-------- Original Message -------- Subject: H-NEW-JERSEY Digest - 21 Jun 2005 to 22 Jun 2005 (#2005-142) Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 00:10:29 -0400 From: Automatic digest processor <LISTSERV@H-NET.MSU.EDU> To: Recipients of H-NEW-JERSEY digests <H-NEW-JERSEY@H-NET.MSU.EDU> There are 20 messages totalling 560 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 11. A Dual Victory for the New Jersey History Community ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: A Dual Victory for the New Jersey History Community Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 19:23:03 -0000 Dear colleagues and friends of New Jersey history, My sincere thanks to the subscribers to this listserv and to the entire New Jersey history community for the overwhelming, timely support of the State of New Jersey's efforts to purchase eleven lots of unique or extremely rare 17th and 18th century New Jersey manuscripts, maps and imprints from the Snider Collection. As you all know from earlier postings today, the State Archives prevailed Tuesday over some stiff competition in bidding for the documents at Christie's in New York. The New Jersey history community scored not one, but two important victories yesterday. The obvious one was the state's purchase of the documents from the Jay Snider Collection. You've all seen the press, and coverage has been quite favorable. The second, less obvious, but equally important one for the future of our state's history, was the exercise of power and influence by the New Jersey history community that made the victory at Christie's possible. There is absolutely no doubt that the tide of broad, passionate, timely support of the history community, expressed in scores, if not hundreds of letters, calls, and e-mails to state legislators, Acting Governor Codey, and Secretary of State Thomas, coupled with favorable press coverage contributed mightily to this victory. The Administration responded quickly and decisively to your appeals, authorizing the State Archives to use funds from the dedicated New Jersey Public Records Preservation Account to acquire these treasures dating to the founding of New Jersey as a proprietary colony. The severe trials and tests faced during the past decade have produced an increasingly unified, focused, articulate, and mobilized history community in this state, capable not only of fighting dire threats, but also of supporting positive, proactive initiatives, such as the the acquisition of these documents. Led by Dave Cowell and the Advocates for New Jersey History, the history community has become a force to be reckoned with. Within a few weeks, the documents we purchased will be accessible to the people of New Jersey, many of them for the first time in history. Most of the items in the collection are unique, original manuscripts that have been in private hands for more than three centuries. We are excited about the opportunity for historians of the colonial era to take a fresh look at New Jersey's proprietary period using these previously untapped resources. They fit hand-in-glove with the extensive official archives of the East Jersey Board of Proprietors, which came to the State Archives upon the board's recent disbanding. On behalf of State Archives Chief Joe Klett, I want to personally thank Ron Becker of Rutgers Special Collections and University Archives and Chad Leinaweaver of the New Jersey Historical Society for working with us strategically and collegially to pursue a way to ensure that the Snider documents would come to New Jersey and become accessible in a public institution, Dave Cowell of the Advocates for his timely posting to the listserv, and Joe Felcone, who brought these treasures to our attention, provided wise counsel to us, and served us well as agent at the Christie's auction. Regrettably, not all of you who unselfishly gave of your time to this effort to ensure success can be mentioned here by name. May you, however, regard the dual victories of this week as being--in some measure--repayment for your interest, dedication and support. With deep gratitude and respect, I am Yours, sincerely Karl J. Niederer -- Karl J. Niederer, Director Division of Archives and Records Management New Jersey State Archives 225 West State Street, P.O. Box 307, Trenton, NJ 08625-0307 USA Tel. (609) 984-3299 - Fax (609) 292-9105 E-mail: Karl.Niederer@sos.state.nj.us Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++