HOBOKEN HISTORICAL MUSEUM1301 Hudson Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030 • 201-656-2240 • hobokenmuseum.org

UPPER GALLERYThrough December 23 “New Paintings by Lou Carbone”

The Newsletter is going digital! Details inside…

NEWSLETTER 2014: A RETROSPECTIVE

On ViewThrough December 23“Hoboken, Ellis Island, and the Immigrant Experience, 1892-1924”

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In 2015, we will present two exhibitions featuring the two most famous names associated with Hoboken—the Stevens family and Frank Sinatra. Col. John Stevens (1749-1838) and his family were true American icons, responsible not only for developing the city of Hoboken and Stevens Institute of Technology, but for numerous innovations in steam power, nautical engineering, railroads and even horticulture. We will devote the first exhibition of the year, January 25 – July 5, to this remarkable family. To learn about the Stevenses, visit the “History” section of our website.

Of course, we couldn’t allow the centennial of Hoboken’s most famous son to pass without celebrating the life and achievements of Francis Albert Sinatra, born on December 12, 1915—and the devotion he inspired in his fans. We are

even recreating the glamour of his heyday, the Rat Pack era, for a memorable annual spring gala, “My Way,” at the Elks Lodge on April 25, 2015. The exhibition will open August 2 through December 23.

Our Upper Gallery space will welcome another six local artists to put their talents on display, and we

will continue to host other cultural expressions, from musical and theatrical performances to poetry and film showcases.

Visit our website, hobokenmuseum.org, for our full calendar of dates and details for all of our signature events this year: the Secret Garden Tour, Commemorative Baseball Game and the Baby Parade in June; the Heirloom Tomato- and Garlic-Tasting Festivals in the summer and fall; and the Hoboken House Tour on the last weekend in October. Our Uptown Storytime hours will continue on the first and third

Hoboken Historical Museum1301 Hudson Street • P.O. Box 3296Hoboken, NJ 07030201-656-2240 hobokenmuseum.org

Hours Tuesday – Thursday: 2 – 7 p.m. Friday: 1 – 5 p.m. Saturday & Sunday: 12 – 5 p.m.

2015: A Preview Historic Move for Museum Newsletter

As 2014 winds to a close, we take a moment to reflect on another busy year for the Hoboken Historical Museum, our 28th as an organization and our 13th in our space at 1301 Hudson St. It feels like our most action-packed year ever!

As you page through our “Year in Review” album on the following pages, you will see evidence that we are truly hitting our stride, with a steady stream of daily visitors, strong attendance at our lectures and special events, and brisk ticket sales for our signature fundraising events like the spring Gala, the Secret Garden Tour and Hoboken House Tour. We even had a full house at a poetry event celebrating New Jersey’s 350th anniversary in April!

We opened the year with an exhibition examining the lessons learned from Superstorm Sandy, and are closing it out with “The Immigrant Experience,” a detailed look at Hoboken’s role in America’s peak immigration years, 1892 – 1924. Both exhibitions raised the bar in terms of engaging displays with high-tech elements and high-profile guest speakers.

But all this activity has also stretched our budget, and after looking at areas where we can economize, we have decided to move our newsletter to a digital format to save the costs of printing and mailing it each quarter. This move will not only save money, it also means you’ll receive our news in a more timely fashion if you sign up for our weekly email news service.

If you’re a Museum member, you should already be receiving our e-news. You may need to adjust your email settings or add pr@hobokenmuseum.org to your email address book, to ensure you receive our previews of upcoming exhibits, events and news. Or, simply visit our website and click on the link at the top of the page. You won’t want to miss any of our new events…2015 looks like another gangbuster year!

Sincerely,

Melissa AbernathyNewsletter Editor

Cover images: Detail of a photograph of emigrant children on Ellis Island by Brown Brothers from The Library of Congress, HHM Collections; “Late Gathering” by Lou Carbone.

Hoboken Historical Museum Newsletter, 2014: A Retrospective, (Fall, 2014), Volume 20, Number 4 © 2014 Hoboken Historical Museum. Printed on 80% recycled content, 60% post-consumer waste paper. Newsletter edited by Melissa Abernathy and designed by Claire Lukacs. Contributors this issue: Lou Carbone, Kenneth Chen, Lynn Hofher, Bob Foster, Marie-Elaine Petrino, McKevin Shaughnessy, Raymond Smith, and David Webster.

Advertising inquiries: Contact Museum Associate Bill Curran at 201-656-2240 or billc@hobokenmuseum.org

Col. John Stevens

Frank Sinatra

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This year at the Museum has been one of our busiest, with a number of special programs above and beyond our already ambitious schedule of fascinating lectures, art shows, fun family events and concerts, and one memorable annual spring gala, A Swingin’ Speakeasy. We are devoting the remainder of this year-end newsletter to a photo retrospective of this year’s events.

Organizing all of these events took a lot of creativity and dedication from our staff, much support from our Board of Trustees and event planning committees, and a small army of cheerful volunteers. Our staff includes Director Bob Foster, Collections Manager David Webster, Project and Development Coordinator Eileen Lynch, Education Curator Razel Solow, Museum Associates Bill Curran and Ian Maxen, Research Associate Darian Worden, and freelance contributors Melissa Abernathy, Claire Lukacs, Ann Marie Manca, and McKevin Shaughnessy.

Immigration historian and author Dr. Christina Ziegler-McPherson was the guest curator on the Immigration exhibition, and the Museum appointed its first ever “Poet in Residence,” Danny Shot, who organized two phenomenal live poetry events this year, with more to come in 2015. In addition, we kept the Fire Department Museum, 213 Bloomfield St., open for visitors every Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m.

Read on for a recap of 2014 highlights. Don’t miss any events in 2015: Sign up for our weekly email on our website, hobokenmuseum.org.

2014 Exhibitions

One Vision - One CompanyOne Vision - One Company

UncommonUrban

Sanctuaries

UncommonUrban

Sanctuaries

FromConcept toCompletion& Beyond

FromConcept toCompletion& Beyond

68 Years And Still Innovating!!68 Years And Still Innovating!!

Thursdays of the month (except summer), and our Spring and Fall Family Fun Days will be back, along with our annual Holiday Family Concert in December.

The Museum remains one of Hoboken’s most essential institutions, open six days a week to members and visitors alike. And, we will continue to delight children and their

parents at the Hoboken Fire Department Museum, at 213 Bloomfield St., every Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m. Or, you’ll find us out on a field somewhere most Saturdays from April through October, rooting for our very own vintage base ball team, the Hoboken Nine, keeping one of Hoboken’s proudest traditions alive.

2014 Year in Review

Former Trustee, Jim Perry and grandson at the Fire Department Museum.

A view of the “Sandy” exhibit with visitors at interactive media stations.

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Our Main Gallery hosted two exhibits: Carried over from 2013, the exhibition “Hoboken: One Year After Sandy, Lessons Learned about Preparedness, Resiliency, and Community” was on view through July 6 of this year. The exhibit was made possible in large part through the generous support from many individuals and businesses in the community. Through video and archival documents, the exhibit

explored the city’s recent and past issues with flooding from the mid-1800s through Sandy, and looked to the future with several proposals to bolster the city’s resiliency. An animated display created by a team from Stevens Institute of Technology illustrated how the floodwaters invaded Hoboken, and several professors and other experts were featured in the lecture series, which continued into 2014.

In conjunction with the exhibit, through the auspices of the United Way of Hudson County and support from the Robin Hood Foundation, the Museum hosted a Sandy Community Outreach Program with a licensed disaster relief crisis counselor, Dawn Donnelly, who helped match Hudson County residents with services they could access to help with their recovery.

On August 3, we opened “Hoboken, Ellis Island, and the Immigrant Experience, 1892-1924,” which attracted large crowds

Museum educator Razel Solow with two young visitors at the Comfort Wall.

One of the Sandy Talk lectures with Dr. Alan Blumberg (above) and Dr. Michael Bruno, Stevens Institute of Technology professors on “Forecasting and Preventing the Next Hurricane Sandy.”

after a feature article appeared in The New York Times. Guest curator Dr. Christina Ziegler-McPherson, an immigration historian who lives in Hoboken, brought to life through images, artifacts, and oral histories the experience of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island and Hoboken during the peak years of U.S. immigration. A companion lecture series, “The Immigrant Experience,” brought noted scholars and authors to the Museum to expand on topics as diverse as the great Jewish migration, the experience of Chinese immigrants and the plight of immigrant newsboys and girls.

Volunteer and Museum member, Barbara Gross (above right) and friends at the “Hoboken, Ellis Island, and the Immigrant Experience, 1892-1924.”

8 9Young Museum visitors working on a Scavenger Hunt.

Speakers from the Immigrant Experience lecture series top to bottom: Dr. Anjum Gupta, Assistant Professor of Law & Director, Immigrant Rights Clinic, Rutgers School of Law – Newark; Julia Preston, New York Times National Immigration Correspondent; Dr. Christina Ziegler-McPherson, Visiting Guest Curator.

Dr. Vincent DiGirolamo, Assistant Professor of History, Baruch College, City University of New York, from the Immigrant Experience lecture series.

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The Museum’s Upper Gallery hosts six exhibits a year by artists and photographers who work in and around Hoboken. The year opened with the unique “String Pictures” by Robert Forman, who creates intricate, complex images by gluing tiny lengths of colored yarns onto Clayboard. In March, Tim Daly’s second show at the Museum opened with realistic images of “Important Clouds” in pastels and giclées of acrylic paintings.

Whimsical mixed-media sculptures constructed from found objects by Jodie Fink and Jennifer Place, a pair of artists who’ve been friends since they moved to Hoboken some 30 years ago, graced the Upper Gallery walls starting in May. “Local Motion” was heavily influenced by the artists’ experience of the devastating floods from Superstorm Sandy; this was their second show at the Museum. It was followed in August by the unique 3D composed boxes by Tracie Fracasso, who enjoys experimenting with the juxtaposition of old and new techniques and concepts.

In September, recycled objects—specifically, laundry soap containers—were central to an installation by Ibou Ndoye, a Senegalese-born artist who also works in reverse-painted glass. His works, too, were inspired by his experiences

following the storm. The year closed with one of Hoboken’s most popular art figures, Lou Carbone, whose surreal paintings blur the lines between fact and fantasy.

2014 Upper Gallery Exhibits

“Shame” by Tracie Fracasso.

Tim Daly’s Glicee print, “Skyway”.

Lou Carbone with Wendy Plasencia (left) and Kristen Hullinger (right).

Artist Robert Forman and guests at his “String Pictures” opening.

Art within art…artist Ibou Ndoye (on right) and guests at his opening in September.

Sculptures from found materials by Jodie Fink, “Henry III” (left) and Jennifer Place, “Him”.

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Hoboken’s next generation learned about the city’s history through courses designed by our Education Curator, Razel Solow, PhD, who created 10 new lessons based on our exhibit themes and tailored for different age groups. She visited local schools to introduce the programs and welcomed about 900 students to the Museum through school visits in the 2013 – 2014 academic year.

With the continued support of Macy’s, our other family programs also drew lots of participants, including Uptown Storytime every first and third Thursday, three sessions of week-long summer camp, scavenger hunts, and our annual holiday concert.

Families also crowded the Museum walkway for our Spring and Fall Family Fun Days, with entertainment provided by jugglers and hula-hoop performers, along with

2014 Education & Family Programs

crafts and games for all ages. And this year, under Razel’s guidance, and through a grant

from the group Party With Purpose, the Museum updated our Kids Map Hoboken, with drawings and ideas contributed by hundreds of local children.

School group visit, above and below summer campers and their artwork.

Drawing for Kids Map Hoboken project.

Family Fun Day participants, above and below.

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Our annual spring gala this year took inspiration from the Immigration exhibition with a Roaring 20s theme. The gala committee transformed the Elks Lodge into “A Swingin’ Speakeasy,” and many guests dressed in full Gatsby style, danced all night, and enjoyed great food from Anthony David Catering. This year’s live auction at the gala helped support the immigration exhibit. Auctioneer Eugene Flinn encouraged guests to open their wallets and make generous donations in memory of one of their own immigrant ancestors. The donors and their ancestors are listed on a Donor Board near the Museum entrance.

The Museum celebrated the state’s 350th anniversary by hosting a poetry reading of contemporary poets paying tribute to 10 prominent New Jersey poets, called “Something Old, Something New (Jersey),” on April 6. Organized by Theresa Carson of CavanKerry Press and Danny Shot, the event was standing room only. Building on the popularity of that event, the Museum appointed Shot as Poet in Residence, and he

organized another live poetry event, “Broken English Lessons: Through the Eyes of Pedro Pietri,” on Nov. 2, celebrating the vibrant Nuyorican Poetry Movement that Pietri helped found.

The Museum hosted many other cultural events, including a showcase for the Black Maria Film Festival in February, followed by a screening in August of a Jury Award winning documentary, “Every Day is a Holiday,” by Theresa Loong, about her father’s harrowing immigration story. And from September through November, the Museum continued to support the short film genre with a monthly Black Maria showcase on the last Tuesday of the month. We also hosted two author talks, for John Gomez’s Legendary Locals of Jersey City and Alan Skontra’s Legendary Locals of Hoboken.

On June 21, the Museum commemorated the June 19, 1846, match on Hoboken’s Elysian Fields by organizing another vintage “base ball” game played by historic rules between the Hoboken Nine and the Flemington Neshanock at Hoboken High School’s JFK stadium field.

Bruce Lubin, Jeanne Lubin, and Board of Trustees President Valerie Hufnagel.

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Enjoying the dance floor.

2014 Spring Gala, Poetry Readings & Other Events

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HT HUDSON TAVERN51–53 14th StreetHoboken, NJ 07030201-798-1117 201-683-8316 faxwww.hudsontavern.com

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Poet reg e. gaines (above) at the “Something Old, Something New (Jersey)” event for NJ’s 350th anniversary. Mariposa (below) at our second live poetry event.

Nuyorican poets left to right: Juan Valenzuela, Nancy Mercado, Sandra Maria Esteves, Jesús Papoleto Melendez at our live poetry event: “Broken English Lessons.”

Theresa Carson of CavanKerry Press with Danny Shot and Dr. Mary Rizzo celebrating NJ’s 350th anniversary. Poet Urayoán Noel (below) at “Broken English Lessons” event.

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In June, the Annual Baby Parade drew more than a hundred families to the south waterfront promenade to compete for trophies for the most creative costumes and stroller decorations. In August and October, we hosted our Heirloom Tomato-Tasting and Garlic-Tasting Festivals, featuring exotic varieties cultivated over generations, trucked in by farmers Rich and Sue Sisti from their Catalpa Ridge Farm, in Wantage, N.J. In July, we co-hosted the City of Water Day festivities at Maxwell Place Park.

Two of our most popular events are the Secret Garden Tour in June and the Hoboken House Tour in late October, both of which drew more tour goers than any tour in recent memory. We thank the generous homeowners who opened their doors to give us a chance to peek behind the city’s facades—historic and brand-new—to see a variety of interior décor styles and private green spaces.

In honor of the state’s 350th anniversary, the Museum joined other members of the Hudson County History Advocates in co-hosting a Hudson County History Fair at

2014 Festivals, Tours and Parades

Image from “Every Day is a Holiday,” by Theresa Loong from the Black Maria Film & Video Festival. Below, the Hoboken Nine, our local “base ball” team play only by historic rules.

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Come Check Out the Technology Lending Program at the Hoboken Public Library and Start E-Reading Today!

Don’t Have Your Own E-Reader or Tablet?

FOLLOW US ON :

visit: www.hobokenlibrary.org

If you already have an e-reading device, then you should know that the library has a variety of e-resources including e-books, e-magazines and downloadable music to borrow for free.

500 Park Ave, Hoboken, NJ

The Hoboken Public Library has a variety of technology to lend out to Hoboken residents over 18 years of age with a valid library card. The Library currently has Amazon Kindle Fire, Fire HDX and Paper-white e-readers, Apple iPad Air and iPad Mini, and Samsung Galaxy Note tablets. Please visit the second floor reference desk or call 201-420-2347 for more information.

Holly Metz, local author and speaker at the Hudson County History Fair.

Dennis English at the Hudson County History Fair and a visitor.

New Jersey City University in Jersey City. The event featured several prominent authors, including the Museum’s own Holly Metz, and workshops for genealogy and antiques evaluations.

The Museum will cap off the year with a weekend of crafts fairs December 20 – 21, and a traditional neighborhood holiday carol sing.

Annual Tomato Tasting Event in full swing.

City of Water Day came to Hoboken’s Maxwell Place Park.

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The Hoboken Historical Museum received a general operating support grant for 2013 – 2014 from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of Cultural Affairs in the Department of State.

A view from our annual Hoboken House Tour above and below a view from our Secret Garden Tour.

Steven’s Institute of Technology volunteers at this year’s Tomato Tasting Festival.

Enjoying our Secret Garden Tour.

Baby Parade participants.

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