The “Wish You Were Here” exhibit at the Monmouth County Historical Association, Freehold Borough, features postcards, photographs and memorabilia from around Monmouth County to highlight how summer was celebrated along the shore in days gone by. KAYLA MARSH/STAFF A new exhibit presented by the Monmouth County Historical Association takes a trip down memory lane to highlight how summer was celebrated at the Jersey Shore from 1870 to 1950.
“Wish You Were Here,” at the association’s museum in Freehold Borough, brings together postcards, photographs and memorabilia from around Monmouth County to show visitors how communities along the Bayshore and the Atlantic Ocean celebrated the summer years ago.
“I think what’s great about the exhibit is that it is very relatable for anybody who grew up in this area or who has vacationed at the shore,” said Deb Carmody, library assistant and curator of the new exhibit. “Anybody can come in and see something that may remind them of a vacation of their youth or remind them of last week’s vacation to the beach.”
Carmody said the exhibit covers four main themes: people who visited the shore; popular destinations and towns; hotels; and the steamboat industry, which was the main form of transportation used to go from New York City to the Jersey Shore during this time.
“There is so much to cover,” Carmody said. “From the 1860s to 1920s, this area was the host to a lot of the sort of grand hotels where politicians and show people and all sorts of wealthy citizens would come and vacation through the summer … but even though it was 100-plus years ago, they were doing the same kinds of things we would do at the beach today.”
One item on display is a still model that features a man’s bathing attire from around 1910.
“Bathing suits looked a little different,” Carmody said. “This piece is a men’s wool bathing suit from the 1910s or 1920s. … If you have ever put on a pair of wool socks or gloves, it’s kind of scratchy and I don’t think this was very comfortable at all … but that’s what they had at the time.”
Also on display are saltwater taffy boxes and memorabilia from the Keansburg boardwalk – including beach badges, tickets and tokens.
“Saltwater taffy is a staple of the Jersey Shore,” Carmody said. “The idea is to show a little bit about what life was life and to show things that you or a family member might remember.”
One item on display that Carmody said she hopes brings discussion from visitors is a ledger from the Eatontown Hotel from 1870 that has a signature of then-President Ulysses S. Grant.
“We have a note that in September 1870, President Grant stayed at the hotel,” she said. “I opened the book and I found the signature … so we thought this was really cool — an actual signature of a sitting president who was in our area.”
Upon taking a closer look at the signature, Carmody said it looks completely different from Grant’s known verified signature. “Instead of reading ‘Ulysses S. Grant’ it looks like it says ‘Useless S. Grant,’ ” she said.
After conducting some research, Carmody said she believes Grant did stay at the hotel in September 1870, but believes an assistant or another individual might have signed the ledger for him.
“He is known for staying in Long Branch, but he had a cottage in Elberon not far from Eatontown, so it is within the realm of possibility that he was in Eatontown at that time,” she said. “We pulled up his actual signature – his known verified signature – so we are kind of inviting the public to come in and look at it, compare it and see what they think.”
Monmouth County Historical Association Director Evelyn C. Murphy said she appreciates how the pieces are featured, which can challenge visitors to question and think about what they already know.
“History is not static,” Murphy said. “We don’t know everything about history. … Our knowledge is always growing and changing and that is something I think is really interesting about history.”
Also included in the “Wish You Were Here” exhibit are postcards and photographs of the steamboats that plied the shore and a number of locally written books about the county’s shore towns.
Books about the Jersey Shore and postcards are available for purchas, with all proceeds benefiting the historic association.
The exhibit will run at the museum through Labor Day weekend.
“We hope the exhibit will tell a story, promote a little bit of dialogue and invite people to think about history and what their opinions are about it,” Carmody said.
The Monmouth County Historical Association’s Museum and Library are at 70 Court St., Freehold Borough. Museum hours are Tuesdays through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The library is open Wednesday through Saturday. For more information about the organization, visit www.monmouthhistory.org.