New Jersey Museum of Agriculture

The New Jersey Museum of Agriculture was an American agriculture museum, located in North Brunswick, New Jersey, and focused on the evolution of agriculture in New Jersey.

The museum's exhibits included farm tools and machinery, household implements, scientific instruments, trade tools, farm vehicles, early electrical appliances and a general store. Other displays told the story of important agricultural crops in New Jersey, including apples, cranberries, tomatoes, blueberries, corn and potatoes.

History and operations

The museum opened in 1990 and was located on the campus of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences of Rutgers University at 103 College Farm Road.[1] It featured the collection of Professor Wabun C. Krueger, including the Deats plow, patented in 1828 by John Deats of Hunterdon County and manufactured by his son, Hiram Deats.[2][3][4] The museum was closed in 2011 due to state budget cuts.[5][6]

Part of the museum's collection of photographs of farms and barns in Monmouth and Mercer Counties were donated to the Monmouth County Archives.[7]

Building

After closing, the land and the 30,000 sqft building reverted back to Rutgers University and used for several years as classrooms and storage. From 2016 - 2019, the George Street Playhouse leased the building while their original location was razed for the construction of the downtown New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. In 2019, Rutgers announced plans to convert the building into a state-of-art Makerspace / Hackerspace hosting a variety of tools, CNC equipment, woodshop, metal fabrication, 3D Printing, textiles, commercial kitchen, and arts&crafts. In addition to serving University students, it will be available to public memberships similar to a gym model.

See also

References
  1. "Map of Former Agricultural Museum of New Jersey". Rutgers University. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  2. Soul, Louise (December 14, 1986). "State Agricultural Museum: A Collection Without a Home". The New York Times.
  3. Mautner, Lyn (December 17, 1989). "New Museum's Focus Is Agriculture". The New York Times.
  4. Barth, Linda J. (2018). "Deats Plow". New Jersey Originals: Technological Marvels, Odd Inventions, Trailblazing Characters & More. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 26–27. ISBN 978-1-4671-3926-7.
  5. Heyboer, Kelly (February 11, 2011). "N.J. Museum of Agriculture to Shut Down Due to State Budget Cuts". NJ.com. Retrieved July 9, 2016.
  6. Jackson, Miles (undated). "Fate of Ag Museum's Artifacts Remains Uncertain". American Farm Publications. Archived from the original on 2016-09-18. Retrieved July 9, 2016.
  7. "Louise Rosskam Collection". Monmouth County Archives. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
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