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Blueberry Roots: The History of Blueberry Domestication in South Jersey
May 14 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Whitesbog Farm, founded in 1857, had humble beginnings in the New Jersey Pine Barrens amid a newly burgeoning cranberry industry. The farm grew to become the largest in New Jersey before the turn of the century thanks to the hard work of the pickers and the technological prowess of its owners, James Fenwick and his son-in-law, J.J. White. By 1910, Elizabeth Coleman White, eldest daughter of the cranberry mogul J.J. White, sought to accomplish what many others tried but failed to achieve: making the blueberry the next great American crop. With the help of USDA botanist Dr. Frederick Coville, Ms. White and Dr. Coville grew “experimental blueberries” in 1911 and the first blueberry crop was successfully cultivated and sold to the public only five years later in 1916. Come learn the roots of the blueberry with Whitesbog Preservation Trust’s Archivist and discover how the blueberry grew to be the iconic fruit we know today.
Presenter Bio:
Ren MacLean is the Lead Archivist at Whitesbog Preservation Trust and maintains both the Archives and Museum spaces at the foundation. With a background in collections management, exhibition design, and research, Ren preserves objects within the Whitesbog Archives collection and develops new history exhibits at Whitesbog. Ren holds two degrees from The College of New Jersey and is passionate about history’s collaborative nature, which they express through creating interactive exhibits, making archives accessible to the public, one-on-one work with researchers, and giving presentations. Ren’s largest project to date at Whitesbog was digitizing a 500 photo collection chronicling the first years of blueberry cultivation and the berry’s continued development as its popularity grew.
