A co-production of NJN Public Television and the New Jersey Historical Commission
(intended for use in grades K through 4) – Videos Currently Not Available
Howell Living History Farm
At the Howell Living History Farm in Mercer County, farming is done as it was at the turn of the twentieth century. The staff shows how sheep were sheared and demonstrates horsedrawn farmequipment. (15 minutes, VHS cassette)
Silk City
At the Paterson Museum, Jack De Stefano demonstrates the operation of a power loom and describes the working conditions of women and children in the Paterson mills. At Castle and the Botto House, students see how the owners and the workers lived differently. (15 minutes, VHS cassette)
The Lenape Indian Village at Waterloo
John Kraft conducts a tour of a reconstructed Lenape Indian village and demonstrates how the Lenape built houses, cultivated fields, raised children, cooked, hunted, and fished. He explains how the Lenape way of life changed when Europeans arrived. (15 minutes, VHS cassette)
The Still Family Reunion
At this African American reunion, stories are told about Charity Still and her sons, James, William and Peter. Charity ran away from slavery in Maryland to join her husband in New Jersey. James was a self-trained doctor, William worked on the Underground Railroad, and Peter purchased his own and his family’s freedom. (15 minutes, VHS cassette)
Thomas A. Edison National Historic Site
Park Ranger Ben Bolger conducts a tour of Thomas Edison’s West Orange research laboratories. Students learn how three of Edison’s inventions — the electric light, the phonograph, and the motion – picture camera — changed the way we live, work, and play. (15 minutes, VHS cassette)
The Statehouse Tour
In the home of our state government, Karen Polling discusses the meaning of democracy and representative government. By visiting the General Assembly, the Senate Chambers, and the Governor’s Outer Office, students learn how a bill becomes a law. (15 minutes, VHS cassette)
Morristown National Historic Park
George Washington brought his army to Morristown twice during the Revolutionary War: first, in January 1777, after he crossed the Delaware and defeated the British at the battles of Trenton and Princeton, and again in December 1779. The winter of 1779-80 was one of the worst of the century, but Washington managed to quiet the complaints of the soldiers and hold the army together. (10 minutes, VHS cassette)
Roosevelt, N.J.
Roosevelt, N.J. was founded by the federal government during the Great Depression as a way to resettle in the countryside Jewish immigrant garment workers living in the slums of New York City. The program focuses on the mural in the Roosevelt Elementary School painted by the famous artist Ben Shahn, which links the history of the town to the history of Jewish immigration to America. Teacher Ilene Levine guides a fourth-grade class through oral history interviews with Bernarda Bryson Shahn, Ben Shahn’s widow, and Augusta Chasan, one of the first settlers in the town. Art teacher Rita Williams has the students paint their own versions of the mural. (15 minutes, VHS cassette)