The Cumberland County Prehistorical Museum

The Cumberland County Prehistorical Museum features the New Jersey Indian Artifact and Fossil Collection of Alan Ewing Carman. Located in Greenwich, New Jersey the collection was accumulated over 51 years of field work as an advocational archaeologist and paleontologist. Some of the artifacts were found in the New Jersey counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cape May. However the majority were recovered in Cumberland County.

The exhibits represent all aspects of the Indians’ way of life. They provide the visitor with a brief glimpse into the aboriginal cultures of those who originally inhabited New Jersey and evolved into the people we know today as the Lenape.

The selection of Greenwich in which to house this collection has a two-fold significance. Greenwich has primarily been noted for its Colonial Period architecture and the historic Tea Burning incident which occurred in 1774. A fact not widely known is that for over 5,600 years before this event, the area was a center for many Indian cultures. One of the main attractions was the discovery of outcrops of a stone called Cohansey Quartzite.

The museum is open on Wednesdays from 12:30 to 4, and Saturdays and Sundays, 12:30 to 4 PM. Group tours are available by calling 856-455-8141 during those times.

Bibliography

www.native-languages.org/lenape.htm, and many more

Books - fiction

The Indians of New Jersey: Dickon Among the Lenapes

by M R Harrington and Clarence Ellsworth (Illustrator)

Paperback published 1963

Books – non fiction

Indians of New Jersey

by Hershel Lee Schenck

Printed in 1951 in U.S.A.

The Unalachtigo of New Jersey, The Original People of Cumberland County

by Anne Shillingburg Woodruff and F. Alan Palmer

Published in 1972 by the Cumberland County Historical Society