Author: Christie Lutz

Hamilton

Christie Lutz
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By Christie Lutz

Two-hundred and twelve years ago today, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr faced each other in a duel on the cliffs of Weehawken, New Jersey.

Among our Sinclair New Jersey Collection holdings, we have a handful of postcard views and other images depicting the Weehawken dueling grounds, which have seen some changes over the years. The 1810 image below depicts a bucolic scene, with boats gliding by on the Hudson River.

New Jersey Views Photograph Collection
New Jersey Views Photograph Collection

This postcard, mailed in 1919, features the boulder on which Alexander Hamilton purportedly rested his head after being mortally wounded by Burr.  The site depicted here is not the precise site of the duel, however. The boulder was moved from its original spot to make way for train tracks. And today, the bust of Hamilton sits upon a pedestal, with the boulder sitting behind it.

Sinclair New Jersey Postcard Collection

While Alexander Hamilton himself has been the focus of recent interest, Special Collections and University Archives also holds the X-Burr Collection, a collection of books on Aaron Burr that were donated to Rutgers by the Aaron Burr Society. Below is the title page from one of the books in the collection, authored shortly after the duel by Lysander, the pseudonym of federal judge Willam P. Van Ness. Van Ness was a friend of Burr’s who served as his second in the duel.

X-Burr Collection
X-Burr Collection

May Acquisitions

Christie Lutz
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Atlantic County, NJ. Called to Duty: Recollections of Atlantic County Veterans. Atlantic County: Atlantic County Government, 2002.

Bond, Gordon. Wicked Woodbridge and Crazy Carteret: Vice in New Jersey’s Oldest Township. Staunton, VA: American History Press, 2015.

Booker, Cory. United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good. New York: Ballantine Books, 2016.

Centennial Book Committee (Mendham, NJ). Reflections on a Community: Mendham Borough, The Centennial, 1906-2006. Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Co. Publishers, 2007.

Church of the Guardian Angel. Church of the Guardian Angel, Allendale, New Jersey. South Hackensack, NJ: Custombook, Inc., ca. 1960.

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A New Jersey Recipe: Dey Mansion Orange Cake

Christie Lutz
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By Tara Maharjan

I have always enjoyed cookbooks. I even wrote a whole blog post  about it back in November of 2015. I will post pictures of cookbooks to our Instagram page on occasion. But on one Wednesday morning in April I asked a simple question to our Instagram followers, “Is #WhatsCookinWednesday a thing?” The community of libraries, archives, museums, and historical societies quickly insisted we make this a challenge. (The #LibrariesOfInstagram community likes to challenge other repositories to post pictures of different things each month.) The month of May became a Library Feast (#LibraryFeast). To add to the challenge, it was suggested that people try to make a recipe from a cookbook in their collection.

Cover of the book "Salute to New Jersey: A Collection of Original New Jersey Recipes and Historical Anecdotes."

 

I wandered the Special Collections and University Archives closed stacks to see what cookbook I could find. I stumbled upon Salute to New Jersey : a collection of original New Jersey recipes and historical anecdotes. Intrigued by the title, I flipped though the pamphlet to find a recipe entitled Dey Mansion Orange Cake. I enjoy baking and I thought that since Colonel Theunis Dey (the man whose family owned the Dey Mansion) was also a signer of the Queen’s College charter; this would be the perfect recipe to try with a nice hint of Rutgers history.

Recipe for Dey Mansion Orange Cake.

 

The recipe looked simple enough, though there was no size indicated for the pan, no baking temperature listed, and I was not sure I could buy mace for cooking. (To my surprise, mace is a common enough spice that it can be purchased at the local grocery store.) Three attempts later, I finally made a fully cooked Dey Mansion Orange Cake. I made a few changes to the recipe. Here is my version of Dey Mansion Orange Cake:

Ingredients:

  • 1 stick of butter
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 medium orange
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg (or mace)
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup + 1 teaspoon orange juice
  • 1 cup craisins (or raisins)
  • 1 cup powdered sugar

Bake in a 9 x 13 greased pan at 350 for 30(-ish) minutes

1) Cream together 1 stick of butter and 1 cup of sugar

2) Add 2 eggs

3) Add 1 finely chopped, medium-sized orange (I added the juice that came out of the orange)

4) Alternate adding sifted flour mix (2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon nutmeg (original recipe calls for mace), 1/2 teaspoon salt) and milk (1 cup of milk and 1 teaspoon of orange juice)

5) Add 1 cup of craisins (or raisins)

When finished, remove from pan. While hot, spread glaze on top.

For glaze, 1 cup powdered sugar and 1/3 cup of orange juice whisked together

 

April 2016

Christie Lutz
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Adams, Betty Livingston. Black Women’s Christian Activism: Seeking Social Justice in a Northern Suburb. New York: New York University Press, 2016.

Agreement between Perth Amboy Plant Cheesebrough Manufacturing Company and Chesebrough Employees Association. Perth Amboy: 1950.

Attractive Homes of New Jersey. Baltimore, MD: F. Heath Coggins and Company, c. 1928.

Bay, Mia, and Ann Fabian, eds. Race and Retail: Consumption Across the Color Line. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2015.

Daigle, Michael Stephen. The Swamps of Jersey. Imzadi Publishing, 2014.

Directory of Princeton Area Chemical Research Laboratories and University Chemistry Faculty. Princeton, NJ: 1972. Read More

Summer on the Shore

Christie Lutz
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By Catherine Babikian

The Jersey shore is known for beaches and boardwalks, but what’s for dinner?

Cover, Leland's Ocean Hotel menu, 1880s.
Cover, Leland’s Ocean Hotel menu, 1880s. Sinclair New Jersey Restaurant Menu Collection.

At the turn of the century, wealthy vacationers enjoyed elegant meals at oceanfront hotels. Guests at Lelands’ Ocean Hotel in Long Branch could choose from beef ribs, lobster, and halibut for dinner, and peach pie, chocolate eclairs, and tutti frutti ice cream for dessert.

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Leland’s Ocean Hotel wine list. Sinclair New Jersey Restaurant Menu Collection.

 

In Atlantic City, guests at the famous Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel sat down for afternoon tea, then tucked into roast goose with apple sauce for dinner. Camembert cheese and pineapple pie finished off the meal.

Marlborough Blenheim Hotel, 1931. Sinclair New Jersey Restaurant Menu Collection.

But fancy hotels weren’t the only places to get a good dinner. In the 1960s, Taborn’s Restaurant in Asbury Park served up fried shrimp, scallops, clams, and oysters, along with a wide variety of ice cream sodas, milkshakes, and fresh parfaits for a sweet finish. The lunch menu included grilled frankfurters and blueberry griddle cakes.

Taborn's Restaurant, 1960s. Sinclair New Jersey Restaurant Collection.
Taborn’s Restaurant, 1960s. Sinclair New Jersey Restaurant Menu Collection.

Looking for more shore delicacies? The new Sinclair New Jersey Restaurant Menu collection contains these menus and many more– down the shore and around the state.

March 2016 Acquisitions

Christie Lutz
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the-montclair_inside
Promotional brochure for The Montclair, a hotel that operated between 1907 and 1938. It was located on First Mountain, on the border of Montclair and Verona.

 

Acoli, Sundiata. A Brief History of the New Afrikan Prison Struggle. New York: Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign, 1992.

Alvarez, Alfonso. Alfonso Alvarez, Architect. 1964.

American Civil Liberties Union. The Bill of Rights 150 Years After: The Story of Civil Liberty, 1938-1939. New York: American Civil Liberties Union, 1939.

Attractive Homes of New Jersey. Baltimore: F. Heath Coggins and Co., ca. 1930.

Blanchard, Fessenden S. A Cruising Guide to the Chesapeake, Including the Passages from Long Island Sound Along the New Jersey Coast and Inland Waterway. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1951.

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Hungry in the Hub City

Christie Lutz
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By Catherine Babikian

When it comes to eating, Rutgers students have always had plenty of options, from pubs and taverns to diners and ice cream parlors. Today, we’ve dug into our archives to get a glimpse of what Rutgers students in the 1980s had to eat.

Shelly’s Ice Cream on Easton Avenue served sandwiches, subs, and most importantly, ice cream sundaes and milkshakes. Students really craving ice cream could order the “Heavy Chevy”: four scoops of ice cream, two sundae toppings, whipped cream, nuts, and sprinkles!

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Shelley’s Ice Cream, 1980s. Sinclair NJ Restaurant Menu Collection.

And students looking for Sunday brunch only needed to look to Stuff Yer Face for egg, bacon, or mushroom stromboli–or perhaps a frittata?

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Stuff Yer Face, 1980s. Sinclair NJ Restaurant Menu Collection.

The Rusty Screw Tavern offered standard pub fare along with live music and film screenings. In 1984, the restaurant welcomed the Rutgers class of 1988 to campus with a free concert, featuring the new wave band The Resistorz.

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The Rusty Screw Tavern, 1984. Sinclair NJ Restaurant Menu Collection.

Later in the semester, students could stop by the Rusty Screw for a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show or The Big Chill.

Late 2015~Early 2016

Christie Lutz
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An Address of the Representatives of the Religious Society of Friends, for Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, to their Fellow-Citizens, on Behalf of the Indians. Philadelphia: Friends’ Book Store, 1891.

The Chin Strap: Official Program, 29th Division Association, 1930 Reunion.  Asbury Park, NJ .

Fourth Report of the Board of Directors of the Presbyterian Education Society. 1822.

Glynn, Harry A., ed. Red Pepper: A Peppy Periodical for Peppy People, vol.1, no. 3. Newark, NJ: Red Pepper Publishing Company, 1924.

Goddard, Henry Herbert. The Kallikak Family. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912.

High School Life, Vol. 1 no. 1. Orange, NJ: Literary Board of the Orange High School, December 1890. Read More