In the Revolutionary Style: Clothing and History

Clothing provides a window into the past, and clothing historian Pat Sanftner provided a demonstration that revealed the high style changes that took place in the 1700s in Europe and then the American Colonies, and the fashion mavens who made them, using 100 illustrations to demonstrate four significant style changes during the time period.

Mad Hatters, Radium Girls and the Asbestos Hotel

As an industrial state, NJ is no stranger to industrial toxins. In recent decades, we have been home to over 140 Superfund cleanup sites administered by the Environmental Protection Agency. Historically, three NJ industrial toxins-–-mercury, radium, and asbestos-–-have had their own harrowing stories to tell. The hat industry in Essex County, including South Orange and Orange, in the late 19th century, exposed workers to toxic mercury fumes, causing mental and physical disabilities. Dozens of radium dial painters at a factory in Orange–-all young women---suffered and died from radiation in the 1920s and '30s. In the mid-20th century, workers in Manville, the “asbestos city,” fell ill with damaged lungs, as did workers who installed the insulation products produced at the Manville plant.

A History Ramble through Rosedale Cemetery

Over the centuries many families in our community have chosen Rosedale Cemetery as their final place of rest. It consists of 92 picturesque acres in Montclair, Orange and West Orange. Durand-Hedden sponsored a walking tour of the cemetery, in which visitors learned about Rosedale’s history and some of its nationally known occupants, such as Governor Charles Edison, painter George Inness, architect Charles F. McKim, champion bicyclist Frank Kramer and industrialist Samuel Colgate. Also interred on the grounds were Nelson Crawford Durand, who collaborated with Thomas Edison on the invention of the light bulb, and grandson of Henry Durand (a resident of the Durand-Hedden House); Edward C. Balch, the developer fondly known as “The Father of Maplewood”; and Edward Arcularius, the township clerk in the 1920s and namesake of a Maplewood street.