NEW BRUNSWICK -- There have been plenty of history books written about New Jersey. Now, the state has its own historical photo album.
Two of the state's top historians released a book this month that brings together 654 photos and images to tell New Jersey's story from prehistoric times to the present.
"Envisioning New Jersey: An Illustrated History of the Garden State" was compiled by Maxine Lurie, professor emerita of history at Seton Hall University, and Richard Veit, chairman of the department of history and anthropology at Monmouth University.
The 304-page book includes painting, photographs, documents and maps. The historians combed the collections of 150 institutions to hunt down well-known and little-seen images, from portraits of George Washington and Molly Pitcher to photos of World War II air raid wardens patrolling the streets of Newark, images of Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at Monmouth University and photos of the destruction left by Hurricane Sandy.
The book, published by Rutgers University Press, retails for the reduced price of $39.95 thanks to the New Jersey Historical Commission, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and other donors who contributed tens of thousands of dollars to help the authors obtain the rights to publish the images.
Lurie spoke to NJ Advance Media about the historic project. Here's an edited transcript:
How did you get the idea to put together a book of images spanning the state's entire history?
Actually, the director at Rutgers University Press, Marlie Wasserman, had suggested it quite a while ago. My first reaction was it was going to be too hard. There was no easy, reasonable way to gather all of the images.
And it turned out to be much harder than we thought. We started out thinking we could do an illustrated history using images from about five institutions. In the end, we had 654 images and they come from about 150 different institutions and individuals.
Did you have trouble finding the photos and paintings you needed?
We found more than we could use. So, we picked what we thought were the best illustrations for New Jersey history. Just getting that many permissions was very time consuming.
Where did most of the images come from?
Rich personally took about 50 pictures. He travelled around the state. Otherwise, we got the biggest number from Rutgers University's Special Collections and the New Jersey State Archives. Most came from New Jersey people or institutions.
But there are a few that came from England or other parts of the United States. A number came from the Library of Congress. We were working using grant funds and a very limited budget. People were very generous. Many let us use their images for free or gave us a discount.
Were you surprised by any of the photos you found?
A number of them did surprise me. Someone I know suggested an image of German POWs working on a farm in South Jersey in World War II. I had no idea that was part of the state's history.
Was there any image you wish you could find that you couldn't?
It took us a while to find images of the Ku Klux Klan in New Jersey, but we did and we are using two other them in the book. There were other images we wish we had. Some things were just too hard to find or we just gave up on them because in many cases they were just too expensive. Some of the commercial images we just couldn't begin to afford.
Is there an iconic image of New Jersey?
When I teach New Jersey history, the first thing I ask my students is to draw what they think is the image of New Jersey. And they can't. There isn't one. Unlike some other places where you could easily do this, there isn't an image of New Jersey. The state is just so diverse. It has such a long, interesting history. You can't usually come up with just one image.
Was there any forgotten piece of New Jersey history you wanted to get into the book?
I think most people just don't know anything about New Jersey history. We are emphasizing the diversity of the state -- including race, ethnic groups and religions. New Jersey really has been, from the 17th century on, very diverse. We included the history of women and the history of African Americans and slavery.
We also wanted to make sure we covered the entire state. So, every geographical part of New Jersey is represented.
Does having images available to you change the way you tell the story of New Jersey?
Having the images available has changed the way I teach in the last 15 or 20 years. I put the images up on the screen in the classroom and very often talk from them. Getting people to see the images will in many ways get them to understand the history better and draws them into the story.
People learn in different ways. Some people are more visual and other people are more verbal or get something from reading. I think when you combine them, you enable a larger number of people to understand history and get interested.
Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook.