Perhaps it is a story being told by the docent as you make your way through the halls; videos strategically placed throughout that bring different displays to life; or maybe it’s the pieces alone that connect with you. Everyone engages with museums differently, but all have the ability to take you back, pull you in and open your mind.

In the September issue of Princeton Perspectives, Special Collections: Art, History and Culture in our Midst, we share some of the unique offerings on display around our area. They extend from traditional to esoteric, including historic homes and artistic enclaves. While some consider themselves “museum people,” others need an extra attraction to draw them in. Around here, there seems to be something for everyone.

What has been your most meaningful museum experience? We asked people in downtown Princeton to share their stories, and they are quite intriguing. Watch this month’s Pulse of Princeton to get inspired for your next museum trip.

If, as described above, you are not a traditional museumgoer, it is time to head across the river. The article A Unique Opportunity to Go Back in Time at Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle takes you inside the mind, home and museum of Hugh Chapman Mercer. Unique and quirky, he was an artistic and historic genius who enabled people to learn for generations. He also built what is now home to the Bucks County Historical Society, with a research library spanning back for centuries.

To ensure its history is saved, and soon back on display for all to see, The Hopewell Museum is rebuilding. Reimagining The Hopewell Museum provides a glimpse at some of the treasures it has salvaged, how it has done so, and the ways it hopes to share them for years to come.

Speaking of rebuilding…it shared beautiful and renowned works of arts for more than a century, and now, after years of construction, another museum hopes to offer even more. A New Princeton University Art Museum is Opening for Visitors is an article about what sets this new museum apart, and how you can indulge in it all.

In some instances it is the structure itself that is the most historically significant. You may have driven by it many times and not realized the history that lives on here, so the article Rockingham and its Historic Visit by Washington informs about what happened before, during and since George Washington’s stay at this special home.

Speaking of homes, you must have electricity or gas to keep yours cool in the summer and warm in the winter month, turn the lights on and more. This month’s Perspectives Revisited provides insight on recent bill increases that have many concerned. We also share how you can get the most out of Hispanic Heritage Month, going on right now.

Your homework, if you’ll take it, is to pick one local museum you have never visited and make a plan to do so. Whether outside to enjoy the elongated summer weather, or an indoor one for a cooler day. The greater Princeton area offers something for everyone. Take your pick!

Around an historic area like Princeton, there are many relics of the past worthy of saving, witnessing and celebrating. Many are stored in museums to last well into the future. While we could spend days talking about the numerous museums located just in Princeton and Mercer County (and we do discuss some in other articles of this issue!), we want to highlight one located just across the river in Bucks County.

Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle, located in Doylestown, PA, are visited by a combined 95,000+ visitors each year. All come to see, touch and learn from over a century of history initiated by Henry Chapman Mercer in the early 1900s, as well as even more from Bucks County archives.

Mercer (of no relation and not to be confused with General Hugh Mercer, the namesake for Mercer County, NJ) was ahead of his time. Most well known as a tile designer, he was also an historian, amateur architect, collector and curator. Whereas many people keep things in our homes that one day could be perceived as precious or unique, Mercer took collections and his talents one step further. He built himself a castle-style home, Fonthill Castle, and nearby decided to then build Mercer Museum, also inspired by castle architecture. In it, he stored a collection of almost 30,000 objects; most that were still being used in his day but which he saw as becoming either obsolete or an important mark of their time. It includes everyday items like spoons or bicycles as well as pre-industrial items such as a hand-pumped fire engine.

“He definitely recognized these things would one day be considered historic or rare and he wanted to make sure the significance of these items would be recognized,” explains Annie Halliday, Director of Library and Archives at Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle. “It’s not a typical museum experience. You can read labels, we have interpretations, but if you’re not a conventional museum person you can still walk in and be blown away with how quirky and interesting the buildings are. There’s strong aesthetics throughout both buildings, which makes us appealing to a broader audience.”

Mercer himself was not just a quiet collector. He was part of the arts and crafts movement and the designer of such notables as the tile floor mosaic installation in the Capitol building in Harrisburg, PA today. Featured in magazines about cement or the arts & crafts movement, Mercer not only traveled to collect oral histories but was known to research and find local histories as well.

Visitors today can enter what was once the private residence of Mercer, Fonthill Castle, which is still very much the same as in his day. When he passed in 1930, Mercer left it to his housekeeper (and her husband), and she lived there until her death in the 1970s. The home was then put into a trust and ultimately into the hands of the Bucks County Historical Society. Using photographs and other inventories, it was slowly restored it to its original glory. Mercer himself was a founding member of the society in 1880, so it is great continuity for it to now be in under their control.

The Bucks County Historical Society today operates both Fonthill Castle and Mercer Museum. It has a collection of more than 40,000 objects, some obtained through original accession or things Mercer purchased, as well as donations and purchases made over time. The museum’s on-site Research Library also houses over 20,000 books, 12,000 images, maps, periodicals and pamphlets, 2,500 feet of county government archives, early technology items and more.

“We have a broad yet specific scope. We are Bucks County Historical Society, so we collect for Bucks County History which is great for Bucks County genealogy or historic property or an historical event or something you’re just interested in,” Halliday shares. “Since we’re also connected to the tools and trade part, we have ledgers from blacksmiths, organizational records related to lumber yards or businesses in Doylestown creating things. We have Mercer’s papers, his architectural notebooks, tile drawings, research from his time at Harvard. It encapsulates his life’s work. We do also have some things just related to the arts and crafts movement or tile making in general.”

The facility and ability to store so many sensitive materials makes Mercer Museum unique as a county deposit. Blacksmiths will come up from Colonial Williamsburg and they’ll interact with items to learn new methods, and researchers come to find collections of things that are difficult to find anywhere else, like butter molds. People come on their own to research about the time of their grandparents or schools will come on field trips to learn about pre-industrial technology.

“I doubt Mercer could’ve imagined the world we live in today, and things he’d have considered to be mundane are remarkable to us. We have a card catalog when you enter the research library, and children have no idea what that is. They think its historical! [but it’s actually being used!] We have a huge, long well sweep and wooden water pipes, things you can’t fathom using today. We have a huge impact in reminding kids and adults alike of where we came from technology-wise and how things have changed,” Halliday adds.

Jeff Marshall is a Bucks County local and former President of Heritage Conservancy, who has been researching the area’s historic buildings since 1977 and now visits the museum’s Research Library nearly weekly.

“In my early years I spent countless hours trying to learn about historic buildings by finding documents such as wills and associated inventories, Orphans Court documents, land drafts and local newspapers beyond what was needed to complete projects. This was generally used to try to provide baseline documentation to supplement architectural evaluations of structures to accurately tell the story of a historic building,” Marshall details.

And stories he has found. Through his research, Marshall has made some unique and interesting discoveries.

“One thing I found was in the will of John Burroughs giving his one son Samuel one silver dollar ‘because by his imprudent conduct he caused his father to spend more money than his share of the property would amount to’.  That got me digging and I found out that Samuel was a Tory and a horse thief who was vilified by the Revolutionary leaders of Bucks County and his father got him off relatively unscathed. Deeper research showed that he obtained a character reference from a Virginia officer who had apparently spent time in the family’s house around the time of Washington’s Crossing and is one of the only references to where troops beyond the generals were encamped.”

With historical materials dating back to the 1680s as part of the Bucks County government collections and those gathered by Mercer himself since the 1880s, there is a lot to learn and locate. Deeds once signed by William Penn, a register of slaves from 1783 and even a book that describes how properties were marked are preserved.

“We have an Earmark book filled with drawings of cattle ears, and all the different marks to designate what cattle was owned by each farmer. Nicks they’d cut out of a cow’s ear. It is one of first records of Bucks County,” Halliday exclaims.

Thanks to a priority that materialized from COVID, the photograph collection of the museum is fully digitized and 90% of the postcard collection is as well. If you can’t make it on site, there is an online database accessible to anyone. If an item has not been digitized, sometimes a photo is attached to the record so that you can still catch a glimpse. And if you find something of interest, they offer a collection access visit where the item is pulled from the museum or storage for you to come and see in person.

“We’re very proud of our collection, and many people don’t know there is a library associated with the museum,” Halliday boasts. “Our favorite types of people are those that just want to see cool stuff.”

If you like cool stuff, whether you want to tour Mercer’s old home, be inspired by the collections within the museum or research an old plot of land that was once in your family, there is a lot of history available.

Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle each require a separate ticket but are both open Tuesdays through Sundays. Fonthill Castle, a National Historic Landmark, provides 60-minute guided tours only. The museum, a Smithsonian affiliate, offers self-guided tours with timed tickets. The Research Library entry is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, and entry is free with a Mercer Museum ticket or to members of Bucks County Historical Society.

An art museum is more than the just its works of art, placed around a room or hung on the wall. Along with layout and placement there is also flow, chosen artists, studio and educational spaces and more – all reasons that Princeton University spent more than four years rebuilding.

Its old museum often felt like it was ‘busting at the seams’ with its need to meet ever-increasing demands for public visitors, academic use and school groups. Publicly announced in 2018, though in discussions for even longer, it was a project that removed the old Princeton University Art Museum and constructed a much needed and desired new one.

“At best, some 2% of the collections were able to be shown in the old Museum on any given day, and certain aspects of art—including contemporary art and time-based media—were very difficult to display. At about 2,500 square feet, our temporary exhibitions spaces were much too small. There were few educational spaces and no dedicated social spaces; every space in the old building was required to do double or triple duty, creating untenable stresses on the collections and making it difficult to meet the needs of today’s visitors, among other things,” explains Stephen Kim, Senior Associate Director for Communication & Information.

Now, many are anxiously awaiting the new facility which boasts 146,000-square-feet for art display, teaching and educational programming. More than 117,000 objects spanning over 5,000 years of creativity will be on display and open to the public beginning October 31^st.

The works, while still often hung on the wall or placed around the rooms, are each carefully chosen and their placement even more thoughtfully decided. Rather than art being divided and placed on separate floors, there is more flow between the rooms. The goal is to make one think and reflect on the past vs. the present, to really see different cultures, and question human experiences.

“We have curated the museum in ways that will welcome visitors not only to experience beauty but also to analyze it; to admire creativity and to contextualize it; to marvel at materials and to complicate their origins,” said Juliana Ochs Dweck, chief curator of the Princeton University Art Museum. “In the new building, visitors can directly experience our collections, whether walking above ancient mosaics recessed in the floor, ascending the Grand Stairs across from a medieval Mallorcan stairway, or encountering a dialogue between light-based works spanning five hundred years. Our new museum offers many ways to have intimate encounters with art, to pursue curiosity, engage in meaningful dialogue, and to find solace or belonging.”

The new museum will launch with a 24-hour Open House beginning the evening of Friday, October 31^st. There will be free public events and opportunities to engage with the spaces including open studio hours, dance parties, movie screenings, collections tours, trivia, yoga and more. The 3-level building welcomes visitors from all sides, greeted by gold, bronze and wood mosaics of tile created by artist and educator Nick Cave. They welcome you to 80,000-square-feet of gallery display amongst nine pavilions (further divided into thirty-two galleries and three special exhibition spaces). Additionally, there is room to welcome more school groups with over 12,000-square-feet dedicated to educational space comprised of two creativity labs for hands-on art making, six object study classrooms, an auditorium and two seminar rooms. The Grand Hall can also be used for classes or lectures or to offer performances or social gatherings.

When its first independent building opened in 1890, this museum was one of the inaugural ones to display works from multiple continents and in different forms. It prides itself as having one of the most diverse looks at the world amongst university museums. The new layout is specifically designed to enable “conversations” to take place from one work of art to another.

“Galleries are designed to evolve, with works of art regularly reinstalled, new acquisitions reshaping the narratives on display, and visitors challenged to think critically and empathically. This embrace of flux reflects the Museum’s role as a place of teaching and learning, where new research and new encounters continually inform and redefine what it means to curate,” Ochs Dweck notes.

For the opening, there are two special exhibitions on display. Princeton Collects will highlight artwork that was donated in honor of the new museum building. It includes paintings by artists including Mark Rothko, Joan Mitchell and Gerhard Richter. Princeton Professor Toshiko Takaezu will also have her work on display in Toshiko Takaezu: Dialogues in Clay, described as “experimental artistic exchanges between the artist, her contemporaries and her teachers.” The special exhibitions will change in the spring.

The Princeton University Art Museum Store, another trove of treasures, is now situated at the intersection of two art walkways that allow visitors to walk through the museum campus. A full-service restaurant is located on the third floor, will both indoor and outdoor dining. The museum has also taken advantage of its surroundings, offering outdoor terraces and an amphitheater as well.

As a near 30-year dream for the new museum has come to fruition, it is an ode to the community it sits amongst and thanks to the generosity of those that believed in its necessity.

“The capital costs of the new building are the result of a philanthropic and University partnership through which about two-thirds of the cost was contributed by private donors and one-third by the University,” Kim shares. “Fundraising for bricks and mortar was completed in fall 2021 but continues in order to grow our endowments and support increased operational costs associated with a much larger facility.”

The new Princeton University Art Museum will have on display approximately three-times as many objects as the old museum offered, which is still only about 4-5% of the collections. There will be plenty of time to view it all, as the admission remains free and it will be open seven days a week.