Museum Blog
Keep up to date with museum happenings! Posts are made by museum staff and interns.
Annabelle Hawke
Annabelle Hawke Annabelle Hawke was a teacher and principal at the Plainsboro School (now the J.V.B. Wicoff Elementary School) from 1935 to 1974. She attended Dutch Neck School, Princeton High School and Trenton State Normal School (now The College of New Jersey)...
Firmenich, Inc.
Firmenich, Inc. Admin & lab buildings, 1975.Buck Watlington working at a control panel for mixing equipment inside the original production building, c.1957.Buck Watlington and Cliff Rubicam (plant manager) standing next to production equipment. The cone...
Siemens Corporate Research, Inc.
Siemens Corporate Research, Inc. The following was written by members of the Plainsboro Historical Society, c. 1991: Siemens Corporate Research, Inc. is the U.S. research branch of Siemens A.G., western Europe’s largest electronics concern, employing 365,000 people...
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation The following was written by members of the Plainsboro Historical Society, c. 2003: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was founded in 1936 as a small local organization in New Brunswick by General Robert Wood Johnson. In 1972, after...
Plainsboro Today
Plainsboro Today By Pam Hersh, Anthony Cancro, Les Varga, and Teresa Carson Plainsboro Township has evolved from a placid agrarian to a high-energy suburban community with numerous world-class, for-profit and not-for-profit corporations and research facilities....
SnowFest 2021
SnowFest 2021 On December 12th, the Wicoff House Museum held its second annual SnowFest event! Along with the Youth Advisory Council, we celebrated the winter season with members of the public.Inside the museum, people wandered through brightly decorated exhibits and...
Lapidus Market
Lapidus Market In 1941, Sol and Ray Lapidus moved to Plainsboro from Brooklyn, New York. They purchased Quaker Stores, located at 515 Plainsboro Road, and turned it into Lapidus Market, the town’s first “Mom and Pop” grocery store. People could buy a variety of goods,...
AutumnFest 2021
AutumnFest 2021 On September 26th, the Wicoff House Museum held its AutumnFest 2021 event! Along with the Youth Advisory Council, we celebrated the harvest season with members of the public.To start off the day, we wished happy birthday to our volunteer, Rudy, who...
The Story of Elsie the Cow
The Story of Elsie the Cow By Mahathi Chinthapalli Cow Appreciation Day, occurring annually in July, is a day when cows are recognized and appreciated for everything they do. One cow that had a huge influence on thousands was Elsie the Cow. Elsie was no ordinary cow;...
World Milk Day
World Milk Day Today is World Milk Day! During the twentieth century, Walker-Gordon Dairy was one of the largest companies in Plainsboro and one of the highest quality milk producers in the country. In the 1890s, Dr. Thomas M. Rotch worked with Walker-Gordon to...
History of Trains in Plainsboro
History of Trains In 1862 the first train went through Plainsboro along the single-track Camden and Amboy Railroad. The increased demand for trains during the Civil War led to the expansion of this line and the construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Plainsboro....
New Virtual JHC Program
Virtual Junior Historians Club Become a member of the JHC!This 3-month program is self-paced and virtual. At the beginning of each month, participants will be mailed a packet of materials and secret codes to access videos on the museum website. Participants will...
Native American History Month: Settlements
Native American History:Lenni-Lenape Settlements As we continue the blog series talking about Lenni-Lenape Native Americans, we will begin to discuss their society. The Lenni-Lenape had a great civilization and a very organized community. Beginning with land, land...
Native American History Month: Culture
Native American History:Lenni-Lenape Culture November marks National American Heritage Month which we should all use as a time to learn, reflect and celebrate the history and the heritage of Native Americans. To commemorate this month, we will be sharing...
Giving Back to the Community
Giving Back to the Community The Wicoff House Museum and the Wicoff House Museum Youth Advisory Council haven always benefitted greatly from immense support of the community. The community always shows up to events in large numbers and helping with projects...
AppleFest
AppleFest A week ago from the time that I am writing this, the Wicoff House Museum held our fall harvest event, AppleFest. It was an afternoon filled with history, crafts and apple treats of all kinds. AppleFest was the second event that the Wicoff House Museum...
History of the House Museum
The Role of the House Museum When someone says the word “museum”, they probably think of the historic house museums they have visited throughout their community. The National Trust for Historic Preservation previously estimated that there are more than 15,000...
Haunted House Museum
Is the Wicoff House Museum haunted? As the seasons change and fall approaches, so does Halloween. The time of the year for all the ghosts and ghouls to come out. Over the past few weeks I have been in the museum alone during most of the day. While it can be...
Plainsboro’s Historic Bike and Car Tour
Discover Plainsboro's History This summer I led and worked on a project to create a car and bike tour for Plainsboro. The goal of this tour is to create a way for residents and tourists to visit local sites and learn about Plainsboro’s history and get to know the town...
Artifact Highlight: Wicoff Wedding Dress
A few of my favorite things Hey there, Julianne here again. I’m here to talk about some of my favorite artifacts in the Historic Wicoff House Museum collection. One of my favorite objects is the wedding dress of Lavinia Wicoff when she married John Wicoff. Mrs....
Meet the Team: Museum Program Coordinator
Get To Know Our Staff Hello all. My name is Julianne Tarrant and I am the Museum Program Coordinator at the Historic Wicoff House Museum. I graduated in May 2020 from Rowan University where I received my B.A. in History. In July, I started working at the Wicoff House...
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