Days before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams wrote to Samuel Chase, “Jersey has chosen five new Members all independent Souls, and instructed them to vote on the first of July for Independence.” This turning point forever linked these five NJ men to the birth of the United States. But who were these lesser-known founding fathers? What were their lives like, before, during, and after the Revolution? Morven’s 2026 exhibit seeks to answer these questions, delving into the lives of Abraham Clark, John Hart, Francis Hopkinson, Richard Stockton, and John Witherspoon. As all five were enslavers, the exhibition will also examine how the rhetoric of revolutionary America—freedom, equality, and liberty—was intertwined with the practice of slavery.

Morven’s curators have spent years securing loans for this landmark exhibit. Visitors can expect to see over one hundred objects borrowed from the The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Independence Hall, the National Gallery, the Princeton University Art Museum, the New York Public Library, and numerous private collections.

Digitization, Stockton Family Papers

In line with Morven’s mission of preserving authentic stories, Morven is working towards the digitization of the Stockton Family Papers at the Historical Society of Princeton. The digitization of these early American manuscripts would make them more accessible to researchers. Thanks to the invading British (and time) very few of Richard Stockton, the Signer's papers survive. However, the collection at the Historical Society of Princeton contains many letters to and from his six children who were born between 1759 and 1773. These papers help shed light on this New Jersey family living in the first decades of the newly-formed United States. Their correspondence reveals the Stockton family’s connections to leading politicians (President James Madison and Daniel Webster), artists (Thomas Sully), and architects (Benjamin Latrobe). The collection also features letters from children and grandchildren of Benjamin Franklin whose descendants intermarried with Stockton descendants in the 1860s.

How did the marriage of a wealthy Charleston-born Harriet Maria Potter to Princeton native Robert Field Stockton impact the social, economic, political and physical landscape of New Jersey? Curators are researching the complex connections between northern and southern families, and the interstate movement of enslaved people unveiling a story stretching from the late 18th century through the Civil War. The exhibit demonstrates how regional differences were not always as cleanly drawn as they may have been portrayed. 

A recently-terminated grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities makes support of this initiative even more critical.

In 2027,  Morven will present Grave Matters: New Jersey Tombstones, an exhibition exploring the extraordinary history of gravemarkers and burial sites in the state. The first exhibition to look closely at New Jersey carvers and cemeteries, Grave Matters will examine what these markers reveal in terms of regional craft and symbolic tradition. The show will also examine the importance of preservation and the value gravemakers have to historians and genealogists.