Dear Editor:
Governor McGreevey’s budget for the coming fiscal year, which will be submitted to the legislature, eliminates all funding for the New Jersey Historical Commission, including staff and grant funds. Since fiscal year 2000, the Commission’s grant program has disbursed funds to over 500 organizations and individuals in all 21 of New Jersey’s counties — including in Hoboken, to our city first Historical Museum. Funds were provided to conduct original research, produce exhibits, publications and oral history projects; to support internships; and, since 2000, to assist with the general operating expenses of history organizations. The opportunity to receive funds for general operating costs — including utilities, postage, accounting bills and collections maintenance — was a tremendous boon to New Jersey’s history groups, which are unlikely to find support from private foundations or corporate sponsors for such necessary, but unglamourous, expenses.
The Commission’s grants process is competitive and organizations are required to match the funds provided. Funds are disbursed on merit. The elimination of the Commission and its grants program will mean that the finest, most active history organizations in the state will lose the ability to provide their communities with programming, exhibits and publications that help us understand how the life and cultures of the past inform how we live today.
With the support of the New Jersey Historical Commission, the Hoboken Historical Museum, a non-profit educational organization, has presented in its home in the former W. & A. Fletcher/Bethlehem Steel Shipyard Machine Shop, 1301 Hudson Street, entrance in the 13th St. walkway):
Our current exhibit and brochure, The Tubes: Rails Under the Hudson, 1874 to the Present-day PATH. On view through April 13, this exhibit is the first to trace the history of the sub-aqueous tunnels that link New York and New Jersey. February 25 marks the 95th anniversary of the opening of the first set of tube tunnels from Hoboken to 19th Street in Manhattan, when over 10,000 people celebrated in the streets of our city.
The June-October 2022 exhibit and brochure, Destination Hoboken: The Great Ocean Liners of Hamburg-American & North German Lloyd, exploring the history of two trans-Atlantic shipping companies the owned docks in Hoboken from the mid-19th century until the U.S. entered the First World War.
The April-July 2001 exhibit and brochure, A History of This Place: The Hoboken Shipyard, 1890 to the present, exploring over a century in the life of the Machine Shop, the oldest structure on our city’s waterfront.
The Museum is open for visitors Tuesday thru Thursday, 5 to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, 12 to 5 p.m. and we will have a petition available for signing. We will present it to the Governor, and also to our legislators, who have been very supportive of our organization over the years.
Over the years, with the help of Senator Bernard F. Kenny, Museum friends, members and our many volunteers, we have raised all of our own funds — through competitive state, county and foundation grants; annual fundraisers; museum gift shop sales and admissions; and individual and corporate donations. If you’ve enjoyed any of the Museum’s exhibits, programs and events, we hope you’ll help us work with legislators to restore the NJ Historical Commission and its funding for public history programs, original scholarship and educational projects. The history of Hoboken is waiting to be told.
Please send letters for NJHC’s restoration to: The Honorable James McGreevey, Governor; PO Box 001, Trenton, NJ 08625-001; Senator Bernard F. Kenny, 235 Hudson Street, Suite 1, Hoboken, NJ 07030; Assemblyman Albio Sires; 303 58th Street, West New York, NJ 07093; Assemblyman Rafael J. Fraguela, 4808 Bergenline Avenue, Union City, NJ 07087.
The Board of Trustees,
Offices and Director of the Hoboken Historical Museum
P.S. The Commission’s budget represents 3/4 of 1/10 of 1 percent of the $5 billion deficit.