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Women's Project of New Jersey
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New Jersey's rich history includes the stories of the lives of extraordinary
women from Annis Boudinot Stockton, Clara Barton, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
to Alice Paul, Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Millicent Fenwick. It is important
to identify sites associated with these and other extraordinary women as well
as those that tell the collective story of women who contributed to the agricultural,
industrial, labor and domestic history of the state. Although women have comprised
over half of the state's population, historic places associated with women
have been understudied and underrepresented.
The Historic Preservation
Office (HPO) and the Alice Paul Institute worked with The
Women's Project of New Jersey to develop a broad cultural and historical
context study. Based on the 1990 publication Past and Promise: Lives of
New Jersey Women, the study provided an overview of New Jersey women's history
as it relates to United States history, identified a number of themes related
to that history, and suggested the types of sites that best represent those
themes.
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Site Inventory and Survey
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The preservation consulting
firm Preservation Partners compiled a Comprehensive Inventory of 300 women's
historic sites that met the following criteria: ·
- The site has an
association with an historical event or activity that reflects the broad
patterns of women's lives in New Jersey before 1960; or ·
- The site has an
association with a particular woman who had an impact on New Jersey, or
the state had an impact on her life, during her residency or period of
noteworthy accomplishment, which occurred before 1960.
This Comprehensive
Inventory includes sites where the resource no longer exists, sites that
have been altered significantly, archaeological sites, and sites that have
already been listed in the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic
Places for significance other than women's history.
After this inventory
was completed, a list of 150 of these resources was further investigated
in an Intensive Level Architectural Survey of
women's sites to determine those that met the National Register Criteria
for Evaluation. This list will serve as a guide for future nominations to
the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places.
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Women's Heritage Trail
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Finally, a number of sites from both the Comprehensive Inventory and the
Intensive Level Survey were compiled in the New Jersey Women's Heritage
Trail book. The selected sites are meant to offer a broad sampling of women's
history sites with a wider geographic distribution by county, and a distribution
of historical trends and themes related to women's roles in New Jersey's
past. Inclusion on the trail was often based on public accessibility, either
for a visitor to a historic house museum, or someone driving by. If a site
is not included on the trail, it doesn't necessarily mean that the site
is insignificant (sometimes the site is publicly or visually inaccessible,
the owners' privacy is being protected, or its significance is post-1960-the
cutoff date for the book).
In the end, we published
a book that serves teachers and students, historic site managers, historic
preservation administrators and commissioners, government agencies and other
members of the general public. For example, it provides a rich body of content-specific
background specifically for social studies teachers developing curriculum
to meet the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Social Studies.
Most importantly, it can broaden everyone's understanding and awareness
of this long neglected aspect of our State and nation's history.
Women's
Heritage Trail Book Wins Award!
The New Jersey Women's Heritage
Trail book was named the "Best Official New Jersey Publication" for 2005
by the Documents Association of New Jersey (DANJ).
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We Need Your Input!
Download
Inventory Nomination Form
(MS Word Document)
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The HPO will continue
to collect and add information to the comprehensive inventory. If you would
like to add a site for inclusion in the ongoing Women's Historic Sites Survey,
download the inventory nomination form, complete, and return the form and
any attachments to the Historic Preservation Office / Natural & Historic
Resources / PO Box 404 / Trenton, NJ 08625-0404. Include any documentation
regarding the history and significance of the resource. If you have any
questions, please call the office at 609-984-0176.
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Useful Links:
- The Women's Project
of New Jersey (Rutgers University)
- New Jersey
Historical Commission
- National Historic Landmark sites in New Jersey
(PDF Format)
- New Jersey and National Registers of Historic
Places
- The League of Historical Societies of
New Jersey
- Alice Paul Institute
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan
B. Anthony Papers
- National
Archives Library Information Center pathfinder for Women's History Research
- National Women's History Project
- National Collaborative for Women's
History Sites
- Places Where Women
Made History, National Park Service Guide
- Other Links
Home Identify Women's
History
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