I recently revisited the African Museum of Art on the SMA Father’s and on this trip really took my time to learn about the Mission and study the art in the various displays. Each country that the Mission is involved with is represented here with detailed information on the meaning of the art and its purpose. It is an interesting approach to understanding the culture of each of these countries.
The beautiful stained glass windows line the ceiling and walls and has a beautiful effect in the room on a sunny day.
The sculpture in the middle of the main hall
The History of the Museum:
(From the museum website)
This museum was established in 1980 and is one of the only rare few in the United States dedicated solely to the arts of Africa. Its permanent collections, exhibited on a rotating basis, offer a unique advantage in the study and research of sub-Saharan sculpture and painting, costumes, textiles and decorative arts, religion and folklore.
The main hall of the museum
The history of the Mission
The history of the Mission
The history of the Mission
The African Art Museum of the SMA Fathers is one of five museums around the world founded and maintained by the Society of African Missions, an International Roman Catholic missionary organization that serves the people of Africa.
The display case that line the main hall
The display case that line the main hall
The art works up close
The descriptions of the works
The display case that line the main hall
Some of the works up close
The description of the masks
The display case that line the main hall
The museum is the continued vision of SMA’s founder, Bishop Melchior de Marion Bresillac (1813-1859). The French-born clergyman urged his Society to respect and preserve the culture of the peoples they serve, the unique among the missionaries of his time. (This information is provided by the museum).
Some of the works being featured in the exhibition
Their current exhibitions is on the “Africanizing of Christian Art” which shows the 20th Century encounter between Catholic Christianity and the visual culture of the Yoruba, a prominent west African people of southwest Nigeria under the conditions of late colonization (This information provided by the museum).
The hallway off the main room
Linking the walls of the main room are wooden carved doors from a palace in Africa. The interesting detail work tells it own story.
The description of one of the doors
Panel One
Panel Two
Panel Three
Panel Four
The collection contains many works in the form of masks, textile work, religious figurines and decorative arts. Each display case shows a different theme in the art.
The works of art in the cases
The puppets in the case
The works of art lining the cases
The engaging Mask collection
The museum is the main hallway of the church. I found it a quiet place where you could really concentrate on the beauty of the art. It grounds are also nice to walk around in in the nice weather.
The Chapel just off the museum is interesting to visit. I wondered how many people came to serve here and how the service was performed.
The main chapel of the mission
The beautiful stained glass windows in the chapel
The museum is a true hidden gem of wonderful and interesting testimonial and contemporary art. An inspiring museum if you take the time to really enjoy it.
The Lyndhurst Historical Society at 400 Riverside Avenue
The Lyndhurst Historical Society is an interesting look into the early history of both the town of Lyndhurst, NJ and Bergen County. The museum shows how we moved from the agricultural era to the modern era in just one generation. The growth of the county really accelerated after the Civil War into the 1920’s.
Lyndhurst Schoolhouse grounds
The Lyndhurst Schoolhouse historic marker
A child’s statue in the gardens on the grounds of the museum.
The building itself is built on the original 1804 school house that was torn down for the newer one built in 1893. The unique part of the museum’s history is that the building was used as a school house for third graders in the town until 1980.
The museum’s school display
The museum is a treasure trove of memorabilia from the town’s past. One part of the museum is set up as an early school room with desks, blackboards and a whole teacher’s work area while the other side of the display is a nurses office for the kids.
The history of the school over the past hundred years.
The history and school pictures surrounded the display.
What is unique about the museum is that the original bell to call the children for school is still located on the top of the building and the bell can be accessed by the string in the coat room. They even let you ring the original school bell that has been in place all this time.
School nurse display
The original built in chalk boards exist with artwork that had been left on them from the 20’s that have now been preserved. What is interesting about them is that they had been covered up since the 1930’s and a child had drawn out in colored chalk two children’s fairy tales that have now been preserved. They had been hiding under the new chalkboard after the renovation for over fifty years.
The Little Red Riding Hood chalkboard drawing
The Three Bears chalkboard drawing
The other side of the floor plan is items from the 100th Anniversary of Lyndhurst. This had happened a few years earlier and the display is very prominent when you walk in. There is a lot of pride in this town.
The displays are related to the celebration with displays on businesses that have been in town for many years, Indian relics that were found in the town and memorabilia. Even the basement bathrooms are from the 1920’s and still work!
Music display and heating the school house
The big exhibition in the museum was the history of the ‘Lyndhurst High School Marching Band’, its past events and the teachers who run the program now. They have a very talented Music Department.
The History of the Lyndhurst High School Marching Band
The other big display was the ‘Kingsland Explosion and Fire’ that had occurred over twenty years ago and it is part of the permanent collection. It was interesting to see how it happened, how it was put out by the fire department and the history of the company.
The Kingsland Explosion and Fire Exhibition
This was a new exhibition that the museum is featuring in the Winter and Spring of 2025 on the history of the Lyndhurst Fire Department. This had unique items from the fire service donated by firefighters from the Lyndhurst Fire Department:
‘The History of the Lyndhurst Fire Department’ exhibition
The exhibition on ‘The History of the Lyndhurst Fire Department’
This exhibition will on display through the Spring of 2025.
Lyndhurst Historical Society:
(from the museum website)
The Lyndhurst Historical Society is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of local historic sites and the promotion of community pride in our history and traditions.
In 1984, a group of local citizens formed the Lyndhurst Historical Society. One of the Society’s early projects was to restore the “Little Red Schoolhouse” on Riverside Avenue and establish a museum in the schoolhouse for the exhibition of local history memorabilia.
The School Nurse cabinet in the schoolhouse
With community support as well as county and state grants, the Society’s goal to open the Schoolhouse Museum to the public was achieved in 1993.
The Society meets regularly on the third Wednesday of each month (except July and August) to…
*plan and present educational programs and workshops of historical interest.
*raise funds to meet the goals of the organization.
Active members and supporters are vital to the success and growth of the Lyndhurst Historical Society.
The history of the Lyndhurst Historical Society Museum
We welcome:
*those interested in membership.
*anyone wishing to volunteer time.
*offers of financial support (all memberships and donations are tax deductible in accordance with IRS regulations).
Lyndhurst Historical Society Museum grounds
Little Red Schoolhouse History:
(from the museum website)
A one room schoolhouse crowned by a bell, symbolizes a simpler time, 19th and early 20th century America.
In 1804, Jacob Van Winkle presented a strip of land to the school trustees for the construction of River Road School (“The Little Red Schoolhouse”). The yearly rent was one peppercorn if demanded. Thus was born the first known public school system of southern Bergen County. A subsequent building was erected in 1849. In 1893, the present school was built and used for classes until 1980.
Old Class pictures at the museum
The Township purchased the school in 1984. It was leased to the Lyndhurst Historical Society in order to preserve this landmark, now more than a century old, for future generations to appreciate and to use as a local museum.
Lyndhurst Historical Sites:
The Little Red Schoolhouse is one of three historic sites in Lyndhurst.
Just south of the Schoolhouse is the Jeremiah Yearance House, circa 1841. Years ago, teachers assigned to the School often boarded at the Yearance House during the week because the commute by train to their permanent homes would be too long.
One block north of the Schoolhouse is the Jacob Van Winkle House, built in 1797. Van Winkle presented the property for the Schoolhouse in 1804. River Road School is joined by the Van Winkle and Yearance Houses on both the National and New Jersey registries of historic places.
Historical Events & Trivia:
Did you know…
*Lyndhurst was once called Achter Kol?
*The town has three sites on both the New Jersey and National Historic Sites Registry?
*January 9, 2004 marked the 200th anniversary of the deeding of the land to the school house?
*Lewandowski Commons is named for the brothers killed in World War II?
*Palazzo Corner, built in 1905 and located at 262 Ridge Road, was used as the town’s first police state and court clerk’s office?
*The Jacob Van Winkle House, now the Masonic Club is the oldest building in Lyndhurst?
Events sponsored by the Lyndhurst Historical Society include:
*festivals
*re-enactments & historical portrayals
*cultural, artistic and musical presentations
*educational lectures
*bus and walking tours of Lyndhurst
Schoolhouse Museum Information:
The museum is located on the corner of Fern and Riverside Avenue, is open to the general public on the fourth Sundays of each month from 2:00pm to 4:00pm.
Group tours can be arranged at any time by reservation for schools, organizations and individuals. A visit includes a tour of the Schoolhouse, its exhibits and a presentation of local history by one of the Society’s docents. Call (201) 804-2513 for further information on museum tours and special events.
Disclaimer: The second part of the this information was taken directly from the Lyndhurst Historical Society’s pamphlet. The Little Red Schoolhouse is open from 2:00pm-4:00pm on the last Sunday of each month or by appointment only. Please plan accordingly.
In November of 2024, I had my Introduction to Business at Bergen Community College in Paramus, NJ create a Destination Tourism project for the museum. This is their project:
It was going to be a tight project as we only had five weeks to pull it off and we had Thanksgiving Weekend break in the middle of the project. I created one less Team and gave them a fair amount of work to develop and then we started the project.
I had an extra credit Team Field trip to the museum that Sunday and about a third of the students showed up. The museum is a one room schoolhouse so it is easy to tour.
Team members touring the museum on the extra credit trip
Touring and planning ideas in the museum’s backyard and gardens
The next week during class time, I took the students on a more formal tour and lecture on the museum where they met with the Museum Board, their volunteers and it was time to ask questions and view the museum from the vantage point of how to we promote this museum and how can we bring people in from outside the Bergen County area.
First we met with the staff at the museum on class night
We started with a discussion of the museum, its history and its direction in the community. We also got to meet the Volunteer Board of the museum.
Then we toured the museum
The Kingsland Explosion Fire display
Going over the project steps with the Museum Board
Our Team picture with the Museum Board of the Lyndhurst Red Schoolhouse Museum
Here is the Marketing Team Project that was created by the students:
The next week on December 12th, 2024, the students presented the project to myself, the Board and members of the Lyndhurst Schoolhouse Museum and to parents and other invited guests. For a four week project, the students did a good job.
The Bergecco-Parc Corporate Website for the Lyndhurst Schoolhouse Museum Team:
Team Two presenting their Holiday events to the Board
Team Two presenting their Holiday events budgets
Team Three making their presentation
The Lyndhurst Schoolhouse Museum Team at the end of the presentation
At the end of the Presentation, we had a Q &A with the Board of the Museum, who really loved the ideas that the students came up with and how creative they were with such a small museum. The President even admitted to me that she, like all the other museums I worked with this semester, would miss having the students visiting and touring the museum. That made me feel good, that in some small way we made a difference.
This interesting little ‘gem’ is located up on the hill next to Blauvelt Mansion and is easy to miss. You will see the signs as you drive past it.
Open: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday: 10:00am-4:00pm/Saturday and Sunday: 2:00pm-5:00pm
Fee: Free donations accepted
The Blauvelt Art Museum is funded by the Blauvelt-Demarest Foundation and is a member of the New Jersey Association of Museums, the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums and the American Association of Museums.
The Blauvelt Art Museum was established in 1957 by the Blauvelt-Demarest Foundation, a legacy of the late Hiram Blauvelt, philanthropist, conservationist and collector. Through the contribution of his private wildlife art and big game collections, he hoped to promote the cultural value of wildlife art and the need for conservation of its subject and their habitats.
The fountain outside the museum
The entrance to the museum.
During the early part of the 20th Century, wildlife was believe to be abundant. Many dedicated conservationists, notable Theodore Roosevelt, gathered animals from their natural habitats for museums. The beauty of the animals could then be viewed by many.
The entrance to the museum.
Like Roosevelt, Hiram Blauvelt realized the value of his collection and wanted to share it with the public. It was his interest and desire to share his far ranging adventures, his stories of explorations and his collection of these animals. Hiram hoped to educate the coming generations to the diversity and beauty of the wildlife kingdom. He especially wanted to enlighten the public to the challenges we face to preserve the marvels of wildlife and their natural environments.
The interesting artwork by the carriage house of pelicans.
The Pelican art outside the museum.
Founded in 1957 as a natural history museum, it introduced students, scouts and youth groups to the need to support wildlife and habitats conservation. Visiting artists created drawings and paintings from close observations of the specimens.
Embracing Penguins outside the museum dedicated to Wildlife Art.
Twenty-five years later, the Board of Directors of the Blauvelt-Demarest Foundation decided that the original objectives would be best achieved by redesigning the museum to feature the works of contemporary wildlife artists, built on the artistic foundation of the Blauvelt’s early collection of works by Charles Livingston Bull (notably a resident of Oradell at one time), Carl Rungius and a complete Audubon Folio of birds of America.
The interesting wildlife artwork just outside the museum.
The Blauvelt Museum, located in an 1893 cedar shingle and turret carriage house, underwent extensive renovations to accommodate its new and expanded mission. The original carriage house was re-designed to include a large reception area, 4 mini galleries and museum offices, all with original materials from the historic building and preserving its aura.
The Blauvelt Art Museum lion statue “Fides et Virtus” by artist Aaron Yount outside the museum.
Four new galleries were added, providing wall space for mounting museum quality flatwork and generous room for pedestals to hold creative sculpture. Substantial artificial lighting is augmented by natural light from the north.
High on a hill overlooking the Hackensack River, the Oradell Reservoir and parklands to the east, the entrance to the museum is through a curving stone and slate terrace, framed by large oak trees and other indigenous foliage, which serves as a natural sculpture garden.
The open air museum just outside the museum itself dedicated to wildlife art.
Many of its visitors today, accompanied by their children, are revisiting the museum which they first visited with their parents in past decades. The Blauvelt treasures their comments remarking on the greater beauties of its collections, while preserving the ambiance of their memories.
The inside galleries of the museum (from their Facebook page).
Artist in Residence:
The Blauvelt Art Museum established an Artist-in-Residence program in 1985. Artists were selected on the basis of their artistic ability and promise and on their commitment to the museum’s mission for the need for conservation to protect wildlife and their habitats. The museum provides a furnished home for the artist on the museum property, including a studio, painting supplies, etc. Artist-in-Residence have given lectures, led round table discussions, visited schools and demonstrated painting and drawing techniques.
The Carriage House from the outside.
The Current Exhibition (2018):
Artist Brian Jarvi’s African Menagerie is showing right now and the collection has some very interesting and detailed pieces on Mr. Jarvi’s visits to Africa. Don’t miss this exhibition!
The Blauvelt Museum is on the Blauvelt-Demarest Estate.
Disclaimer: This information was take directly from the pamphlet provided by the Blauvelt Art Museum. Please call the museum for any changes to their time schedule and don’t miss the current exhibition.
I have visited this interesting small history museum a few times and they do a wonderful job in presenting their displays with interesting facts catering not just to a local crowd, but anyone interested in history and events.
The one-room schoolhouse, built in 1872, operated as a public school until 1905. It was part of the district school system formed in 1864 or 1865, which was geographically defined rather than by township. It was operated as School District No. 45. When the towns incorporated in 1894, that district system was dissolved, and the school became part of the Ridgewood school district.
The Ridgewood Schoolhouse Museum’s permanent collection
Tradition has it that the original land grant to the Dutch Reformed congregation from Pierre Fauconier and his daughter, Magdalena Valleau, stated that room should always be given upon the church land for a school. We know that a small school building opened in 1785. A second stone school was built in 1820 and eventually replaced by a frame structure in 1845.
Eventually the present schoolhouse was built in 1872 at a cost of $4600.00. It is likely that other schools existed on the church property from the time the church was built in 1735 to 1785, for the consistory assumed responsibility for education and the exact time when that responsibility was handed over to the public is not known.
The large bell summoned children from miles away to school each morning. The original belfry is gone but the bell stands in the entryway. It was used in other schools and a church after the school closed in 1905 but was returned to the historical society in 1977.
The original entry was divided into separate entrances and cloakrooms for boys and girls. The potbelly stove is original as are the windows and the two central lamps. The black boards around the room have been removed except for one behind the teacher’s platform.
There is a recreation of the old schoolhouse when you walk into the museum
When the Historical Society started the museum, the privy building was attached to the main building to provide more display area. In their special display area, they have an exhibition space for farming and a local comedian.
The schoolhouse display
In April 2018, they have a very interesting exhibition call “The Thread of Life” which tells the story of family’s progression in home life from the end of the Civil War until the beginning of the Depression and times changed between the Civil War and WWI. Between the Victorian Era, the sinking if the Titanic and the devastation of WWI, the baby boom of the teens and the ‘Roaring Twenties’ with the stock market built changed the attitudes.
The way of life for an entire generation until the Great Depression put a halt on it. You can see the changes of behavior in the displays of clothes and household decor. It is an interesting display.
A Morning Outfit during the Victorian Age
Union Army outfits and display for the “Civil War” artifacts
They also have an ongoing exhibition of farm equipment and a continuation of their “Farming in Bergen County” exhibition that just closed before this show. This is how farmers of Bergen County produced their crops.
Dutch items in the collection
The Blauvelt, Zabriskie and Haring families are known farming family names in Bergen County and were important in business and politics during the after the Revolutionary War.
The “Farming and Agricultural” display
Also, see their ‘Halloween Cemetery Walk” in my blog, “MywalkinManhattan.com” entry “This is Halloween” Day Ninety-Six, October 31, 2017. Don’t miss it this year!
Day Ninety-Six: This is Halloween-MywalkinManhattan.com:
The Cemetery Walks in October are extremely popular
Don’t miss the “Here comes the Brides” exhibition that just opened up in May of 2019. It shows the history of formal wear for weddings along with accessories, menswear, invitations and even cakes toppers.
‘Here comes the Bride’ Exhibition 2019
In July of 2020, as Phase Three of the Opening in the State of New Jersey, the Museum is now open from 2:00pm-4:00pm for viewing with a new exhibition “A” is for Artistry: Celebrating Centuries of Art, Artists & Creativity”. The exhibit is a combination of local donated art and heirlooms from Ridgewood and the surrounding towns.
The Exhibition “A is for Artistry”
There are interesting displays of early photography and portrait painting as a way of preserving a persons’ image for the future. The use of oil painting, tin and then photo ‘sittings’ came in vogue as the technology changed.
Portraits were the form of imagetry before photography was invented
There was an interesting display of Children’s toys from the handmade farm toys of clay and corn husks to the fancier toys of bisque and cloth when imports and specialty toy stores were created for children’s playthings. They even had a collection of the famous “Punch & Judy Dolls”.
The Punch & Judy Dolls at the “A is for Artistry” exhibition
Children’s playthings over the last two hundred years
Another standout of the exhibition was the display from General Westervelt, a local citizen of Bergen County whose shipping expertise helped the North during the Civil War. His use of navigation and sailing was a detriment to the South and there was a $1000.00 bounty on his head. He died during the Civil War.
The “Object Lessons-Treasures that tell our Stories” exhibition
In 2022, when the Museum reopened after a long closure with COVID, they opened with two exhibitions: One was “Object Lessons-Treasures that tell our stories”, in which household objects, farming equipment and all sorts of artifacts from the pre-Revolution, Revolutionary War and Civil War periods were shown. It showed the progression that life took for families between the Revolutionary War and the beginnings of the Victorian Age.
“American Revolutionary War” display
They had local Dutch family heirlooms such as chests, cabinets, china, clothing and even documents. The average Dutch family kept their family linens, china, silver and bedding in a locked chest as these were valuable family luxuries that needed protection and proper care.
Dutch Chest with family items that were locked up.
There was a “Lincoln display” at the museum. They had a copy of the poster from the night that President Lincoln was assassinated at Ford Theater during the performance of “My American Cousin”. There was a family shot of the Lincoln family and items from the period.
The “Lincoln Display” that showed an original poster from “Our American Cousin” the night Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.
The other exhibition was “Toying with the Past: Antique Toys & Games”:
Toying with the Past was an interesting exhibition in that it showed how much toys have developed and changed over the years and how much they have stayed the same. There was a beautiful collection of china and bisque dolls, some that were made as playthings and others used as marketing tools to show women the latest fashions coming out of Europe. The dolls would be dressed in the dressmakers’ newest designs.
The Doll Collection is beautifully displayed
There were older versions of modern board games, everyday items like marbles and Jaxs. There were kitchen-based items that a little girl might be given to improve her domestic skills and there was even an early version of an “Easy Bake Oven”, with an electric oven that could be plugged in and boil water.
The items a young girl would receive to prepare her for homelife
Fancy rocking horses and dolls
Vehicles and Board Games that sparked children’s imagination
More dolls and vehicles over the last 100 years
There was also all sort of toys on wheels and rocking horses that could entertain a grumpy child for hours. They even had a selection of play clothes and school items to show what classroom work was like at the turn of the last century.
Childhood was changing for young people after the Civil War and during the Victorian Age
The Latest Exhibition that was on display in April 2023 was the “History of Hats” that replaced the Toy exhibiton:
Hats from all ages
Men’s hats through the ages
Military Hats
General’s Hat
Ladies bonnets
‘Fashion of the 1880’s’
Special Events and Lectures at the Museum:
Don’t miss their ‘Cemetery Walks’ during the day. I took one recently at the old Dutch Reformed Church and we discussed the history of the church, the location of the old church versus the building of the new one, which is why the cemetery looks the way it does and the locations of the tombstones as well as how time and advancement in carving went from sandstone, which fades and chips over time when to the production of granite and marble for future tombstones.
The Cemetery Walks in Valleau Cemetery across from the museum
The cemetery is filled with names famous and prominent in Bergen County and North Jersey history which includes participation in the wars and the building of Bergen County including the Westervelt’s, Van Riper’s, Haring’s, Zabriskie’s, Terhune’s, Demerest’s, Blauvelt’s and Tice’s families. It is a fascinating place to learn Bergen County history and its development.
The Cemetery Tours that take place the week before Halloween are interesting as well. The paths of the Valleau Cemetery in Ridgewood are lined with candles and you follow the path with the town historian who takes you on a creepy tour of the famous dead residents of Ridgewood. These include prominent athletes, business people and local laborers. You pretty much tour about a third of the cemetery as you move from one tombstone to another met by costumed actors, who they themselves have to sit in the cemetery in the dark waiting for you. That is a horror movie into itself.
The Valleau Cemetery Walk and Lecture
The best part of the tour is you are greeted at the museum with a tour of the museum and a table laden with fresh apple cider and cider doughnuts that make the perfect refreshment on a cool fall evening. Make sure to take the 7:00pm tour when it is dark out and make the reservation well in advance as these tours fill up fast.
Taking the Cemetery Tours is interesting!
Don’t miss their upcoming tours for Halloween, Christmas and their lecture series.
Please check out the museum’s website for all their very original special programming.
The museum’s latest acquisition, a Native American on horseback
For the 2024 Northwest Bergen Historic Coalition Day, I visited the museum again and they were having an exhibition entitled “It’s Personal-100 years of obsolete Everyday Essentials”. It made me feel old when I saw a rotary phone, ink well and some of the other items that were in the exhibit. Some of them were from my generation and I do not consider myself old.
The sign from the “It’s Personal” exhibition.
The entrance to the Ridgewood Schoolhouse Museum for the “It’s Personal” exhibition
The Ridgewood Schoolhouse Museum “It’s Personal” exhibition.
The Ridgewood Schoolhouse Museum “It’s Personal” exhibition.
The Inkwell display at the “It’s Personal” exhibition to be replaced by the modern pen.
The Sewing Kit at the “It’s Personal” exhibition to be replaced by the modern sewing machine than by Ready to Wear clothing.
The Vanity which is still in use depending on the person in the “It’s Personal” exhibition.
The development of the phone and then the change to the modern cell phone in the “It’s Personal” exhibition.
The exhibition was interesting because its takes the modern perspective of the development of objects and their use over the last 100 years and show them with a modern twist on how times continue to change.
blauveltartmuseum.com
