The Abraham Staats House Presents:  “Lectures Through Time” Series

The Abraham Staats House presents a new series, “Lectures Through Time,” starting on Sunday, March 1, 2009.   Join us at the historic Abraham Staats House (c. 1740), 17 Von Steuben Lane, South Bound Brook, NJ, 08880, for six lectures offering a fascinating look at the people and events that shaped history in New Jersey and our nation.

1. Sunday, March 1, 2 p.m. - Dr. Richard Veit: "Patriots, Tories, Inebriates, and Hussies: Unearthing the History of the Abraham Staats House"

2. Saturday, March 28: 4:30 p.m. - Jim Kurzenberger:  "Middlebrook: A Comprehensive Look" 

3. Saturday, April 18, 2 p.m. - Wayne Daniels:  "The Approaching Storm"

4. Sunday, April 19, 12:30 - 1 p.m. - H. Kels Swan: "A Map of the First Middle Brook Encampment, 1777"

5. Sunday, April 19, 1:00 p.m. -  Arthur S. Lefkowitz:   "When Artwork Speaks: Eyewitness Images From the American Revolution"

6. Sunday, May 3 2:00 p.m. -  Frederic Lawrence Minus: "Slavery in New Jersey During the American Revolution"

• Admission is $10 per person ($5 for 18 years old and under).  Note: A $5 discount will be applied for a purchase of the entire series.

• Advance reservations are encouraged.  Seating is limited; those who reserve in advance receive preferred seating.

  • Please call 732-469-3198 or email us at:  info@staatshouse.org (include name, address, contact information and number of seats) for details and to reserve seats. 
    

• The lecture series program includes house tours – the house will be open for tours one hour prior to the start of the lecture. 

• Lecture will start promptly at time noted.

We kick off our series with a colorful peek into the lives of some of the Staats, a farming family who lived under the roof of the Abraham Staats House for nearly 200 years.

Sunday, March 1, 2 p.m. - Dr. Richard Veit:  "Patriots, Tories, Inebriates, and Hussies: Unearthing the History of the Abraham Staats House"
(House open for tours 1 pm; lecture begins promptly at 2 pm.)

To modern suburbanites life on a farm may seem hopelessly boring or, alternatively, charming and idyllic.  Excavations at the Abraham Staats House in New Jersey’s Raritan Valley, just upriver from New Brunswick, provides a glimpse of the lives of the 18th- and 19th-century farmers who were neither boring nor idyllic.  The Staats family, part of the early 18th-century Dutch migration to the Raritan Valley saw their lives transformed by the Revolutionary War, the arrival of Turnpike Roads, the construction of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, the emancipation of slaves, and family squabbles of Macbethian proportions. Excavations at the Staats House undertaken by volunteers from the Friends of the Staats House, the ASNJ, and Monmouth University, combined with the rediscovery of long-forgotten diaries and court records, allow us to better understand the complex realities of rural life in New Brunswick’s hinterlands.

Professor Richard Veit is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Monmouth University.  He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on Historical Archaeology, North American Prehistory, Early American Material Culture, particularly vernacular architecture, pottery, and mortuary art, New Jersey History, and Public History.  Professor Veit received his Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1997.

His many publications include his award-winning book Digging New Jersey's Past: Historical Archaeology in the Garden State (Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 2002)  and Stranger Stop and Cast an Eye: New Jersey’s Historic Cemeteries and Graveyards Through Four Centuries (with Mark Nonestied, Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission) Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 2006.  His current projects include archaeological studies of the Abraham Staats House (c. 1738), South Bound Brook, New Jersey and Point Breeze, Joseph Bonaparte’s American Mansion, Bordentown, New Jersey.

Saturday, March 28,  4:30 p.m. - Jim Kurzenberger:   "Middlebrook: A Comprehensive Look"  
(House opens for tours 3:30 PM, lecture begins promptly at 4:30 pm)  

Next, we present a fresh look at a key local event of the American War for Independence. During the winter and spring of 1778-79, General George Washington quartered his main army in the area of Middlebrook, near present day Bound Brook.  The lecture will feature an overview of the disposition of the entire American army during the winter of 1778-79, and will include some provocative looks at some long-held beliefs regarding this cantonment.

A native of Bedminster, N.J., Jim Kurzenberger has worked for 26 years in the field of museums, historic sites and architectural history.  Mr. Kurzenberger received his B.A. in History after attending The George Washington University and Kean University.  He has worked at Gunston Hall Plantation in Lorton, Va., the U.S. National Park Service and at the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry.

He currently manages The Wallace House and Old Dutch Parsonage Historic sites in Somerville, N.J., for the N.J. Dept. of Environmental Protection.  The Wallace House served as headquarters for General George Washington during the Middlebrook Cantonment of 1778-79. In addition, he has served the Somerset County Historical Society as Trustee, Vice President and President. He was also a preservation consultant for Bedminster Township and served as a member of the township’s Historic Commission.  He is a member of the American Society of Architectural Historians.

 Mr. Kurzenberger’s areas of interest and expertise include 18^th century architecture and material culture and the American Revolution in New Jersey.

Three lectures featured during “2009 Battle of Bound Brook:  Washington’s Army at Middlebrook” Living History Weekend~ April 18-19         

¨       Saturday, April 18, 2 p.m. - Wayne Daniels: "The Approaching Storm"

New Jersey came about through a remarkable series of unlikely events. Early Dutch and Quaker settlements became folded into the great “land grab” of the Proprietors who then divided and sold parcels to Scottish investors who never saw their land. And that was only the start for New Jersey, the land between. The Approaching Storm chronicles New Jersey as it is drawn inexorably into the turbulence of the American Revolution. If you thought history was boring, be prepared for a fascinating program and a major attitude adjustment!

Wayne Daniels has been a tireless researcher into the American War for Independence and the lives of common folk here in New Jersey for more than 40 years. Author, lecturer, historic preservationist, archaeologist, former museum director and board member, he is a founder of The Brigade of the American Revolution and is presently Senior Historical Interpreter at the Old Barracks Museum in Trenton, and consultant to "The Tech Effect: Washington Crosses the Delaware," aired on The History Channel.

¨       Sunday, April 19, 12:30 – 1 p.m.   H. Kels Swan: "A Map of the First Middle Brook Encampment, 1777"     

H. Kels Swan is a prominent New Jersey historian. His colonial-era artifact collection has been on display at Washington’s Crossing Museum in Titusville for many years. He is founder and past president of the Swan Historical Foundation. A graduate of Rutgers, Mr. Swan has served on the Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission and the South Bound Brook Historic Commission and has supported history in New Jersey, through his lectures and displays of the artifacts from his collection.

Sunday, April 19, 1:00 p.m. "When Artwork Speaks: Eyewitness Images From the American Revolution"

Despite the absence of photography and combat illustrators, the American Revolution was accurately recorded by a number of artists.  Historian Arthur Lefkowitz, author of four books about the American Revolution will present a color slide presentation of 18^th Century artistry in the form of studio executed history paintings, portraits, illustrations and rapidly executed drawings done in the field.   

While some of the artwork presented may look familiar, Mr. Lefkowitz gives detailed information about each image and well as insights concerning the artists who created them.   The pictures in the presentation have been gathered from a variety of museum collections and, by using high quality reproductions, interesting historical details come to life that are frequently lost when the pictures are shown in books.  

Included in the presentation are portraits of George Washington, painted from life, showing him wearing the uniform of the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.    

Mr. Lefkowitz is a prominent New Jersey author whose works include The Long Retreat: The Calamitous American Defense of New Jersey, George Washington’s Indispensable Men, Bushnell’s Submarine, The Best Kept Secret of the American Revolution, and Benedict Arnold’s Army, The 1775 American Invasion of Canada.  His books have received numerous awards and Bushnell’s Submarine was favorably reviewed in The New York Times Book Section.

His lecture credits include numerous talks for The New Jersey Council for the Humanities, The National Park Service and Fraunces Tavern Museum, as well as being the keynote speaker at the 2006 meeting of The Washington Association of New Jersey. He has taught a course in colonial American history for three semesters at Middlesex County College.

Sunday, May 3, 2:00 p.m. -  Frederic Lawrence Minus: "Slavery in New Jersey During the American Revolution"  
(House open for tours at 1:00 p.m.; lecture begins at 2:00 p.m.)  

A native of Delaware, Mr. Minus is a member of the Camp Olden Round Table and active in the Civil War Museum, where he helped establish a room dedicated to the United Colored Troops. He is also a member of the Sons of the Union Veterans-Anne Ross Post#1, 3rd Regiment USCT of Philadelphia and a founding member of the 6th USCT of Trenton and a Friend of the Revolutionary War Barracks in Trenton, where he serves as a storyteller and reenactor.  As a re-enactor, Fred has made hundreds of presentations in schools, churches and community organizations, including Delaware State College, Boy Scout conferences, SUNY Maritime College of New York, the PECO Energy Conference and Pennsylvania Underground Railroad Conference.  He was a featured speaker at the "Oh Freedom" exhibit at the State Museum in Trenton, NJ.

This program is being hosted by Friends of the Abraham Staats House, Inc.  The project has been funded, in part, by a grant from the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission and Friends of Somerset County Culture & Heritage, Inc.