YOUR VISIT
Our museum is home to thousands of objects, artifacts, and ephemera that chronicle life in Pascack Valley from the Lenape Indian days until the present. The scope of our collection is staggering—considering the size of the region we serve. Ranging from the tiny (a hat pin) to the enormous (a life-sized wooden horse) the artifact collection helps document Pascack Valley life.
The Pascack Historical Society is open to the public every Sunday from 1-4 and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to noon (excluding state and federal holidays). Museum admission is free, and all are welcome. You can find us at 19 Ridge Avenue, Park Ridge, N.J. (Ridge Avenue is off Pascack Road, one block north of Park Avenue West.) Parking is free on Ridge Avenue.
Group tours are available but should be arranged in advance. Inquire at [email protected] or (201) 573-0307.
Exhibits
Dutch Room
In our Dutch Room, step back in time to learn what items might have been in a Pascack Valley resident’s home 200 years ago. You will see a rope bed, cooking utensils, serving ware, spinning wheels, and many other items that could have been found in the household—including real wooden shoes from a Dutch farmer!
Typewriter Collection
“Through industry we flourish”—that’s the borough motto of Park Ridge, which once housed the world’s largest manufacturer of typewriter ribbon. The museum boasts an extensive typewriter collection that dates to the late 19th century.
Photographs
The photograph collection offers an amazing insight into life in the Pascack Valley. Subjects range from street scenes, farm life, early homes, people (known and unknown), businesses, school life, military life, community events, etc. Our photo collection is available for viewing during our regular visiting hours. Select photographs may be reproduced for a modest donation.
Colonial Corner
The United States was brand new, and just a handful of sandstone farmhouses broke through the wilderness to dot our local landscape. The Colonial Corner highlights some of the Pascack Historical Society’s oldest artifacts from the time Europeans settled the Pascack Valley. Visitors will get an up-close look at furniture, pottery, textiles, documents, currency, artwork and much more from the period of the late 18 th century.
Wampum Drilling Machine
The Pascack Historical Society has been sought out by scholars worldwide as the steward of the world’s only existing wampum drilling machine. Creating wampum--beads made out of shells, prized by the Indians for gifts and personal adornment--had been a seasonal craft among Pascack Valley residents for years before Park Ridge’s Campbell brothers revolutionized its production in the mid-19th century with the invention of their drilling machine. Today the wampum-making industry that existed locally is a cornerstone of the museum, where one can find information about the Campbell family, their wampum mill, early wampum-making tools, and even the Campbells’ business ledgers, which offer a precious glimpse into life in the Pascack Valley in the 19th century, and the families who lived here.
Victorian Parlor
Richly and abundantly furnished, the parlor was one of the most important rooms of the Victorian home. A place to bring guests, it would have contained the lady of the house’s most prized knick-knacks—and plenty of them. The Pascack Historical Society’s Victorian Parlor exhibit brings guests into the late 19th century with furniture, artwork and accoutrement of the period. The room also features the original organ from the 1873 chapel that now houses the museum, as well as a parlor stove that belonged to the Pascack Valley’s first physician.
Gift Shop
Everything for sale on our shelves has been donated by members and friends of the Society. You will find one-of-a-kind items, vintage and costume jewelry, china, art works, vintage glassware, history and art books, silver, ceramics, map reproductions, postcards, antique tools, small furniture, and odds and ends of every sort for old and young alike.
Research Library
Libraries contain the memory of mankind. Our Katharine P. Randall Research Library, named after a past president, is the repository of irreplaceable documents of all types (books, maps, videotapes, ephemera, photographs, oral histories, etc.). The library is open during regular visiting hours.
Costumes & Textiles
The museum’s lower level is home to a huge textile and costume collection featuring a large vintage bridal gown collection, men, women, and children’s garments, hats, and accessories, a prestigious military garments and accessory collection, quilts, coverlets, and linens of all types, a vintage handbag collection, and Civil War mourning garments. Artifacts from this collection can be viewed by appointment and for a small donation.