Voices From
Raritan Landing

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"There are no photographs of the village of Raritan Landing or of the people who lived there. We know their names from deeds of ownership for land, from advertisements they put in newspapers when they wanted to sell their property, from baptismal records kept by churches, and from their wills. By piecing together this kind of information, we try to imagine the lives they led at Raritan Landing. We can never know how closely what we envision resembles the reality of their lives, but the process of imagining helps us begin to understand the past. By making the people of Raritan Landing speak for themselves, we hope to bring you closer to understanding what their lives were probably like.

-Rebecca Yamin

"The past holds powerful stories for the present, but few of us know how to listen. The voices of individual people can speak to us today from diaries, account books, letters, and other documents. Scholars like Rebecca Yamin show us how to hear the stories those sources can tell. She has creatively used the first-person voice to bring to life some of the men and women of Raritan Landing. Classroom educators can use these biographies as models for students to follow. I wish to thank Dr. Yamin for writing these profiles that remind us that history is, first and foremost, the story of people."

- Anna M. Aschkenes, Executive Director, Middlesex County Cultural Heritage Commission

With the kind permission of the Middlesex County Cultural & Heritage Commission, the information in the "Voices" Web pages is taken from:

Voices From Raritan Landing...

"...an educational guide that is a component of LIFE in the RARITAN VALLEY: Cornelius Low, Commerce & Community, a comprehensive public history project, presented by the Cornelius Low House/ Middlesex County Museum. This educational guide was funded by the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission, and the New Jersey Historical Commission/ Department of State. Additional project funds were provided by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and the New Jersey Historic Trust. Rebecca Yamin wrote the first-person profiles, Patricia Ann McDermott edited and designed the publication."

To obtain a hard copy of the publication, please contact:
Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission
703 Jersey Ave
New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Raritan Landing Timeline