welcome good day to you i'm chris korea and this is another edition of open source at p c t v we have a terrific lineup today first janice eleanor janice is the executive director of crossroads of the american revolution organization janice is also an award an emmy award winning television producer and documentarian and has been in the past a former executive director of n j and here in new jersey our second guest is ira jersey ira is the chair of the board of crossroads of the american revolution and is chief u s interest rate strategist at bloomberg and a personal revolution hobbyist and historian looking forward to hearing more from you our third guest is sarah curate and sarah is the executive director of the new jersey historical commission i know from recent accounts in the press that there is also quite an afficionado of new jersey's own lighthouses among many other activities of historical interest and she will be explaining to us much of how all of the plans for the upcoming semi quinn centennial so that three times fast perhaps to before the end of the show the semi quinn centennial of our own american revolution occurs in two thousand and twenty six there will be quite a run up so janice help us understand what the role of the crosswords across crosswords crossroads of the american revolution organization is and how it fits into our historical landscape in new jersey crossroads is one of forty nine heritage areas across the country but we're the only one that is pacifically designated two revolutionary war sites and we were designated by congress in two thousand and six to work on efforts to help promote and tie together all the wonderful work being done by sites in the state new jersey there were almost three hundred skirmishes and battles in our state so there's a lot of work that is being done to tell the story of new jersey's important role in the revolution so  who how does this fit in to our set of organizations is this a public a public private organization and how is it funded generally crossroads is a nonprofit were a five a one c three and we get funding from the national park service we get funding from people who make contributions to us from corporate entities that are sponsoring some of the work that we do and now we are working as a public private partner with the new jersey historical commission the two fifty of the american revolution and i understand you just had an acknowledgment from the state to really formalize this relationship to the run up to twenty twenty six yes you know people always ask me that particularly since i moved to the state that bears my my surname so my ancestors actually first came here in the mid seventy's hundreds and moved to what's now rockland county new york at the behest of the e jersey because rockland county new york at the time was a was disputed as to if that was in new york or new jersey so the earl of jersey sent people here to say hey tell them that you're in new jersey because when the tax collector from the could do that now it wasn't until in seventy nine the three the border was set that we currently have today by by the royal surveyor that's that's really quite fascinating so that may explain begin to explain some of your backstory but tell us a little bit about what moved you to take on this task of actually chairing the commission yes so so i've been deeply interested in history particularly american history for many years and i actually i can talk about my fourth grade teacher who actually influenced me so much by helping me run a revolution in her classroom and being the john hancock if you will of this little revolt that she quite frankly did a great job of influencing all of us to you know cracking the whip and putting putting her thumb on us and because of her actions i've always had this a fascination with american history in the founding of our country so a number of years ago i joined the board of crossroads and recently i was as we transition from one president to another i stepped up to be the board chair and president of the national heritage area well thank you thank you and sarah you are the executive director of the new jersey historical commission which i e come into contact numerous times in the past year in princeton so there's a lot of wonderful opportunities to visit places associate with the american revolution but tell us a little bit about the historical commission and how its relation to the crossroads commission and what you would like the public to know about about both well the historical commission was actually born from two big anniversary celebrations quite frankly four both terrifically success well anniversary of celebrations but at that time there was no state historical commission so special commissions had to be created to actually put those anniversary commemorations and activities together following that great success the state said you know what we really need an agency that does this on an ongoing basis that encourages our preservation and research and teaching and enjoyment i always want to make sure we remember that the wish to enjoy history to and that's that's how the commission was was created so it's very much in our d n a many new jerseyans know us because we also have a very active grant program we fund historical sites historic sites and historical organizations around the state but in our d n a is this responsibility for working on these big anniversaries and putting together the activities and  implementing them for the state so that's kind of where we came from and as we thought about how to go about planning for this very important anniversary in twenty twenty six it's also really  very good in terms of the overall planning of a big complicated activity like this to have a private nonprofit partner because there are some things that government agencies do really really well and there's some things that private nonprofit organizations can do even a little bit better so having this partnership between a state agency like the commission and crossroads we think is going to be really a winning combination for twenty twenty six i really important that we that we focus not only on twenty twenty six because one of the one of the things that the semi quinson ten year olds not only the summary quinten tonio of the declaration of independence the freedom of our country but really of the entire war for independence period so starting right here in princeton in seven hundred seventy four when there was just a couple of weeks after the boston tea party there was the prints burning done by students at the university not far away all the way up until seven eighty three when there were actions in the state including the including the removal of the day even though that happened in new york there were it was very important to him to the united states and even the treatment of the boy lists the people who were who were loyal to the king and what they had to do when there were a lot of them in new jersey so we have  to i think educate people as to all of the events that occurred from that whole decade really of the war for independence i was actually going to ask you in thinking about today in today's show i was sort of a newer eating the many places in new jersey  not to appear totally provincial so to speak but it is isn't new jersey among the eastern seaboard states among the most active of as far as having sites an activity dating back well i think  and crossroads takes its name really from the fact that new jersey saw more military engagements during the american revolution than any of the other thirteen come and so while many people know about what happened in valley forge and maybe they know a lot about what happened at yorktown what happened here in new jersey was incredibly critical to the revolution and it kept happening through the entire war that's the other thing our colleagues up in boston for example  they just a weekend or two ago had a huge event for british occupation day but they're going to they're going to kind of wrap up their two hundred fifty the celebration pretty early in their in the because those activities kind of have happened and then all of the action or at least a lot of it wus down here to us and thinking about crossroads you know what why is new jersey the crossroads it's not only the events that occurred but it's also the fact that we had both the the american military and the british military in close to you had significant number of both loyalists and patriots and quite frankly neutrals who are here so one of the things that janice can talk more deeply about is  to one of the efforts of crossroads or the american revolution is to help with education programs for students to learn about revolutionary neighbor what happened right next door i mean right from where we're sitting right now we have a sign of the declaration celebration of the war for independence and the declaration to basically get more knowledge meant for all of these great historical sites and people and places in new jersey to people in the state and also out of state janice why don't you tell us  about certainly the neighbors program that in addition so how can people start getting involved to be part of the enthusiasm and the right i mean to continue to call it the run up to twenty twenty something where we were basically getting off the starting blocks right  to charity britton surname and she had a tavern in trenton and a lot of things went on at taverns there was a lot of political discussion there was a lot of other things going on related to that and crossroads is trying to prepare us flights for the two s and so we're doing a lot of workshops and we most recently did one they dealt with taverns then you know the what people were eating and drinking at the time it was very well attended it disturbs the old town in piscataway so there are sites throughout the state and you can really see something about the revolution almost every week and you know you don't want to think that certainly patriots week is a very important time for things going on in trenton and also here in princeton but every weekend you can  about leading up to you know how can people get involved now while we're having in conjunction with the historical commission we've been having meetings where we have interested parties coming in and talking about what they think should be included in how we can commemorate and what we can do and we're also going to be having listening sessions come up where we're going to be just going around to various theories of the state to talk about the opportunities and and what kind of information we want to share so you wan well i want to also add that the american revolution is very much the centerpiece i think of this anniversary celebration but one of the great things i think about what we're going to do with the is we're going to look at the revolution in the context of all two hundred fifty years of american history and i want to make that point right now because i think it's really important to emphasize that every new jersey and they're going to see their and before the revolution your story is going to be part of this if you're come your family came here last year we'll be doing programming and activities the they will tell your story too so it's a very inclusive approach and we're really taking that from the your senses as to the economic importance of what you're seeing all of you are spending a great deal of time on yes oh so heritage tourism is a huge industry and it's actually one of the it's one of the  biggest industries outside of the shore it's one of the bigger industries that we have here in terms of tourism that's a price that you know they said laser eyes on people well so when you think about all of the great sites that we have right here the prince and battlefield and we have you know national parks and state parks like like them on the battlefield and jockey hollow where you know george washington for more time a jockey hollow than we ever did a valley forge and and it's a really an underutilized resource that we have here but there's a lot of a lot of economic impact because when people go to these sites they shop at local stores they stay at local hotels and they they really do things that are in line for away from the shore so it's really something that we can we can press on and given the fact that if you were doing and if you were to do a revolutionary war tour and you were to say let's follow the path of george washington you can spend a lot of time in morristown new jersey and the fact is is that new jersey is unique in this way because you know unlike boston like sarah mentioned before you know the americans the american army most of the american army left boston in early seven hundred seventy six and they camped out a new jersey for the better part of forty years right so and they were here guarding the  colonies against the british in new york for most of that time and if you know as long as more people more and more people can do that we can have a significant economic impact and that's part of the goal of both crossroads and the historical commission not only with the commemorations  but also outside of that hopefully continuing and are you seeking court will you be seeking corporate party says partners as the years go by yeah absolutely and we already do actually and actually janice can talk a little bit more about that well we see corporate partners for crossroads and we're also thinking corporate partners for our public private partnership and there's going to be a leadership council that's going to be set up that's part of what we're going to be working on and there will be a number of business leaders and government leaders and other people that we will be reaching out to to help us generate more funds to do this work i mean obviously it's not all going to come from state government we need to be able to identify other funding in order to make that happen and say are you taxpayers our leaders to sort of underscore the importance of what those of us who light love about history might see is self evident but just sort of emphasize why this is worth the effort career working in this field and more and more i think the message that we want to share with people is to emphasize how history is relevant to each of us every single day so while the american revolution you know will still soon be marking the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of that revolution the repercussions the consequences of what happened here two hundred fifty years ago we continue to confront and deal with every single day so i think an understanding of a history is key to a cohesive democracy an informed electorate all of those things are essential because history provides us with that background to become just those things you know knowledgeable voters you know in gauge citizens useful and competent in employees all of those things so the study of history is fundamental that's that's really the core thing and i think it's very interesting in in our you know the media world today which as we know is saturated twenty four hours a day but over and over again you'll hear commentators on it i think on every channel talking about history you know they're looking back to when we look at election that's coming up in a week you know they're going to be talking about what happened in the elections of fifty years ago or thirty years ago our understanding of the past is just critical so  anniversaries in a way are kind of arbitrary things i mean why do we celebrated fifty year integral intervals rather than three year intervals but they give us this opportunity to kind of capture people's attention again and remind them of how important those events war and how our ability to understand them and use them to inform our decision making today is really a critical thing one of the higher things we're doing at crossroads is  identified funding to bring fourth graders from trenton schools to the old barracks the old barracks get schoolchildren from all around the state coming they can get people from their own backyard trenton and we've brought one hundred  fourth graders thanks to funding from the brides and foundation n j e and james and pharmaceuticals and to the old barracks and they're going to be using i pads to tell their own revolutionary stories so not only did they come to the barracks but they're going to tell their own story about this and it was a it was a great experience for them the kids you know were talking already about bringing their parents back and that's what we found in a lot of the sites in new jersey i went up to work early which has a wonderful  school program and what they're finding is the kids a lot of them from you know immigrant communities are bringing their parents back after they go in and do these school programs so i think it's important to tell the story make it real i was going to ask you about that how about somewhat older school kids the high school students the students who may be looking forward to voting for the first time or not voting what what should  about this as far as its effect on their lives today throwing you a bit of a stretch question here well one of the big areas that we are going to be focusing on as we prepare for this is looking at history education and that's the case or twelve k through twelve so i think there are opportunities to strengthen how we teach history in our schools at every level and i think the looking at how high school students can get more in studying history and understanding it and using it in their daily lives will certainly be something that will focus on their different kinds of because of course it's a little bit harder to get high school students out of school because they're they're moving from class to class by other ways we can get  i realize so since you in your professional life day to day spend a lot of time on television and educating people is there a role what's the role for the media in all of this together so i think i think emotion in particular is a huge one right so partly is is you know doing a great job like you're doing right now informing people that this i mean clinton tony was coming up that we have this great heritage in new jersey and a lot of sites and quite frankly you know other states just don't have right you can't go to  can't go to illinois and do a lot with revolutionary war history on the sites there you could talk about it but you can't actually see the site you can't smell it you can't go into abraham stats house in in south bound brook and say wow so people lived here he had you know  he had you know many children who lived in this small place and you say that here is how people lived back then and it also makes you feel lucky you know i think that a lot of times we take for granted what our society is like today and and when you when you go back and you look you know abraham stats as an interesting example he was relatively wealthy yet he lived in a very modest house and you know that's something that i think is is unappreciated by a lot of people over over you know two centuries two and a half centuries  of our country's history there i was going to stead to for us to enjoy every level but especially as they get into that the junior high school level a lot of what we can do in our programming too is explore how do we know about the past you know what can what is a reliable source what isn't reliable source how can you distinguish between the two so a lot of the programming that i think we're going to be looking to encourage and develop for students is going to be train at some of those things too that's an x excellent point i'll share two of my own recent exhibit well not so recent experian that i will share with you but then i'm going to ask you we are in a fall season a good time to get outdoors for a walk so i'm going to ask you in a minute what where a family might start on a saturday morning around princeton area two thoughts my my now forty plus year old son as an infant was in the arms of his father my husband down at washington's crossing and we talking about it at that about six months of age to feel what was going on that was one of vent and then in seventeen eighty nine when george washington re an actor and rian actor came through back through princeton on his way to new york to thank the good people of princeton he stopped at nassau hall and there was my second son for  i at eight o'clock in the morning on a saturday enjoying that so that was a memorable experiences and so easy and no cost at all so what would you do well you know i have been on a crusade my family so i have sons to the little bit older now but to encourage people to get out to our local parks because because we have so many great parks in new jersey and my goodness the battlefield park was going to say exactly what sarah said park at the prince of battlefield go over to the get go over to the friends meeting and you know see the internment side of richard stockton and then go down to the historical society it's a great little walk we you know that they do run over there all the time janice i can't believe it but we're almost at the end of our hour and a half hour and so i do like to ask you again to sort of summarize your message about the crossroads organization the upcoming excitement we're going to have before we celebrate the semi second centennial you go to the united states of america and i'll let you have the parting thought thank you well crossroads of the american revolution national heritage area is a nonprofit in new jersey that's thrilled to be able to be partnering with the new jersey historical commission so that we can tell new jersey's story you know the legislature and the governor really saw fit to make sure that we're not left behind that new jersey story is truly told and the significance of what happened here and what people will learn is going to be continuing and told to future generations and a couple tips for the public as to how they can keep in touch with this evolving celebration and get and get directly involved well we can certainly have information on our facebook on crossroads american revolution national heritage areas face has historical commission on both facebook and on twitter we between the crosshairs and the commission's website we're going to keep everybody very much up to date on what's going on thank you and i thank all of our guests janice eleanor who is the executive director of the crossroads to american revolution ira jersey who is the chair of that organization and sarah curtain who is our own executive director of the new jersey historical commission this is been an excellent presentation on what we can expect as we look forward to the next cell gratian the american revolution right here in princeton and right here in new jersey thanks for being with us today at open source we'll see you next