Morven Revealed: Untold Stories from New Jersey’s Most Historic Home

April 26, 2024–March 1, 2026

When we talk about Morven, we often consider its place on the national scene: home to a signer of the Declaration of Independence, senators, and governors. While the importance of these inhabitants led to Morven’s preservation, consider the space around these better known histories. This exhibit explores not the battles, speeches, or legislation that Morven witnessed, but rather the quotidian experiences of dressing, child rearing, housekeeping, and hosting that made it a home. 

Morven survived war and fire but it also survived over fifty-five children. What did their coming of ages look like in the 1790s? the 1860s? the 1970s? And what do we know about the women who birthed and raised them? These women were often the tastemakers of their day --  how did they dress themselves and their home? As their families expanded with each generation, so did their landholdings in Princeton, changing the landscape that surrounds us today. 

As we celebrate our twentieth anniversary as a museum we take this opportunity to dig into our collections to share some of these lesser-known stories.  What do we uncover when we consider the everyday moments that made Morven a home for over two hundred years?

In an 1804 newspaper advertisement, Trenton clock and watchmaker William J. Leslie touted that he was “Not from Paris, London or Boston – But a Native of New-Jersey.”  At the time, the state was home to dozens of craftsmen specializing in tall case clocks. Morven’s newest exhibition will examine the work of New Jersey clockmakers as they collaborated with cabinetmakers, ran shops, and formed professional partnerships to create beautiful timekeeping pieces.

Spanning the colonial and post-revolutionary period, clockmakers ran their shops with the assistance of apprentices and often enslaved labor. Some carried on the clockmaking tradition through several generations, often working multiple trades, including silversmithing.

This exhibition will feature over 50 tall case clocks, representing almost as many different clockmakers, from both private and public collections. These freestanding pendulum clocks are as functional as they are beautiful with faces made of intricate brass work or painted designs of objects like ships, suns, and moons. Internally, their complicated workings are mechanical masterpieces. Some even chime with contemporaneous melodies. 

Striking Beauty will be the first large-scale exhibition of its kind, exploring the experiences of the artisans and apprentices, free and enslaved, who contributed to this unique craft. Explore the five-gallery exhibition to see clocks from cities and towns such as Elizabeth, Newark, Burlington, Flemington, and Salem, and more. 

Lenders to the exhibition will include: Boxwood Hall, Brown University, Buccleuch Mansion Museum, Burlington County Historical Society, Gloucester County Historical Society, Hunterdon County Historical Society, Monmouth County Historical Association, Trenton Museum Society,  as well as loans from numerous private collections.