NJ/DE Digital Collective joins DPLA

By DPLA, August 2, 2021.
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DPLA is pleased to welcome the NJ/DE Digital Collective as DPLA’s newest service hub. The NJ/DE Digital Collective is a collaboration launched by the New Jersey State Library (NJSL) and Delaware Division of Libraries (DDL) that serves libraries and cultural heritage institutions throughout New Jersey and Delaware. More than 20 organizations are currently contributing to DPLA through the NJ/DE Digital Collective including NJSL, DDL, Rutgers University, the University of Delaware, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Princeton University.

“We are delighted to add the rich collections of the NJ/DE Digital Collective to DPLA. Running the gamut from the history of activism to art to the immigrant experience, these collections help further DPLA’s mission to create access to artifacts that bring to life the true breadth and depth of American history,” said Shanée Yvette Murrain, DPLA’s director of community engagement. 

The NJ/DE Digital Collective is currently contributing more than 124,000 items to DPLA. “This multi-state collaboration has been a long time in development, but it is worth the wait,” said Lynn Hoffman, project coordinator for the NJ/DE Digital Collective hub. “We are proud to make these rich historic collections from our founding partners available for discovery, and look forward to adding more content from New Jersey and Delaware organizations over the months and years to come.”

Highlights of the hub’s collection include: 

Dutch Immigration Experience Collection (Jersey City Free Public Library)

The Jersey City Free Public Library received a grant from the NJ State Library to contribute to the initial collection of the NJ Digital Highway, focusing on the immigrant communities of NJ. As the site of the first chartered municipality in what is now New Jersey, the library chose to highlight items related to the Dutch immigrants and their legacy, from the 1600s through the early 20th century.

Dutch Dance Depicted by Schoolchildren in 1910 – Part of a series of photos from a pageant celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Dutch village of Bergen becoming the first chartered municipality in what is now New Jersey.

Howard Pyle Manuscript Collection (Delaware Art Museum)

Howard Pyle (1853–1911) was one of the most influential American illustrators of all time. His work and teachings ushered in the golden age of American illustration and influenced generations of illustrators in the United States. The manuscript collection includes Pyle’s correspondence, lectures, photographs, and newspaper clippings, as well as scrapbooks of his book and magazine illustrations and records of exhibitions held at the Museum.

Stanley Arthurs, Howard Pyle, and Frank Schoonover in Pyle’s Franklin Street studio

1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane Collection (New Jersey State Library)

The Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 was first detected on September 8th with a pressure fall and erratic winds were noted around the Windward Islands. It hit New Jersey with great force doing major damage to Long Beach Island, Ocean City, and Cape May.

Bradley Beach

Alcoholic Beverage Control Bulletins (New Jersey State Library)

The Bulletins of the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) are an important primary source for the social history of nightlife, entertainment, law enforcement, crime, and bar culture in New Jersey. These documents contain significant descriptions of queer culture and LGBTQ people’s relationships to the law and each other, in a time in which being one’s authentic self in public involved significant personal risk.

Bulletin 1441

Newark and Rutgers in the 1960s and 1970s (Rutgers University)

This oral history collection reflects on the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, painting a vivid picture of the history of activism in a city and on a campus during a time of great social and political change. Vickie Donaldson’s interview (she was the most prominent Black woman in the Black Organization of Students at Rutgers-Newark):


Agnes P. Medill Boys’ and Girls’ Liberty Clubs of Delaware Scrapbook (University of Delaware)

This scrapbook contains photographs, news clippings, and information that Agnes P. Medill kept during 1918-1922, when she was employed by the Delaware College Extension Service to organize Boys’ and Girls’ Liberty Clubs in the Delaware public schools. During the 1918 school year, Agnes Medill organized at least fifteen clubs throughout Delaware schools, including Newport, Bridgeville, Stanton, Black Swamp, Redden, Georgetown, Greenwood, Townsend, Welsh Tract, Harrington, Newark, and Wilmington.

Townsend Sewing & Baking Club Achievement Exercise 1920

You can browse all of the NJ/DE Digital Collective’s contributions to DPLA here.