Teacher at Riverton School 1974-2019, author, amateur historian, Historical Society of Riverton Board Member 2007-2023, newsletter editor 2007-2023, website editor 2011-2023
Show your kids (or grandkids) Riverton and the Camden waterfront as they appeared in the 1950’s thanks to these rare color slides donated by Bruce Gunn. With a high-resolution scan and some minor photo editing, these look like they were just taken.
Click on the thumbnails for larger views. Look for the link to the full size view.
Riverton Children’s Parade c.1950’s
It’s hard to imagine that the everyday items, maps, and photos of the 50s, 60s, and 70s are the collectibles and antiques of today. Have you any to share? – JMc
Well, that’s right if you only count tomorrow, Sunday, Dec. 13 and next Sunday, the 20th, for your chance to buy a mug with vintage hometown images from our archives.
It seems that every shopper has a story to go with the mug they choose.
Nancy Hall recalls riding the train into Philadelphia to go to Pierce Business School. Hubby, Bill, wants a Japanese beetle mug.
I will put that on the wish list. Along with one – or more – about Dreer’s Nursery. I do love a project.
Everyone seems to have a favorite RYC mug (there are several variations on that theme).
Other Riverton landmarks include the Porch Club, Main Street, Golf Club, War Memorial, and more.
Vintage postcard views of Riverside, Palmyra, and Moorestown ornament mugs for our neighboring towns.
031 How Riverton’s Glorious Fourth Started
On a recent foray down to the RFL catacombs, Deb Lengyel suggested I make a July 4th mug.
Here’s a prototype – what do you think?
The central image, displayed here, which came from an old postcard owned by Nick Mortgu, shows the parade marching toward the riverbank.
Other mugs display images contributed, at least virtually, by Betty Hahle, Ed Gilmore, myself, and others. Dick Paladino’s RYC photo, displayed here, is the centerpiece for mugs #8 and #11. Several images are from a huge batch of postcards Deb Lengyel scanned for me in 2005, that belonged to an eBay seller.
My favorites are the ones based on maps. I bought a single page of an 1876 atlas on eBay a while back and turned that into mug #9. Phyllis Rodgers’ hand colored of an 1890 map Riverton is the basis for mugs #3, #10, and #30.
The point is, many hands over a long time have contributed to this enterprise that is only just becoming available now.
We have now caught up to Baskin-Robbins.
You know, with the 31 flavors. The “31 flavors” slogan was thought up to convey to customers they could have a different flavor every day of the month.
While we do not have every design on hand, we do still have a good choice of about 30 mugs from which to choose.
See the latest mug shot poster on our STORE page.
I will be at the Riverton Free Library used book sale from 1-3 if you want to come by to shop, or just tell a story.
Wait. I just found out Baskin-Robins has actually introduced more than 1,000 flavors. Do you have an idea for mug #32? – JMc
Need a gift idea? We have about 35 mugs featuring vintage images from our archives on hand and ready to go. See the samples in this earlier post.
I just sent in another order for shoppers who stopped in today at the Riverton Library’s used book sale. I will set up shop again next Sunday, Dec. 13, and again on Sunday, Dec. 20.
Questions? Please email rivertonhistory@gmail.com
If you have never ventured below stairs at the Library, come see a work in progress. We must get materials properly stored and cataloged. Then we can work out how to best display things. I do not have a timetable on when we would be open for visitors – there is still so much left to do.
Speaking of “left to do”… look for the November Gaslight News with a form enclosed for paying 2016 dues closer to Christmas. So make that a December Gaslight News.
P.S. Duval & Son, United States Soldiers at Camp “William Penn” Philadelphia, PA:”Rally Round the Flag, Boys! Rally Once Again, Shouting the Battle Cry of Freedom” (Philadelphia: Published by the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments, 1210 Chestnut Street), 1863. Chromolithograph with hand-coloring.
Learn how a church cemetery in Cinnaminson and a young black man from Riverton are linked to the decision to enlist African Americans into the Union army and to train them just across the Delaware River in Camp William Penn.
Jay Howard presents his findings to a well-attended meeting Jan 2014
We pass along notice of this event received from our friend, Jay Howard, of Palmyra’s Historical Society.
Readers will remember we mentioned here in 2014, that Jay and others have studied Civil War muster sheets and a donated diary gaining great insight into the part this area played in that conflict. Presumably, this new presentation grew from that research.
African American Soldiers in the Civil War – Trinity A.M.E. Church Cemetery, Camp William Penn, and Henry Poke
Presented by Donald Scott, author of Camp William Penn 1863-1865: America’s First Federal African American Soldiers’ Fight for Freedom, and Jay Howard, Palmyra Historical & Cultural Society
And guess where the pests made landfall after their trip across the ocean.
Riverton, NJ.
Yeah, you could google that. Riverton’s Wikipedia page mentions it under HISTORY. “In 1916, Japanese beetles, now a widespread insect pest in the United States, were first discovered in a nursery near Riverton.”
Apparently, they arrived in the grub stage some years prior, as they snuggled in the root balls of some iris plants imported from Japan bound for Dreer’s Nursery.
In the “We get letters” section on page 4 of the Oct. 2015 GN I introduced readers to Ken Frank, a Philadelphia physician who lives in “old” center
city Philadelphia.
Ken had inquired through this website if someone could show him where Dreer’s Nursery was when he would be visiting Riverton in July.
Would I? Yessss.
My wife Linda and I met Ken and his wife Sue at the Light Rail Station in mid-July and we gave them the fifty-cent tour.
Ecology of Center City Philadelphia by Kenneth D. Frank
A lot has happened since then.
His 29 chapter book, Ecology of Center City, Philadelphia, which takes a historical approach in examining the natural history of downtown Philadelphia, is now available in paperback and as a free PDF online.
Ken will speak at a meeting of the American Entomological Society in the library of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia on Wednesday, Dec. 2, about the centennial of the North American introduction of the Japanese beetle. The meeting starts at 7pm.
The Riverton contingent of Ken’s cheering section will consist of Nancy and Bill Hall, Jeannie Francis, my wife Linda, and me.
Bill Hall recalls some details about Japanese beetles in Riverton – says he used to be paid a bounty for catching them by the quart jarful.
Jeannie is a Master Gardener who not only has first-hand experience in dealing with the pests, she had relatives who worked at Dreers and knows some family stories passed to her about the beetles.
Get used to it because you can be sure it will occur to someone in this Centennial Year of the critter’s discovery in Riverton that it would be cute to have the story on the six o’clock news.
The meeting is free and open to the public. Enter the Academy through the door on 19th Street near the corner with Cherry Street, and the security guard will direct you to the meeting room. One parking lot that is close is on 19th Street, just across Cherry Street where the Academy is located. Find directions here.
If you have experience with battling Japanese beetles near here or can pass along a beetle anecdote, let me know below or comment on Facebook. – JMc
Just a short note to say I will be at the Library’s used book sale again on Sunday from 1-3pm so people who ordered mugs can pick them up. There is still a good choice of mugs on hand from which to choose. Wouldn’t one or two make a great gift?
Just lots of mugs with nostalgic reminders of Riverton, Palmyra, Riverside, and Moorestown.
Just closed up shop at the RFL used book sale. Like the proverbial hotcakes, the mugs are selling, and I am getting orders for more.
A previously placed order for 37 (about half already spoken for) may be here by next Sunday, Nov. 29. I will return then to the catacombs of the RFL with more mugs.
mugs to go
I still cannot thank anyone here by name for shopping with us because it is clear that Santa’s helpers are out in force early this year and we do not want to spoil surprises.
I can say that even with making 28 variations of mugs, someone always has another idea to suggest – like a vintage Fourth of July mug. Why didn’t I think of that?
Would a duster sailboat mug sell?
Have you another idea for a mug that would feature vintage imagery from our extensive image archive?
That huge image archive is the result of people making donations of actual postcards and photos to the Society, some eBay auction purchases on my part, as well my begging local history enthusiasts since 2007 for scans of their treasured collections. Such a number have obliged that our virtual acquisitions now far exceed our real collection. We can always use more.
FYI – available mug colors are light blue, blue, pink, red, white, black.
The HSR sincerely thanks all who have purchased our mugs. You know who you are.
Look for a late Nov/early Dec Gaslight News with a form included for paying your 2016 membership dues. – JMc
