The balmy evenings of summer are just the right time to stretch your activities, your mind, and your body with outdoor yoga at the historic Updike Farmstead, home of the Historical Society of Princeton.
Gratitude Yoga is offering donation-based Vinyasa Flow classes on Wednesday June 5, 19, and 26 at 6 p.m., as well as on July 28 and August 25 at 3 p.m. All ages and levels are welcome. more
Children in Pre-K to third grade can be inspired by a reading of I Am Jim Henson by author Brad Meltzer at Princeton Public Library on Tuesday, June 4 at 3 p.m. in the Story Room. Participants will receive a free copy of the book to take home and can engage in a fun, hands-on activity. A reading of the book in Spanish will take place at 4 p.m.
The event is co-presented by The NJ4S Mercer Hub, which provides universal prevention programs that promote healthy living and overall wellness. more
Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope, Pa., offers classes and events related to gardening and natural habitats, such as the series Learn All About How and Why to Foster Native Plants in Your Landscape.
In the June 8 class, Focus on Ferns, Ed Lignowski, Ph.D., will show how to identify many native ferns as well as highlight their evolutionary history and unusual reproductive habits, their natural habitats, and usefulness in native plant gardens. more
If you are an armchair traveler, or prefer to go by car, you can take an audio tour and learn about the history, geology, and preservation of the Delaware River along a scenic and historic 40-mile route from Bordentown to the riverside towns of New Hope (Pa.) and Lambertville.
D&R Greenway Land Trust and TravelStorysGPS have teamed up to create “Seldom Told Stories of the Delaware River.” The TravelStorys apps use GPS technology to create hands-free, self-directed driving tours. Short, podcast-style audio tours are easy to download to your smartphone to hear authentic local lore and information about the river and its surroundings. Travelers can navigate from either northbound or southbound routes, or they can join at any point in between. Travelers can pause the story, leave the car to visit a site, and restart it when they return.
If you don’t feel like venturing out, take an armchair tour of “Seldom Told Stories of the Delaware” by visiting the TravelStorys tour page and clicking on “Explore This Tour Remotely,” and following the prompts. more
Do you have memories of summer camp — the fun and games and the competition? Join the Princeton Mercer Regional Chamber and relive the glory days of summer camp hosted by Iron Peak Sports & Events in Hillsborough on Thursday, June 27 from 5 to 7 p.m. But this time, there is career networking and team building added in.
Events will include duck pin bowling, cornhole, life-sized beer pong, arcade games, a high ropes course, rock climbing, and more.
Enjoy delicious food and drinks, included in the price of your ticket, as you connect with fellow young professionals. Dress comfortably and come ready to participate. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to blend the nostalgia of summer camp with the skill of networking at Camp Connect!
For more information, visit Princeton Mercer Regional Chamber.
Photo courtesy of Roebling Museum.
The Roebling Museum, once a gateway to a steel mill which welcomed thousands of workers to the company best known for its design and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, will be the site of a Steel Mill Street Fair on Saturday, May 18 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a rain date of Sunday, May 19.
The Roebling Museum tells the story of the town of Roebling, a company town built by John A. Roebling’s Sons Company, which built bridges, telegraphs and telephones, ships, elevators, and more, changing the industrial landscape of New Jersey. The Roebling Museum is located at 100 2nd Avenue, Roebling, and is next to the Roebling stop on New Jersey Transit’s River Line.
Formerly the Mary Bordentown Street Fair, the fair on the John A. Roebling Steel Mill site will have expanded food choices and new attractions, plus more time to enjoy the shopping, dining, and free entertainment expected at the event, which is hosted by the Burlington Mercer Chamber of Commerce. Performing will be Princeton’s School of Rock, as well as headliner The Successful Failures Band, and others. Planned are a tribute to the U.S. Armed Forces with a 10:30 a.m. parade, a “patriotic pet parade,” and a company town walking tour. More information is at Steelmillstreetfair.com. more
Every Thursday in May, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., Palmer Square is turning into an opportunity to support local nonprofit organizations and make a difference, one purchase at a time. When you visit a participating retailers and/or restaurants, 10 percent of all sales will be donated to the designated nonprofit of the week.
Live music and entertainment will greet shoppers, who are encouraged to bring gently used handbags, jewelry, and accessories to the Green for Dress For Success to collect them for women in need going to work or job interviews. Other organizations that benefit from your shopping include YWCA Princeton HomeFront, Womanspace, and Community Options. more
A trifecta of education, entertainment, and edibles: The West Windsor Community Farmers Market is collaborating with the Princeton Garden Theatre to show the movie Common Ground, and Cherry Grove Farm is offering cheese plates from its sustainable farm and creamery in Lawrenceville at the event on Thursday, May 16 at 7 p.m.
The documentry profiles a hopeful and uplifting movement of white, Black, and Indigenous farmers who are using “regenerative” models of agriculture that could balance the climate, improve health, and help stabilize America’s economy. Moderated by Scott Morgan of Morganics Family Farm, the film features actors including Laura Dern, Woody Harrelson, Jason Momoa, Rosario Dawson, and Donald Glover. more
Renowned furniture designer Mira Nakashima, head designer at George Nakashima Woodworkers in New Hope, Pa., was commissioned by the U.S. State Department to create a special piece of furniture for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the first Japanese leader to visit the U.S. as a state guest in nine years.
As she contemplated the design, Nakashima reflected on when she and her family were forcibly relocated to Camp Minidoka, an American internment camp for people of Japanese ancestry in Hunt, Idaho, from 1942-1943. Today, Mira, 82, a trained architect, has worked in the family business since 1970, producing her father George’s iconic designs as well as her own custom-designed, hand-crafted furniture. She also heads the Nakashima Foundation for Peace. more
Photo courtesy of New York Botanical Garden.
Cultivate your plant knowledge through the celebrated New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), which is offering online continuing education at its new Plant Studio. The NYBG, located in Bronx Park, New York City, suggests giving a course in plant nurturing as a Mother’s Day gift.
The “bite-sized” online courses in gardening, floral design, plant science, landscape design, are created for busy adults, designed with flexibility in mind. Courses vary in length, ranging from two to six weeks. Students will learn from an array of seasoned plant professionals through pre-recorded course videos; virtual tours of garden spaces that are often off-limits to the general public; and personal feedback on hands-on projects to shape their success — all in the comfort of their own remote spaces. more
Shown is “Moven, 1959,” by Dudley Morris (1912-1966), from the Morven Collection, a gift of Bayard Stockton III by his children and grandchildren.
Morven Museum & Garden has played a unique role in the history of New Jersey and the nation. Home to five governors and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Morven will soon feature some behind the scenes and lesser known stories of the historic home and its residents.
“Morven Revealed: Untold Stories from New Jersey’s Most Historic Home” will open to visitors on April 26, and run through March 2, 2025. The exhibit celebrates Morbven’s 20th anniversary as a museum — a time to delve into the collections and commemorate its past. The exhibit will show rarely exhibited objects and newly discovered photographs. more
Known for his role on the NBC television series Law & Order, award-winning actor Sam Waterston will speak to the Princeton University Class of 2024 on May 27 on Cannon Green.
Waterston, whose career has spanned more than five decades, has starred in countless television, film, and stage roles and has been nominated for Emmy, Academy, and Tony awards. In February he stepped down from his celebrated Law & Order role as district attorney Jack McCoy after appearing in more than 400 episodes since 1994.
At least two of Waterston’s roles have Princeton connections: he played Nick Carraway in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and played physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in a 1980 BBC miniseries. He also played Hamlet on Broadway, and Abraham Lincoln on stage and television. more
(Photos Courtesy of Mercer Museum & Fonthill Castle)
The Doan Gang roamed Bucks County, Pa., in the 1770s, and were known for exploits that included stealing horses and selling them to the British, robbing the Bucks County treasury, and in general, disrupting the new governments of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. Later romanticized, they were considered both villains and heroes.
Discover their untold stories at the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pa., beginning May 4 in a new exhibition, “The Doan Gang: Outlaws of the Revolution.” The museum delves into an immersive history of the Revolutionary War-era loyalists and a world of espionage, legendary robberies, and mythical lost treasure. Visitors will learn how these outlaws plotted, schemed, and plundered through a divided world in the early days of a new nation, and how their loyalty to British rule in the Colonies sometimes forced their neighbors and friends to choose sides during a time of great political and social unrest.
The Mercer Museum is located at 84 South Pine Street in Doylestown, Pa., and is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $15 for adults; $13 for ages 65 and up; $10 for students, $8 for youths ages 6-17, and free for children under age 5.
The member preview day is Friday, May 3. This special exhibition is included with museum admission. For more information, visit mercermuseum.org/doanprograms.
Dear Readers,
Welcome to your Spring issue of Princeton Magazine.
Experience Princeton, the new nonprofit group that is promoting Princeton and its merchants as a visitors’ destination, has “Bloom Local” as the theme for this season, and its logo is marked by some flowers. The same could be said for this issue of Princeton Magazine, for you will find that our writers have uncovered a wonderful array of new things to do and know about from our wonderful location in the middle of the Garden State. The other aspect of these discoveries is the uncovering of some unknown heroes and heroines related to each.
Since we see spring as being marked by new blooms, you will enjoy Ilene Dube’s story “Mad About Tulips,” which takes you all the way back to 1554 when tulips were introduced to Europe by the emperor to the sultan of Turkey, who sent the first bulbs to Vienna. It turns out that tulips have no scent, no taste, and the most beautiful ones are that way because of diseases, yet for centuries the tulip was a marker for wealth and today it is a critical component in the economy of the Netherlands. more
By Wendy Greenberg
A bronze statue of John A. Roebling in an armchair, with a diagram of a suspension bridge on his lap and books and blueprints beneath his chair, sits in the Cadwalader Heights neighborhood of Trenton. On one side, a relief panel depicts the Brooklyn Bridge — his masterpiece, referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World.
But the story of the Brooklyn Bridge, with its iconic suspension cables and arches, its design inspired by a church in Germany, is not one man’s work. In fact, its story also involves a woman: Emily Warren Roebling, the wife of Roebling’s son Washington. more
By Ilene Dube
“The tulips are too excitable,” wrote Sylvia Plath from a hospital bed where she’d been given a bouquet to help her recover from an appendectomy. They are “too red in the first place, they hurt me.… The tulips should be behind bars like dangerous animals.”
For Emily Dickinson, the tulip “put on her carmine suit.”
Erica Jong wrote:
Mother, you are far away and claim
In mournful letters that I do not need you;
Yet here in this sunny room, your tulips
Devour me, sucking hungrily.
Rare is the poet who hasn’t lavished the bell-shaped flowers with words.
Despite their effect on us, tulips are only the third most popular flower in the world, according to facts.net, after roses and chrysanthemums.
But several hundred years ago, the fever for tulips unleashed mass hysteria, resulting in a financial crash. People sold businesses, mortgaged homes, and invested life savings in flower futures. It has been compared to the cryptocurrency frenzy.
By Donald H. Sanborn III
Kenneth Lacovara
A fossil park and active research site in Mantua Township is the home of a soon-to-open museum that will use cutting-edge technology to offer visitors an unsparingly authentic glimpse into the distant past.
Rowan University’s Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park Museum will open this year in “early summer,” says its founding director, Kenneth Lacovara, Ph.D. Asked what he most wants the public to know about the museum, Lacovara promises, “It’s not like any other place in the world,” and visitors are in for an experience “like no other!” more
By Laurie Pellichero | Photo from Shutterstock.com
While traditional camps offer a wide variety of experiences for campers each summer, those with an affinity for the performing arts might want to consider attending a summer program that can enhance their talents while they enjoy the fun, adventure, and camaraderie of camp life. Here’s just a sampling of high-profile options across the country. more
By Stuart Mitchner
When 5-year-old Albert Einstein was sick in bed, his father gave him a compass. According to Curt Wilkinson in Words That Changed the World: Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (Laurence King 2020), the boy was “entranced by the invisible forces that attracted the needle, keeping it pointed to the magnetic north.” Six years later, Einstein was given a volume that he called his “sacred little geometry book.” In time the compass and the book became “two wonders” that roused his curiosity about the way the universe worked. more
By Taylor Smith
“When I was six, I had a chicken that walked backward and was in the Pathé News. I was in it too with the chicken. I was just there to assist the chicken, but it was the high point of my life. Everything since then has been anticlimax.”
—Flannery O’Connor
As the well-known Southern writer Flannery O’Connor states, there was just something unique and entertaining about her brood of fowl. Somewhat of a recluse and a complicated figure herself, these birds filled the void of human companionship and were reliable stalwarts during her eventual success as an author.
While some may research backyard chickens and chicken breeds singularly for the purpose of fresh and ready egg production, those that are attracted to the traits and tendencies of fancy chickens are most likely drawn in by their comical behaviors, odd feather placement, and pastel array of eggs. Just like regular chickens, fancy chicken varieties need tender loving care. However, once a bond is formed between owners and their birds, the chickens often become part of the family. Many backyard farmers are quick to point out how comforting and unique the relationship between children and fancy chickens can be. more
