Hardenbergh Hikes through History

Artist and Ornithologist Gerard Rutgers Hardenbergh depicted the wildlife and landscapes of the Jersey Shore at the turn of the twentieth century but his own roots in the Garden State stem from the Jersey Dutch and the American Revolution. Take a virtual “Hardenbergh Hike through History” with Paul Soltis, the New Jersey State Park Service’s resource interpretive specialist for Wallace House & Old Dutch Parsonage State Historic Sites. Explore the origins of the Hardenbergh and Rutgers families in New Jersey and New York, learn about the academic tradition of science and natural philosophy at New Jersey’s colonial colleges that informed the ornithologist, and see the landscapes preserved at New Jersey State Parks & Forests today that inspired the artist.

Paul Soltis is the State Park Service’s resource interpretive specialist at Wallace House and Old Dutch Parsonage State Historic Sites in Somerville, New Jersey.  Soltis holds a B.A. from William Mary and a certificate from the National Institute of American History & Democracy in Williamsburg, Virginia.

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