The New Jersey State Museum is located at 195-205 West State Street in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

. The museum's collections include natural history specimens,

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

artifacts, and cultural history and fine art objects. Exhibitions, educational activities, research programs, and lectures are also offered. The museum, a division of the

New Jersey Department of State The secretary of state of New Jersey oversees the Department of State, which is one of the original state offices. The Secretary is responsible for overseeing artistic, cultural, and historical programs within the U.S. state of New Jersey, as ...

, includes a 140-seat

planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a Theater (structure), theatre built primarily for presenting educational entertainment, educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navi ...

and a 384-seat

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, communit ...

History

The

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

State

Museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

was the first state museum in the country established with education as a primary focus of its mission. The

New Jersey Legislature The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and the ...

formally established the museum by law in 1895, and the museum was housed in the New Jersey State House; the museum received initial accreditation from the

American Alliance of Museums American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

in 1974 and has maintained accredited status continuously since that time. The museum is a division of the New Jersey Department of State. In its beginning, like many museums of its era, the museum focused on natural history. The first major collections were of rocks,

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...

s, and

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s from the New Jersey Geological Survey, which began in 1836. In 1912, the museum expanded its focus to include archaeology through the acquisition of artifacts produced by Native Americans in the region. These artifacts dated from the prehistoric and historic periods as well as from New Jersey's diverse populations during the

Colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

and post-colonial eras. In 1922, the museum was one of the first on the east coast to exhibit, as art, a collection of North American Indian objects. With the acquisition of these objects, the museum started its ethnographic collections. In 1924, decorative arts were added to the museum with examples from the Trenton-area ceramics industry. In 1929, the museum moved into a larger space in the newly constructed State House Annex. While

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

had been exhibited and acquired through the mid-20th century, the museum began a strong collecting emphasis on

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and a ...

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

and works on paper in the early 1960s. In 1964, the museum moved from the State House Annex into facilities created specifically for it within the newly created Capitol Cultural Complex. The museum's main building consists of four floors of exhibition, program, laboratory, and research space, a 140-seat

Planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a Theater (structure), theatre built primarily for presenting educational entertainment, educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navi ...

, and a Museum Gift Shop. An adjacent building contains a 384-seat Auditorium, as well as gallery spaces. Since 1968, the museum's work has been supported in part by the New Jersey State Museum Foundation (formerly Association for the Arts of the New Jersey State Museum and the Friends of the New Jersey State Museum). Founded as a non-government, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, the foundation is led by a Board of Trustees and small paid staff, all of who work to support the museum's collections, exhibitions, and programs through fundraising, volunteerism, and advocacy. The foundation also operates the museum membership program and the Museum Shop, which sells merchandise related to the museum's exhibitions, collections, and New Jersey history and culture. Shop proceeds support the New Jersey State Museum's collections, exhibitions, and programs.

Bureau of Archaeology/Ethnography

The Bureau of Archaeology/Ethnography collections encompass approximately 2.4 million

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The us ...

and historic specimens acquired by nearly 100 years of excavation, as well as almost 4,000

objects acquired as gifts to the museum. Scholars widely recognize the museum's

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsc ...

specimens as the definitive systematic research collection for the study of the prehistory of New Jersey. Notably, the archaeological collection includes material excavated from the nearby Abbott Farm National Historic Landmark Site. The ethnographic collection consists of specimens that represent the

Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...

and other North American Indian groups.

Bureau of Cultural History

The Bureau of Cultural History collection includes over 13,000 artifacts documenting New Jersey's

cultural Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.T ...

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studi ...

, and

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

, as well as aspects of its

decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usua ...

. The Cultural History Bureau also oversees the preservation and interpretation of the New Jersey State Capitol's collection of military

flag A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...

s used by New Jersey regiments in the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

and

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Bureau of Fine Art

The State Museum has collected over 12,000 works of art including paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, and photographs, most acquired since 1965 when the museum's mission was expanded to include fine art. The collection has an American focus that highlights the work of New Jersey artists within the context of American art history. Also included are works that depict New Jersey scenes and events. The strengths of the Fine Art collection lie in works by the American modernists associated with

Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was kno ...

, American abstract artists of the 1930s and 1940s, a comprehensive collection of works by 19th through 21st-century

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

artists, contemporary American and New Jersey art, the complete graphic outputs of

Ben Shahn Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) was an American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as ''The Shape of Content''. Biography Shahn was bor ...

and Jacob Landau and print and paper work by the New Jersey Fellows associated with the Brodsky Center. The Fine Art History Bureau also has curatorial responsibility for the State House Portrait Collection which includes portraits of New Jersey's governors, jurists, and other state officials.

Bureau of Natural History

The Bureau of Natural History holds a diverse collection of about 250,000 specimens that have historic and cultural significance, in addition to their scientific value. The natural history collections are especially strong in industrial

s and ores,

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

specimens (fossils),

osteology Osteology () is the scientific study of bones, practised by osteologists. A subdiscipline of anatomy, anthropology, and paleontology, osteology is the detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, microbone morphology, func ...

specimens (bones), modern shells, and a systematic study skin component. Smaller sub-collections include pinned

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pa ...

s, fluid-preserved

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is '' flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. ...

taxidermy Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proc ...

mounts and glass lantern slides. The bureau is also the repository for about 300 types (first documented) specimens of

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ...

and

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...

s, as well as a large number of fossils documenting the Paleozoic

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as e ...

within the

Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is a national recreation area administered by the National Park Service in northwest New Jersey and northeast Pennsylvania. It is centered around a stretch of the Delaware River designated the Middl ...

. Minerals from the

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

-mining locality of Franklin-Sterling Hill are well represented, including the largest number of fluorescent mineral

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

in the world, as are mine-specific specimens from New Jersey's industrial iron mining past. Specimens from beyond New Jersey are used for comparative purposes in exhibitions and educational programming, to augment the systematic collections, and for research purposes.

Bureau of Education and Public Programs

The museum's Bureau of Education offers programs and events. School groups can attend museum-based classes, hands-on workshops, exhibition tours, and planetarium programs, as well as access classroom resources such as curriculum guides. Since its opening in 1964, the State Museum's planetarium has been a large part of the museum's public programming. The 140-seat planetarium is equipped with "Full Dome"

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) sy ...

technology and also includes a digital video hemisphere as part of the planetarium lobby exhibitions. Exhibits include displays of

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the earliest constellation ...

solar system The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...

models and

space exploration Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. While the exploration of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration though is conducted both by uncrewed robo ...

. The planetarium presents public shows on

weekends The weekdays and weekend are the complementary parts of the week devoted to labour and rest, respectively. The legal weekdays (British English), or workweek (American English), is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. In most of t ...

, during school

vacation A vacation (American English) or holiday (British English) is either a leave of absence from a regular job or an instance of leisure travel away from home. People often take a vacation during specific holiday observances or for specific fes ...

periods (

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a h ...

and

winter Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultur ...

), and during the summer.

References

{{authority control Archaeological museums in New Jersey Art museums and galleries in New Jersey History museums in New Jersey Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums Museums established in 1895 Museums in Trenton, New Jersey Native American museums in New Jersey Natural history museums in New Jersey Planetaria in the United States