New Jersey Women's Heritage Trail facts for kids

The New Jersey Women's Heritage Trail is a special project in New Jersey. It helps everyone learn about the important roles women played in shaping the state's history. This project is a team effort between the New Jersey's Historic Preservation Office and 94 historic places across the state.

This statewide learning program was called the "nation's first complete look at women's historic sites." It started with a conference in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in 1994. This meeting was the first of its kind to explore how to make people more aware of women's history. It helped New Jersey pass a law in 1999. This law provided money to find historic places connected to New Jersey women.

What is the New Jersey Women's Heritage Trail?

The New Jersey Women's Heritage Trail is like a map that guides you to places where amazing women made history. It's a way to celebrate their achievements and stories. This trail helps us remember the women who helped make New Jersey what it is today.

Places on the Trail

As of 2018, more than 90 places are part of the trail. Each site tells a unique story about a woman or a group of women. Here are some examples of the special places you can find:

• Alice Stokes Paul was a leader in the fight for women's right to vote. You can visit her childhood home.
• Annis Boudinot Stockton was a poet who lived a long time ago, during the Colonial era.
• Atlantic City Convention Hall is where the Miss America Pageants have been held. Many women have competed and won there.
• Clara Barton was a nurse during the Civil War. She also started the very first public school in New Jersey.
• Anne Morrow Lindbergh was a famous author and aviator.
• Millicent Fenwick was an important political leader.
• The home of Abigail Goodwin and her sister Elizabeth. They were Quakers who helped runaway slaves find safety on the Underground Railroad.
• Rebecca Estell Bourgeois Winston is another important woman honored on the trail.
• The Women's Federation Memorial is located at Palisades Interstate Park. It honors women's contributions.
• The Victor building was part of the Victor Talking Machine Company. Many women worked there.
• The Bridget Smith House in Mine Hill Township. Irish immigrant wives and families lived here after their husbands died in the mines.
• Brookdale Farm at Thompson Park. This was the home of Geraldine Morgan Thompson, who worked to improve social welfare.
• Martha Brookes Hutcheson designed beautiful gardens. You can see them at what is now the Bamboo Brook Outdoor Education Center.
• Sara Spencer Washington owned the Hotel Brigantine.
• Roosevelt Common was a park designed by Marjorie Sewell Cautley.
• The burial site of Esther Saunders at the Salem Friends Burial Ground.
• Smithville Park in Easthampton, New Jersey. Agnes Gilkerson helped develop a worker's village there and edited a newspaper.
• The gravesite of Jarena Lee at Mt. Pisgah Church.
• The Elizabeth Cady Staunton House is also part of the trail.
• The Mary Teresa Norton House was where Mary Teresa Norton lived. She was the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
• Whitesbog Village is where Elizabeth Coleman White helped create the blueberry plants we eat today.
• Rockingham was saved thanks to the hard work of Josephine Swann and Kate McFarlane.
• Mary Catherine Phillips made important contributions to Consumers' Research in Bowerstown.