1209 Main St
River Edge, NJ 07661
USA
Thursday, February 18, 2016, 7:00 pm
Keeping Warm in Colonial New Jersey
Illustrated talk by Karen Reeds
Bergen County Historical Society, Steuben House
Historic New Bridge Landing
1209 Main Street, River Edge, NJ
In the mid-18th century, Peter Kalm, a naturalist and agricultural economist, left Sweden to explore America on behalf of the great Swedish scientist, Carl Linnaeus. During the two winters that Kalm spent in New Jersey, he was astonished to find that the weather here was no milder than in his Northern homeland -- and that the "houses were no warmer than barns." Thanks to his friendship with Benjamin Franklin, Kalm himself could stay warm by a Franklin stove. In this talk, historian of science Karen Reeds will draw on Kalm's sharp-eyed observations of American material culture and natural history to consider the ways early New Jerseyans kept from freezing to death.