Current Press Release

SURF CITY – Throughout the month of September, the Ocean County Library Long Beach Island Branch will feature historian Erik L. Burrow’s engaging, colorful display of informative panels and contemporary photographs that highlight the New Sweden colony, South Jersey’s earliest colonial settlement. He will offer a presentation at the Branch, 2 PM Saturday, September 2.

Attendees will become familiar with South Jersey locales that reflect the settlement, founded by former New Amsterdam Governor Peter Minuit for the Kingdom of Sweden, as well as with people and places that have been part of Lower County life and lore since 1638.

The exhibit also includes photos of ceremonies by Delaware Valley Swedes and Finns in commemoration of their ancestors in the region.

Burro will describe the social, political, and economic impacts of Peter Minuit’s dismissal from the Dutch West India Company, his establishment of a trading post that grew to a colony of Scandinavian settlers, its survival of an unauthorized siege led by Peter Stuyvesant, and its flourishing during English control.

Erik L. Burro is the founder of Pennjerdel House, a public history advocacy in Burlington, New Jersey. In 2022, he presented “Legacy of Remembrance,” a photographic panorama of New Jersey’s World War I monuments.

The exhibit is free and open to the public during normal Branch operating hours. Please register at www.theoceancountylibrary.org/events to attend the free program, sponsored by the Long Beach Island Library.

For more information, visit the OCL Long Beach Island Branch, 217 South Central Avenue, Surf City, or call (609) 494-2480.

Keep up with Library programs and events at www.theoceancountylibrary.org, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Spotify, and Pinterest.

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