The New Jersey ratifying caucus approved the
Constitution on December 18, 1787. Highly critical of the Articles of Confederation, the delegates acted quickly to ratify the new constitution. Following the votes of Delaware and Pennsylvania, New Jersey was the third state to join the Union. Prior to the American Revolution, New Jersey was part of the original land grant to the Duke of York. He, in turn, granted it to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret in June 1664. The province was divided, in 1676, between the proprietors. By that division East New Jersey was assigned to Carteret, and West New Jersey to William Penn and others, who had purchased it from Lord Berkeley. The division and divisiveness continued until Queen Anne, in April 1702, reunited both provinces into one province, and by commission appointed a governor over them.
In the 18th century New Jersey gained the nickname "The Garden State," a tribute to its rich and fertile soil. Yet over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, farmland gave way to urban industry. Now one of the nation's most developed states, New Jersey exports manufactured goods around the world.
Tourism is another important economic resource. Since the nineteenth century, city dwellers have sought cool ocean breezes on the 125 miles of New Jersey coastline. President Grant was among vacationers who flocked to resorts at Longbranch and Cape May. Open in 1870, the Atlantic City Boardwalk continues to draw visitors to its beaches and game rooms.
New Jersey is home to Princeton University and Rutgers University. Singer Frank Sinatra, suffragist Alice Paul, and football coach Alonzo Stagg were born in the Garden State.
The American Memory collections contain a wide variety of resources relating to New Jersey. Search across the collections on New Jersey for an overview of American Memory holdings, or search the collections individually.
The American Memory collections contain a wide variety of resources relating to New Jersey. Search across the collections on New Jersey for an overview of American Memory holdings, or search the collections individually.
- Go to Panoramic Maps and use the search option to find numerous bird's-eye view maps of New Jersey.
- Stereoscopic views, a form of 3D photography, were produced by the millions between the 1850s and the 1930s. Search on the term New Jersey in Small-Town America, 1850-1920 to see a wide variety of New Jersey sites.
- Built in America: Historic Building and Engineering, 1933-Present (although not completely digitized) documents achievements in U.S. architecture, engineering, and design. Search the collection on Hoboken, an important 19th and 20th century waterfront city in New Jersey, to see that city's piers, City Hall, and Erie-Lackawana Railroad Ferry Terminal.
- Search on the term New Jersey in Music for the Nation, 1870-1885 to retrieve "My Jersey Queen," a nineteenth-century song with references to the state.
- A search on New Jersey in Touring Turn-of-the-Century America, 1880-1920 will result in over 100 hits, including a view of Passaic Falls. Search on Atlantic City to find pictures of people Bathing at Atlantic City.
- Edison Motion Pictures, a section of the larger collection Inventing Entertainment: The Edison Companies, contains 341 early motion pictures. Search on the term New Jersey for material like the 1895 Princess Ali, recorded at Edison's Black Maria film studio in West Orange, or the July 1900 actuality, Burning of the Standard Oil Company's Tanks, filmed in Bayonne, New Jersey.
