Since the development of photography in the mid-nineteenth century, the camera has been used as a tool of both discovery and preservation. Photographs bring alive our picture of the past and can open a floodgate of memories and nostalgia or inspire curiosity and a sense of history.
Collected in this delightful visual history are over 200 photographs, which bring to life the rich and diverse history of Lawrence Township, New Jersey, from the Victorian era to the Great Depression. Some of the best and most telling images are those which simply give us a picture of "how things used to be," which seem to have frozen for posterity a moment of a certain way of life, which has long since disappeared. In this exploration of daily life throughout Lawrence Township we see a barge landing at Port Mercer, a blacksmith shoeing a horse in Slackwood, people from all walks of life at work and play. In the faces of these people we can see how a strong community spirit helped Lawrentians to adapt to the changes of the twentieth century.
