NJ State Museum

     Saturday, April 23, 2022: The first time I visited the New Jersey State Museum, 205 State Street, Trenton (609-292-6464) was on a school trip in the 1960s, and my last trip to this museum was in 1994. Therefore, I felt that another visit had been long overdue! Starting on the lower level, I noticed that the planetarium wasn’t open, but I still looked at a state-of-the-art, half-globe/computer display that gave facts about the Earth, the Moon, the Solar System, and beyond, including space travel. Another area on this level covered the history and lifestyles of the local Native Americans, the Lenape, and of how their lives changed after the arrival of European settlers. Other sections in this area explained what became of them through the years, up to the current times via texts, pictures, dioramas, and exhibit items. Up on level one, I saw a gallery showing Civil War flags that NJ soldiers carried into battle, and a temporary gallery during the time I was there presented photos of African-American women. One section of the second level exhibited the natural history of NJ with pictures, texts, and display items showing rocks & minerals, plants, and animals—both extinct and non-extinct. Here, I also glanced at bones and taxidermy animals. A nearby temporary gallery gave detailed information about sharks. The other side of this level presented art from American artists of the 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-centuries in paintings and sculptures. Meanwhile, the museum’s shop was close by. Finally on the third or last level, the museum exhibited large objects: furniture, vehicles, machines, statues, tools, quilts, flags, etc. That was why the museum called this room “Pretty Big Things: Stories of NJ History.” Overall, I do recommend a visit here to receive a basic idea about NJ’s past—human, animal, vegetable, and mineral.