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Join Michele S. Davidson as she documents Nether Providence's fascinating growth and development over the last three centuries.

In 1682, John Sharpless settled in Nether Providence Township on a 1,000-acre tract of land along Ridley Creek that had been granted to him by William Penn. Other settlers soon followed, establishing Nether Providence as a small, successful, farming community. Over the next two centuries, Nether Providence grew into a thriving manufacturing center with 14 operating mills along the township's two creeks. At the turn of the 19th century, Nether Providence became a summer resort area rivaling the Main Line of Philadelphia, with such famous residents as Dr. Horace Howard Furness, a well-regarded Shakespearean scholar and the brother of architect Frank Furness, and Alexander Kelly McClure, the owner of the Philadelphia Times and an assistant adjunct general appointed by Pres. Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. In 2007, Wallingford, the largest community in Nether Providence, was named by Money Magazine as the ninth best place to live in the United States.

Rare and vintage images act as postcards, telling the fascinating stories of Monmouth County, New Jersey.

From the 1890s through the 1930s, the postcard was an extraordinarily popular means of communication, and many of the postcards produced were works of art. Postcard photographers traveled the length and breadth of the nation snapping photos of busy street scenes, documenting local landmarks, and assembling crowds of local children only too happy to pose for a picture. These images, printed as postcards and sold in general stores across the country, survive as telling reminders of an important era in America's history. This fascinating new history of Monmouth County showcases more than two hundred of the best postcards available of this region of New Jersey.

Middletown Township, a fascinating visual journey through New Jersey's past, will delight and educate both the avid historian and the casual observer.

Middletown Township: Volume II is a fascinating collection of over 220 vintage views of this venerable township, and it explores in even greater depth the rich and historic fabric of the community first brought to life last year in Middletown Township.

In this second volume, the author has collected an extraordinary diversity of images from a wide range of sources, and these images bring to life the development of the township and the lives and aspirations of its people. We meet the people who gave the township character; witness the changing landscape; visit places of worship; marvel at the growth of business and industry; and explore the development of the individual neighborhoods. These scenes of the familiar and unfamiliar will bring to local people and visitors alike a new appreciation of the richness and depth of the township's history.

Author Randall Gabrielan is president of the Middletown Township Historical Society and the township's official historian. With Middletown Township: Volume II he has combined a compelling selection of images with years of accumulated knowledge to create a history that is both entertaining and educational.

With carefully selected photographs and detailed text, Walden and Maybrook traces the history of the two villages from the Colonial era to the mid-nineteenth century. The book contains some two hundred images, many of which have never before been published. Highlighted are the hardworking individuals who helped the villages prosper-the knife makers, polishers, grinders, and hefters, the prominent businesspeople of Chesnin & Leis Clothing and Brook May coats, and the railroad personnel who worked at the roundhouse, the engine house, and the coaling trestle.

A tapestry of the visual history of Greencastle-Antrim that stretches from the early settlement of the region into the 1960s.

Located in the heart of Pennsylvania's picturesque and historic Cumberland Valley, Greencastle and neighboring Antrim Township are all-American communities with a rich heritage that spans several centuries. The area witnessed American Indian raids, the Civil War, agricultural and industrial growth and decline, the heyday of the iron horse, and many other events linked directly with the history of the nation.

Displayed here are images of colonial forts, soldiers from the Civil War and other conflicts, historic homes and churches, business and industry, and events unique to the area, such as Old Home Week. Rare images, many of which have never been published, will guide readers, as they will be sure to enjoy this pictorial history of one of Pennsylvania's most historic communities.

Northern Chester County follows a path of progress and preservation in an area often referred to as "the New Main Line." Starting out in the late 19th century, vintage postcards illustrate the area's transformation from pastoral countryside to a much-sought-after suburban locale. Look through a window into the past and see Simpson's General Store in Lionville, the Paoli Inn on Lancaster Avenue, and the French Creek Falls Hotel in St. Peter's Village.

An interesting history suburban Baltimore's Hampden-Woodberry community, from mill village to thriving industrial community.

The urban Baltimore neighborhood of Hampden-Woodberry began as a mill village in rural Baltimore County, where the swift-flowing waters of Jones Falls provided the power for early gristmills. As the nearby city grew into a major international port, the flour mills gave way to cloth mills that turned out cotton duck for sails. At their peak, the mills of Hampden-Woodberry turned out 80 percent of the world's cotton duck. Thousands of men, women, and children were employed in what was, in the late 19th century, the United States' largest concentration of factory labor. Fortunes were made by such men as Robert Poole and the Hooper, Carroll, and Gambrill families, who owned the mills. When it was annexed to Baltimore in 1888, Hampden-Woodberry was a thriving industrial community. The last of the mills closed in 1972, but many of these historic structures are now being reused for a variety of purposes. More importantly, Hampden-Woodberry still survives as a community with deep roots in America's industrial past.

Along the Perkiomen provides a glimpse of the Perkiomen region's rich an interesting history.

The Perkiomen Creek is a picturesque stream that drains a major portion of western Montgomery County. It begins just beyond the northern borders of the county and travels south. The creek empties into the Schuylkill River at the county's lower border. The old Perkiomen Railroad closely followed the same path. Along the Perkiomen showcases postcards of the Perkiomen Valley in Montgomery County as it existed during the first half of the twentieth century. Readers will visit the villages and towns along the creek and others nearby. This visual journey is intended to provide a glimpse of the Perkiomen region's rich history.

This book charts the story of Navy football and steers readers through the reemergence of an iconic program representing our nation's finest.

Navy football holds a unique place in college athletics as one of the oldest and most prestigious programs the game has ever known. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Midshipmen were nationally recognized by the major bowl games they played and Heisman Trophy–winning players Joe Bellino and Roger Staubach. Although the program struggled mightily to maintain relevance in subsequent years, Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk kick-started the renaissance of Navy football by hiring Coach Paul Johnson in 2001. The team's current coach, Ken Niumatalolo, once fired by the academy in the dining room of a McDonald's in 1998, returned to become the winningest coach in school history. Cameron charts the story of Navy football and steers readers through the reemergence of an iconic program representing our nation's finest.

Join author Laurence G. Claggett as he recounts the rich history of Easton, Maryland through vintage images, some never before seen.

In the early part of the 18th century, Talbot County on Maryland's Eastern Shore was restructured in size and boundary, requiring the designation of a new county seat. Groups from the Wye River to Oxford competed vigorously to have their town win the honor. But the selection committee, with manifest partiality, decided upon the geographical center of the new county: a remote field cultivated and then abandoned by its native residents. Here was born the town that would eventually be known as Easton. Telling the story of the original Talbot Court House, the market, early schools, churches, and businesses, this fascinating visual history documents an era of significant change for the town in the early 20th century. Improved roads and transportation allowed the widespread population of the county to come to town; friends and family members could meet more often, and a sense of community identity began to grow.

The rolling hills, picturesque farms and lush highlands of northwestern New Jersey exemplify the often-overlooked natural beauty of the Garden State. But among its historic towns and scenic vistas lurk haunting mysteries and unexplained apparitions...

A recluse who practiced witchcraft generations ago is said to be still spinning misdeeds as the Sussex Sorcerer on Sunrise Mountain. The ghost of Reverend O’Malley walks the woods around Mount Allamuchy as the Purple Bishop, seeking vengeance against those who betrayed him. The sinisterly named Shades of Death Road along the sod farms and meadows of the Pequest River Valley has a bloody reputation of bandit killings and supernatural encounters.  

Author Robert Oakes leads readers on a spirited journey through the historic ghost lore of Northwestern New Jersey.

From images of a bustling city in the 1850s to daily life in the 1950s, this delightful visual history recalls the people, places, and events that shaped Auburn.

Around Auburnbrings to life the history of Auburn and the surrounding communities of Cayuga County over a century of change. In addition to photos of the industries that formed the heart of the community, and snapshots of a bygone era amidst the natural beauty of Owasco Lake, authors Peter Lloyd Jones and Stephanie Przybylek give us a concise and accessible history of the famous men and women of Auburn and the surrounding Cayuga County: Harriet Tubman, fearless abolitionist and leader of the Underground Railroad; Emily Howland, pioneering figure in the fight for women's suffrage; and Theodore Case, inventor of the first commercially successful method of recording sound film.

Chesapeake oysters are part of the legacy of the area, history on the half-shell. Read of their beginning (foot-long bivalves!) through cultivation today.

The eastern oyster, the humble bivalve and delicous treat, are the living bones of the Chesapeake, as well as the ecological and historical lifeblood of the region. When colonists first sailed these impossibly abundant shores, they described massive shoals of foot-long oysters but the bottomless appetite of the Gilded Age and great fleets of skipjacks took their toll. Disease, environmental pressures and overconsumption decimated the population by the end of the twentieth century. While Virginia turned to bottom-leasing, passionate debate continues in Maryland among scientists and oystermen whether aquaculture or wild harvesting is the better way forward. Today, boutique oyster farming in the Bay is sustainably meeting the culinary demand of a new generation of connoisseurs. With careful research and interviews with experts, author Kate Livie presents this dynamic story and a glimpse of what the future may hold.

Many Americans are familiar with Thomas Edison's invention factory in Menlo Park, where he patented the phonograph, the light bulb and more than one thousand other items. Yet many other ideas have grown in the Garden State, too.

New Jerseyans brought sound and music to movies and built the very first drive-in theater. In addition to the first cultivated blueberry, tasty treats like ice cream cones and M&Ms are also Jersey natives. Iconic aspects of American life, like the batting cage, catcher's mask and even professional baseball itself, started in New Jersey. Life would be a lot harder without the vacuum cleaner, plastic and Band-Aids, and many important advances in medicine and surgery were also developed here. Join author Linda Barth as she explores groundbreaking, useful, fun and even silly inventions and their New Jersey roots.

Award-winning author and historian Kerriann Flanagan Brosky uncovers some of the most ghastly and fascinating historical crimes committed on Long Island.

Beyond the idyllic countryside and suburban communities of Long Island lies a murky history of murder and mayhem. A Victorian romance went awry in Huntington when wealthy farmer Charles Kelsey was tarred, feathered and murdered in 1872. Thirty-five years before the famous witch trials of Salem, East Hampton had its own Puritan hysteria among charges of witchcraft. The 1937 kidnapping of wealthy heiress Alice Parsons shook the quiet town of Stony Brook and remains a mystery to this day.

The uplifting story of the valiant Tuskegee men and women whose impact on Philadelphia during World War II will surprise even the most avid armchair historian.

At the outbreak of World War II, Philadelphians heeded the call, including the valiant airmen and women of Tuskegee. Although trained in Alabama, the prestigious unit comprised dozens of Philadelphia-area natives, second only to Chicago in the country. They served as fighter pilots, bombers, nurses and mechanics, as well as in many other support roles. The African American service members had to overcome racism and sexism on the homefront in order to serve with great distinction. Their battle for equality didn't end at the war's conclusion. Tuskegee alumni continued to serve their nation by working to secure civil rights and serve their community back home in Philadelphia. Author Robert Kodosky presents the trials and triumphs of Philadelphia's Tuskegee airmen and women.

Settled in 1665 as one of the Two Towns of the Navesink, the township of Shrewsbury played an important role in the development of Monmouth County.

One of the most historically areas in the New Jersey region, the original vast expanse of Shrewsbury Township has since evolved into a charming 2. 3 square-mile residential borough. In this vivid photographic history, author Randall Gabrielan has brought together over 200 vintage images that convey the special character of Shrewsbury through the years. Many of the organizations, people, and buildings that fostered the evolution of this community are represented here, and informative, well-researched captions document their individual historical contributions.

In 1865, industrialist/inventor Hezekiah Bradley Smith purchased Shreveville, later renamed Smithville, an abandoned textile mill and town located along the Rancocas Creek in Burlington County, for $20,000.

He moved many workers from his Lowell, Massachusetts, plant to the new location, rebuilt the factory, and prepared it for the manufacture of his patented iron woodworking machinery. Smith began to improve the aging housing in the surrounding village. He opened a school and, later, constructed a new school building. Smith erected a boardinghouse for factory workers that contained shops and a concert hall. Through farming on land adjacent to his mansion, he made fresh produce and milk available to his workers. Smith’s company also expanded into new industries by working with outside inventors, like George Washington Pressey, who needed a manufacturer for his American Star Bicycle. Later, Arthur Hotchkiss contacted the company to build the world’s first bicycle railroad to transport workers from Mount Holly to the Smithville factory. This book captures life in the village and factory, memorializing the intertwining lives of the Smithville workers and H.B. Smith through photographs.

Manhattan is an important site in the evolution of all the major innovations in American music, ranging from vaudeville and big bands to folk music, modern jazz, and rock and roll. Manhattan's Musical Heritage, a fascinating postcard history, takes readers on a journey back in time and place to the scenes of seminal musical events and performances. Individual musical greats from Al Jolson to John Lennon are featured, as this book details the locations forever associated with their lives and careers. Armchair travelers and those who enjoy walks in the streets of Manhattan will find this volume useful in discovering the amazing musical history of this special place.

Only 18 miles south of behemoth New York City, Cranford is an adorable small city, nicknamed the Venice of New Jersey.

Residents of Cranford greeted the publication of a photographic history of their community with tremendous enthusiasm in 1995--for the first time, significant people and events in the township's past were celebrated in a vivid record available to all. The authors of that volume--Robert Fridlington and Lawrence Fuhro--have worked together again to produce an all-new second volume on Cranford that includes many recently discovered images. Cranford Volume II covers the history of the town from 1871 to 1960, and highlights its role as a riverside resort and suburb. Images of well-known Cranford residents, such as pure-food crusader Alice Lakey and beloved high school coach J. Seth Weekly are also featured, documenting the unique contributions of these citizens to their hometown.

Battles, shipwrecks and abundant adventures await in this volume of maritime tales by local author Susan Gately.

Easternmost of the Great Lakes, Lake Ontario is bordered by both New York and Ontario. Upon its pristine surface, countless vessels have sailed, but its bottom depths are littered with the skeletons of shipwrecks, including HMS Ontario, caught and destroyed in one of the sudden storms that often turn this sea-like lake deadly. Daring mariners, male and female, have seen their share of peril, and battles during wars between Britain and the United States and Canada have also been waged here. From Huron canoes to today's ""Sunday sailors"" who venture from shore only during warmer months, local author Susan Gateley tells some of the lake's most exciting stories.

Amusement piers offered vaudeville, band concerts, thrill rides, diving horses, fishnet hauls, and more. Visitors stayed in grand hotels, among the largest and finest in the world. Through more than 200 postcard images, the amazing spirit of this historic resort town is revealed.

Discover some of Southwest Pennsylvania's most harrowing ghost tales.

The ghostly woman of Summit Cut Bridge, a black hound that guards the Gates of Hell and the whispering dead entombed beneath the Black Crossthese are the spirits of southwestern Pennsylvania. Join local author Thomas White as he recounts such chilling stories as that of Revolutionary War witch Moll Derry and the phantom bride of White Rocks and the hair-raising tale of the angry specter of a steel millworker burned alive in a ladle of molten iron. Ascend the secret stairs of the Cathedral of Learning in Pittsburgh and wander the dim stretch of Shades of Death Road in Washington County to encounter the otherworldly denizens of the Keystone State.

South Amboy is a fascinating history of this community's past and beginnings, with vintage images that document what life was really like.

South Amboy, a celebration of the people and places of this key Central New Jersey community, is a fascinating look back in time at the city's early days. Through a variety of vintage images combined with insightful text, travel to the waterfront, railroad, and bustling business district of South Amboy's past. As 1998 marks the 200th anniversary of the city's organization, weeping revitalization and development are under way, and it is an ideal time to reflect upon South Amboy's beginnings. Included in South Amboy are photographs of the old city hall, prominent local businesses, long forgotten schools, and an earlier and very different Broadway. South Amboy has always been a transportation hub, from a stop in revolutionary days on the route from New York to Philadelphia, to its current role of shuttling commuters throughout the area. Life in South Amboy is shown in all aspects, from social to civic activities, from the taverns to the firehouses, and from houses of worship to the city's hospital. The historic images featured, most of which have never been published, are largely from the private collections of South Amboy residents.

The Lower East Side has long been one of Manhattan's most vibrant neighborhoods.

For centuries, it has been home to hundreds of enclaves of immigrants from every part of the world; as they became New Yorkers, the neighborhood in turn became infused with their cultures, foods, traditions, and personalities. In this book, Lower East Side historians Eric Ferrara and Nina Howes document the memories of 25 people who lived in this larger-than-life corner of New York. From childhood memories with family to observations of the constantly changing face of the neighborhood, discover the Lower East Side through the eyes and voices of the people who have made it what it is today.

The images in this collection capture the diverse history of Georgetown.

Georgetown, a thriving neighborhood in the nation's capital, was established in 1751 as an independent city. As the land to its east was being developed into Washington, DC, the once sleepy river town grew and evolved. George Washington's adopted descendants lived down the street from where Kennedy lived before Camelot; Julia Child walked past the home of Robert Todd Lincoln; and a successful community of free black Americans was built around the corner from what had previously been a slave market. Georgetown depicts the history of a community whose roots span far beyond the prestigious university and upper-class neighborhood for which it is known. The images capture mansions and slums, thriving businesses and crumbling facades, an industrial revolution, and the closing of the C&O Canal.

On July 12, 1926, Frances Bowermaster McBride, a forty-year-old divorcee, called off her affair with twenty-seven-year-old Norman Morrison. Driven into a rage, Morrison tracked Frances to her home in Carlisle's East End, where she sat on the porch with her three-year-old daughter, Georgia, on her lap. Morrison shot and killed Frances before turning the pistol on himself. Morrison lived but was blinded. Young Georgia fell to the pavement unharmed. Eventually standing trial, Morrison was convicted of first-degree murder. Historian Paul D. Hoch goes beyond the conviction as he traces the later lives of Morrison and Georgia McBride as she came of age in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Hoch spins a tale of murder, perseverance and, ultimately, redemption.

Illustrated with nearly 200 historic images, the pivotal birth of diesel dominance and New Jersey's critical role is documented and investigated.

At the end of World War II, the nation's railroads were eager to replace their abundance of war-weary steam locomotives with sleek new diesel engines. From Cape May to Bayonne, New Jersey's tracks were soon humming with diesels while the old steamers were nudged onto the scrap tracks of the Central New Jersey, the Erie, and the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroads, among others. Powering a commuter train to Dover or a sand train to Millville's Wheaton glass plant, the diesels instantly proved their worth, praised by railroad employees for their ease of running and maintenance. In an era when most clothes were dried outside, the public accepted the new lack of trackside coal ash with gusto. Steam to Diesel in New Jersey presents the mixed era of late-steam and early-diesel power on the big and small railroads of New Jersey, from the mid-1940s to the end of the 1950s. From the Baldwins to the Alcos, the steam-spewing Behemoths to the smooth-running RS series, this engaging collection of vintage photographs remembers a time filled with wonder and change. With nearly two hundred images, Steam to Diesel in New Jersey showcases the departing steam engines and the emerging diesels that ushered in a new period of railroad history.

Early in the twentieth century, Nutley was the home of many prominent writers and artists. Mark Twain visited often to confer with his magazine editor. On one of her many visits, sharpshooter Annie Oakley was so taken by this warm community that she and her husband, Frank Butler, bought property on Grant Avenue, built a house, and lived here for several years. With its proximity to New York City and its many acres of picturesque parkland, the town grew rapidly and was soon transformed by the laying of trolley tracks along Franklin Avenue, the relocation of the business district, and the subdivision of large estates, necessary to house the growing population. Through all of this change, however, Nutley maintained its quaint small-town atmosphere and never lost sight of the need to preserve its sense of community and history.

he Shrewsbury area was one of the first Pennsylvania settlements west of the Susquehanna River. Located midway between Harrisburg and Baltimore, Maryland, an important north south transportation route known as the Potocas Trail ran through the town s center. What began as a quiet farming area in the late 1700s developed into a commerce center of furniture and sewing factories by the late 1800s. Today, its central business area, now on the National Register of Historic Places, is the antique hub of southern York County. Shrewsbury continues to provide peaceful living for many who work in the Baltimore area."

In this photographic history of Valley Stream, author Bill Florio documents vividly the long and illustrious history of this Nassau County village.

Located near the south shore of Long Island at the gateway to Nassau County, the village of Valley Stream has grown from a bucolic farming community in the 1840s to a dense suburban hub full of history and diversity. Consisting of communities named Foster's Meadow, Rum Junction, Skunk's Misery, and Hungry Harbor, the town saw nightlife and leisure blossom after Merrick Road was built and the South Side Railroad pulled in. The village incorporated in 1925, finding itself a center of industry as the location of the Ridgewood Reservoir's conduit pipe, Curtiss Field, Bulova Demco, and later, the birthplace of Snapple. Over the years, Valley Stream gained attention through many of its attractions, including the William R. Gibson Houses, Hoffman's, the Pavilion Royal, Green Acres Mall, the Rio Theatre, Valley Stream State Park, and Itgen's Ice Cream Parlour.

This evolution of Madison is chronicled in this exciting new pictorial history through the presentation of vintage images and informative caption text.

The Borough of Madison, New Jersey, known as BottleHill until 1834, was first settled in the middle of the eighteenth century. Its historical significance, now often forgotten by its cosmopolitan population, includes a railroad heritage dating to 1837, commuter traditions that began with the railroad's arrival, the founding of Drew University in 1866, the development of fabled millionaire estates that have largely disappeared, and the location of a nationally known rose-growing industry that is now gone. Even as it attracted a number of very wealthy estate owners, Madison also became home to a richly diverse ethnic population that came to work in the palatial homes and in the huge rose-growing greenhouses found nearly everywhere in the borough. This evolution of Madison is chronicled in this exciting new pictorial history through the presentation of vintage images and informative caption text.

"The bells rung all day, and almost all night..."

John Adams wrote this timeless observation when the Declaration of Independence was signed and publicly proclaimed in early July of 1776 to a jubilant crowd in Philadelphia. This is the story of those bells - a search to discover which bells did indeed ring, or are believed to have rung, when America was born. It is the story of the most famous bell in the world, the Liberty Bell, and the other historic bells of Philadelphia, during the era of the American Revolution.

Author Thomas Kaufmann traces the joyous history of sound and instrument as the nation is forged among uplifting tolls of Philadelphia's historic independence bells.