Metlar-Bodine House Museum & The Fellowship for Metlar House Historical Records

This project entails organizing, identifying, cataloging, and preserving the records of the history of the founding of the Metlar-Bodine House Museum and activities related to the sustainability of the museum through the the not – for -profit foundation The Fellowship of Metlar House. Records go back to the mid- to late 1970s with citizen activism related to saving the house from destruction by the NJ Department of Transportation through an array of events intended to engage and historically enrich the community and to raise funds for maintaining the house and museum to the 2003 fire that destroyed a third of the building and a quarter of the collection of area artifacts, restoration and continual recovery, through the present as it awaits for new construction of a gallery to house and exhibit an American Treasure artifact.
There are many parts to this project from which a student might choose based on interest and experiential development. For example, there are seven boxes of materials from a summer archaeology field school that the museum sponsored in 1998 and 1999 for adolescents (12-18 years of age) which included archeological excavations within the surrounding area. The material outcome of these field schools included archaeological samples, lab results paperwork, maps, photographs, newspaper publicity clippings, and more. Other examples include (1) materials generated from the restoration of the house and museum after the 2003 fire, including reports, photos, publicity, and videos; (2) materials generated from the involvement of the Piscataway Historical & Heritage Society in the 1970s; and (3) minutes, correspondence, etc. generated by The Fellowship of Metlar House (Board of Trustees, Executive Board, and Committees).