British army to abandon Boston on March 17, 1776, the confidence of members of the Continental Congress received a strong boost. The news is recorded in this diary of Richard Smith (1735–1803), a member of the Continental Congress from New Jersey. The British retreat from Boston and repulse of the British forces at Charleston, South Carolina, encouraged supporters of a Declaration of Independence to press ahead.
William Paterson Defends New Jersey Plan
William Paterson (1745–1806) presented a plan of government to the Convention that came to be called the “New Jersey Plan.” Paterson wanted to retain a unicameral (one-house) legislature with equal votes of states and have the national legislature elect the executive. This plan maintained the form of government under the Articles of Confederation while adding powers to raise revenue and regulate commerce and foreign affairs.

With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition

With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition commemorates the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of the nation's revered sixteenth president. More than a chronological account of the life of Abraham Lincoln, the exhibition reveals Lincoln the man, whose thoughts, words, and actions were deeply affected by personal experiences and pivotal historic events.

View With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition

A selection of highlights from this exhibition includes:

"New York to Trenton"
Philadelphia Daily Evening Bulletin, February 21, 1861
"Philadelphia to New Jersey"
New-York Daily Tribune, April 25, 1865
Trenton: "Three Cheers for Old Abe"
Philadelphia North American and United States Gazette, February 22, 1861

Historic Newspapers

Chronicling America: New Jersey
This site allows you to search and view newspaper pages from 1777-1963 from more than 20 states and the District of Columbia. Search this collection to find selected newspaper articles that mention events in New Jersey.

Law Library

The Guide to Law Online: New Jersey
The Guide to Law Online, prepared by the Law Library of Congress Public Services Division, is an annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available online. It includes selected links to useful and reliable sites for legal information on U.S states and territories, including New Jersey.

Resources for Teachers

The Library of Congress offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the Library's vast digital collections in their teaching. Find Library of Congress lesson plans and more that meet Common Core standards, state content standards, and the standards of national organizations.

Features & Activities

Primary Sources by State: New Jersey
The Library of Congress has rich documents and artifacts from every state, the U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia.

Lesson Plans

Exploring Community Through Local History: Oral Stories, Landmarks and Traditions
Students explore the local history of the community in which they live through written and spoken stories; through landmarks such as buildings, parks, restaurants, or businesses; and through traditions such as food, festivals and other events of the community or of individual families.
Local History: Mapping My Spot
Students create their town’s history for coming generations and place themselves on the map in a literal as well as figurative sense, by producing portions of an updated version of an early twentieth century panoramic map from the Digital Collections.

Today in History

The following dates in history feature significant events in New Jersey's history as highlighted in the Library of Congress' collections.

January 6
On January 6, 1993, Dizzy Gillespie, the last of the primary originators of Be-Bop jazz, died in Englewood, New Jersey. The trumpeter-composer-bandleader had laid the foundation of modern jazz with pianist Thelonius Monk, drummer Kenny Clarke, guitarist Charlie Christian, and alto saxophonist Charlie “Yardbird” Parker.
January 11
Alice Paul, chief strategist for the militant wing of the suffrage movement and author of the Equal Rights Amendment, was born on January 11, 1885 in Moorestown, New Jersey. The product of an upper middle-class Quaker family, Paul attended Swarthmore College and earned a doctorate in social work from the University of Pennsylvania.
March 16
James Madison, “Father of the Constitution” and fourth president of the United States, was born on March 16, 1751. A graduate of the College of New Jersey at Princeton, where he studied the liberal arts, Madison wed his love of learning to a deep sense of civic responsibility to charter and to lead the young United States of America.
June 9
On June 9, 1902, Woodrow Wilson was unanimously elected president of Princeton University, a position he held until he resigned in 1910 to run for governor of New Jersey. As university president, Wilson exhibited both the idealistic integrity and the occasional lack of political acumen that marked his tenure as the twenty-eighth president of the United States (1913-21).
June 26
On June 26, 1870, the first section of the Atlantic City Boardwalk opened along the New Jersey beach. Dr. Jonathan Pitney and civil engineer Richard Osborne began developing the area on Absecon Island in the early 1850s. Long before this time, members of the Lenni-Lenape tribe were the first seasonal visitors to enjoy the summer splendor of the island.
July 11
At dawn on the morning of July 11, 1804, political antagonists and personal enemies Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr met on the heights of Weehawken, New Jersey, to settle their longstanding differences with a duel. The participants fired their pistols in close succession. Burr’s shot met its target immediately, fatally wounding Hamilton and leading to his death the following day. Burr escaped unharmed. This tragically extreme incident reflected the depth of animosity aroused by the first emergence of the nation’s political party system.
July 20
On July 20, 1970, the six story tin-clad novelty building known as Lucy the Elephant was moved two blocks down the street to its current location at 9200 Atlantic Avenue in Margate, New Jersey.
September 4
On the afternoon of Sunday, September 4, 1949, violence broke out after renowned but controversial African American baritone Paul Robeson sang at an outdoor concert near Peekskill, New York, to a mixed-race audience of more than 20,000 people. This was a rescheduled performance. The original concert, slated for August 27 as a benefit for the leftist Civil Rights Congress, had been preempted by violence aimed at Robeson’s race and politics.

Paul Leroy Robeson was born on April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey, the youngest child of a father who had escaped from slavery on the eve of the Civil War and a mother whose ancestors included prominent members of the Northeast’s Free Black community. Robeson grew up in nearby Somerville and then won a scholarship to attend Rutgers College (now University) in New Brunswick. He was one of the school’s first African American students, and the very first to play for the school’s football team, with great success but some controversy surrounding his race. Robeson was indeed multi-talented: admitted to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year, he earned fifteen varsity letters in four different sports, won the class oratory prize each year he attended, and—to a standing ovation—gave the college’s commencement address on the topic of his choice, “The New Idealism.”
September 16
On September 16, 1960, college football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg (1862-1965), then ninety-eight years old, announced his retirement after seventy years on the field. Stagg’s career coincided with the evolution of the game from an amalgam of soccer and rugby into American football as we know it. Stagg also coached track, baseball, and basketball.

Born and raised in West Orange, New Jersey, Stagg played football and baseball for Yale University. He attended Yale as a divinity student and graduated in 1888. In 1890, he began his career as a football coach at the Young Men’s Christian Association Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts (now Springfield College), where he also was a graduate student and faculty member.
December 18
The New Jersey ratifying caucus approved the Constitution on December 18, 1787. Highly critical of the Articles of Confederation, the delegates acted quickly to ratify the new constitution. Following the votes of Delaware and Pennsylvania, New Jersey was the third state to join the Union.

Veterans History Project

The Veterans History Project (VHP) collects and preserves the remembrances of American war veterans and civilian workers who supported them. Click on the link below to locate veterans from New Jersey.

Veterans History Project: New Jersey

New Jersey: State Resource Guide

History, Humanities & Social Sciences: Ask a Librarian

Related Resources

American Folklife Center State Resources

Bibliographies and Guides

Exhibitions Featuring New Jersey

Creating the United States

A selection of highlights from this exhibition includes:

With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition

A selection of highlights from this exhibition includes:

Historic Newspapers

Law Library

Resources for Teachers

Features & Activities

Lesson Plans

Today in History

Veterans History Project