William S. Bucklin and George P. Bartle: Accomplished Artists of Phalanx, New Jersey

This narrative describes the lives and artistic careers of William Savery Bucklin (1851–1928) and George Parker Bartle (1853–1918), both of Phalanx, a hamlet in Colts Neck, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Three of the works illustrated come from the art collection of the Monmouth County Park System. They acquired them because the paintings depict woodland scenes on the opposite side of the Swimming River Reservoir from their Thompson Park campus, the back areas of which still retain this wooded character.

Rickettsia spp. Infecting Lone Star Ticks (Amblyomma americanum) (Acari: Ixodidae) in Monmouth County, New Jersey

Tick-borne rickettsiae are undergoing epidemiological changes in the eastern United States while human encounters with lone star ticks (Amblyomma americanum L.) have increased substantially. We used real-time polymerase chain reaction assays to test for three species of spotted fever group rickettsiae (SFGR) (Rickettsiales: Rickettsiaceae) in 1,858 nymphal A. americanum collected from Monmouth County, New Jersey, a coastal county with endemic Lyme disease and established tick surveillance. Out of the 1,858 tested, 465 (25.0%) were infected with Rickettsia amblyommatis Karpathy, a species of undetermined pathogenicity found frequently in A. americanum, while 1/1,858 (0.05%) contained Rickettsia rickettsii Brumpt, the agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. No ticks tested positive for mildly pathogenic Rickettsia parkeri Lackman, and no ticks were co-infected with multiple Rickettsia spp. Our results indicate that A. americanum could be involved in transmission of R. rickettsii to humans in New Jersey, albeit rarely. The much higher rates of R. amblyommatis infection are consistent with hypotheses that human sera reacting to this species could contribute to reports of mild SFGR cases.

Louise Rosskam: Documentary Photographer

This lecture on photographer Louise Rosskam was originally delivered at the Monmouth County Library in Manalapan on June 10, 2013. Minor revisions have been made to the text and expanded notes with citations included as appropriate for an academic journal. The permission of Ani Rosskam to reproduce her mother’s photographs is gratefully acknowledged.

Tracking Sandy: Monmouth County Remembers

This article is a modified version of the exhibit text used in “Tracking Sandy: Monmouth County Remembers.” Guest curated for the Monmouth County Historical Association (MCHA) by the author of this piece, this crowdsourced exhibit was installed in MCHA’s headquarters in October 2017. The text is being published in this format to allow distribution to a wider audience/in perpetuity after the exhibit has come down, and to ensure the stories shared for the creation of the exhibit can continue to be told. This is not intended to be a comprehensive history of Sandy’s impact globally, in the US, or even on the entire state of New Jersey (NJ) specifically, nor is it a thorough case study on the effectiveness of crowdsourcing community history (though that may be an interesting subject for another discussion).

Resilience

A few years ago, I met a young man named Cody Coleman. Cody's story begins in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, where his mother was serving time for threatening to kill the child of a senator. Cody's childhood was chaotic and uncertain. When he told me the bare facts, my heart broke for the little boy who, against all odds, grew up to thrive in every possible sense of the word. Today, Cody is completing his PhD in computer science at Stanford. He is exceptionally kind. He smiles more easily than any other person I know. And he signs off every email with “make it a good day.”