Montclair, New Jersey In Postcards
Even small books have their histories. This book was originally published in 1998 as "Montclair: A Postcard Guide to its Past" in the Images of America series of Arcadia Publishers. In 2004, it was reissued and moved to Arcadia's Postcard History Series where it more properly belongs. The author, Philip Edward Jaeger, is a local historian who frequently gave presentations on Montclair and other local communities. He also wrote an Images of America volume on Cedar Grove, New Jersey, a community slightly northwest of Montclair.
Jaeger is an inveterate collector of old postcards and offers images of about 200 cards from his large collection in this book. He also offers informative annotations on each photo. Most of these photos have never been gathered before in one place and it is fun and informative to see them. The problem is that the book doesn't contextualize the photos well in giving the reader a brief overview of Montclair, New Jersey. For a reader who doesn't know Montclair, the photos can be simply isolated and confusing. I have never been to Montclair but found the 1998 Images of America book while visiting elsewhere. I took the opportunity to read the book, as I do with many Images of America volumes. But I had to supplement my reading with other sources to get even a basic sense of Montclair and its location near New York City. As a result, this book will probably be of most interest to those familiar with Montclair and to those readers who enjoy exploring local histories through the Images of America volumes.
The author commendably provides a map of 1872 Montclair together with a walking tour that follows the general direction of his postcards. His postcard tour of old Montclair begins with the expansion of railroad service in the late 19th century with many fascinating postcards of trains, stations and street cars in the developing town. Subsequent chapters explore the businesses, schools churches, clubs and hotels,, residential streets, and town scenes in Montclair as shown in postcards from the 19th century through roughly the first third of the 20th century. Jaeger clearly loves and knows the details of the community. The subjects covered in the book are similar to those in many Images of America books about communities, but they are told exclusively through postcards.
The postcards are well chosen, clearly reproduced and well annotated. I enjoyed seeing many of them individually for the insight they offered about American town life. I was also pleased that Jaeger included a bibliography for those moved to learn more about Montclair. Thus while I enjoyed the postcards, this book didn't give me a real sense of the community as a whole and its development.
