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Did you know that the Dust Bowl hit New Jersey? Twice? How about that a mysterious experiment in subliminal advertising" was conducted at a Fort Lee, New Jersey movie theater? Or that railroad communication was advanced on a northwest New Jersey railroad line? Or that America first heard about the Russians launch of Sputnik 2 (with a dog onboard) thanks to a Ukrainian refugee in Perth Amboy, New Jersey? Or that prisons could buy a custom electric chair from a Trenton, New Jersey electrician? Or that aviation matured into an industry thanks to Newark Airport? This book is a collection of articles from www.GardenStateLegacy.com, an online quarterly magazine devoted to New Jersey history that the author began in 2008. The Garden State features to some degree even as a footnote in larger historical stories far more often than one might think. It could just be a matter of someone from the state going on to something of historic importance somewhere else; or that by dumb luck something just happened to occur within its borders. New Jersey may be a footnote in these tangential tales, but they are the kind of unexpected connections that makes exploring New Jersey's history so delightful."
About the author
Gordon Bond is the founder of Garden State Legacy, a magazine on New Jersey history and preservation. He was given an Award of Recognition from the New Jersey Historical Commission, was guest curator of an exhibition on the history of medicine in New Jersey at the Museum of Early Trades & Crafts, and at the Cornelius Low House on the history of printing in New Jersey.
