My family and I decided to head out to the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, NJ. We also knew of Patriots Week happening at the Old Barracks Museum, which is just an 8 minute walk away. This trip was an opportunity for us to explore two museums we have never been to.
The New Jersey State Museum was a great experience for the whole family and they have a wide variety of exhibits and collections, ranging from Archeology & Ethnography, Cultural History, Fine Art, and Natural History. They also have a Planetarium, and we saw a show called “One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventure” for the kids. Since this is a history blog, the pictures that I display here will be from the Historical aspects of the museum.
The first exhibit that we saw was the The Civil War Flag Collection of New Jersey. New Jersey soldiers played a significant role in fighting for the Union Army during the Civil War. The flags displayed, as well as the artifacts in the museum remind us of the crucial role that they played.
We explored each floor of the museum. There were crafts for the kids and there were other sections devoted to New Jersey History, Native American history, and colonial history.
After our time exploring the New Jersey State Museum, we made the 8 minute walk to the Old Barracks Museum for Patriots Week. We stopped to take a picture in front of the WWII Memorial in Veterans Park.
We arrived at and explored the Old Barracks Museum. The Re-enactors at the museum are great. They are very friendly and explain the history of the Barracks which were built in 1758 to house the British Army during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The re-enactors explained what life would have been like for both the privileged officers, as well as the soldiers. We discovered that officers passed the time by playing cards and other games. We also discovered in the soldiers’ barracks that a room the size of my kids’ bedrooms would have housed between 12-16 men, 3 men per bed! The barracks would serve a variety of purposes during the American Revolution after it was captured by the Americans, including a place to house American troops and British prisoners, as well as a smallpox hospital.
While we were exploring the Barracks, soldiers gathered to line up and march over to the reenactment of the Battle of Trenton, which takes place between State Street and Mill Hill Park. We unfortunately didn’t get an opportunity to see the reenactment. It was taking place farther away from where our car was parked, which would have been a lot for the kids. We are hoping to see it in the future and will plan our day better than we did this time. The reenactment always takes place around this time in December to commemorate the Continental Army’s crucial victory on December 26th, 1776 at the Battle of Trenton, part of the Ten Crucial Days.
This was somewhat of a spur of the moment trip, but overall we had a good day. For next year, I’m hoping we can plan out Patriots Week better so that we can attend more events. The Old Barracks is a place I have wanted to see for a long time. It’s quite fascinating to see a building from 1758 in the middle of Trenton. There is rich history to explore there as it serves as a living history museum. For videos from the the Old Barracks Museum, follow my Social Media Pages. For more information on the two museums that we visited, check out the links below.
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