Archives: Local History News
One Way to Observe Veterans Day, Read Chester’s World War II Newsletters
This Veterans Day, commemorate the service of your fellow Chesterites by reading about their World War II experiences in Chester Library’s Honor Roll newsletter collection. You can find digitized versions of the newsletters at the bottom of the finding aid here: http://chesterlib.org/finding-aids/the-honor-roll-newsletter-collection/.
Chester Library Unveils Nearly 400 Images of Historic Chester
Chester, N.J. – February 26, 2018 – Chester Library has added 392 digital images to the Wyckoff Family Collection Finding Aid, making it easy for researchers to locate online visual resources of historic Chester. The topics covered by the new images include Businesses, Churches, Chester Fire Company, Main Street, Railroads and Mining, Schools, and Side Roads, among others. The finding aid is located at https://localhistory.chesterlib.org/finding-aids/wyckoff-family-collection-finding-aid/,
Chester Library Releases Extensive Index for History Researchers
Chester Library announces its newest Local History resource, an exhaustive online index of Chester, New Jersey, A Scrapbook of History by Frances F. Greenidge. With more than 3,000 subject terms, the index lists all of the businesses, local residents, locations, and subjects named in the go-to reference book for Chester-area researchers. The index is available here.
Chester Library Delivers All Elected Officials at One Site
Chester Library now offers the only location for the complete list of Chester Borough and Township elected officials. Previously, information seekers paged through old record books at the Borough and Township offices or individual PDFs of council minutes on their web sites, or visited the Library to access Observer-Tribune newspapers from 1936 forward. The online list, accessible here: https://localhistory.chesterlib.org/chester-borough-and-township-elected-officials/,
Chester Library Breaks New Ground with Multimedia Oral History Online Exhibit
Using postcards to focus on specific local sites, a novel online exhibit by Chester Library turns oral history on its head. The exhibit features videos starring lifelong Chester resident and retired plumber Herman Rademacher using his own postcard collection to talk about what Chester was like at the time of the images, and how it has changed over the years.
Chester Library Adds Postcard Exhibit to Online Offerings
Thanks to a loan by Jack Rademacher, Chester Library now offers another way to experience historical Chester — via postcards. The online exhibit, Chester Postcards, showcases 30 cards from the early-to-mid 1900s. These images provide a snapshot of life in Chester during that time. The loan to the Library allowed the Local History Librarian to scan the cards and make them more accessible to local and remote researchers.
Call for Yearbooks
Chester Library seeks Roxbury and West Morris Central/West Morris Mendham High School yearbooks for its Local History reference collection. Specifically, the Library is collecting the following years: 1917-1971 for Roxbury, from 1979-1985 for West Morris Central, and from 1972 forward for West Morris Mendham High School yearbooks. Please contact Local History at LocalHistory@Chesterlib.org or by phone at 908-879-7612,
Join the Local History Clippers
The Local History Department seeks volunteers to clip Chester-related articles from local newspapers collected by the Library. The Local History Clippers will each spend 1 to 3 hours clipping on Tuesdays or Wednesdays (between 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.), or Thursday evenings (between 2:00 – 7:00 p.m.) on a regular, weekly schedule. Please contact Local History Librarian Debra Schiff (debra.schiff@chesterlib.org or 908-879-7612,
