CAMDEN, N.J. -- The Camden County Historical Society announces an ambitious new project called "Collecting 20th Century" that will create a new section in our museum that tells the collective story of our era.
1950s and '60s
CCHS is seeking donations of everyday items that reflect twentieth-century life in Camden County.
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Help our museum tell the full story of the '50s and '60s: donate your artifacts.
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But rather than tackle 100 years all at once, we're starting with two decades near and dear to our hearts -- the 1950s and 1960s. And we're especially interested in items that remind us of what it was like to be a teenager in Camden County in the '50s and '60s. Maybe you remember.
American Bandstand
In the '50s, South Jersey teens listened to Joe "Rockin' Bird" Niagara and Hy "Hyski O'Rooney McVoutie O'Zoot" Lit on WIBG-AM, and rushed home from school to catch their favorite couples on American Bandstand. Girls wore poodle skirts and cardigans buttoned down the back. Guys wore varsity sweaters and flat-tops; or slicked their hair back into a D.A. To be "the ginchiest" was to be mad-cool; if not, you had "cooties." Couples went to passion pits and fed jukeboxes at neighborhood malt shops.
In the '60s, Jerry "the Geator with the Heater" Blavat's "yon teenagers" rocked the Discophonic Walk and listened to Motown and the Beatles on classic rock stations WMMR and WYSP. Barbie, GI Joe and troll dolls were all the rage. Girls wore hot pants and go-go boots; guys sported Nehru jackets and grew their hair long. And everyone wore bell bottoms and love beads.
Civil Rights and Vietnam
It was the era of Civil Rights, Vietnam, anti-war protests and "the pill." And while Ralph Kramden threatened to send Alice "straight to the moon" in the 1950s, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin actually took us there in the '60s.
The Camden County Historical Society successfully depicts the material culture of life in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through thousands of artifacts in its museum and Pomona Hall. But we fall short when it comes to collecting our own history -- history we take for granted because we've lived it.
Just think about it. How many kids today can operate a phonograph? They've never used telephones with rotary dials. Hand them an old camera with flash attachment and they're lost. It is the Society's stated mission to collect, preserve and interpret these familiar, everyday pieces of our past for future generations before they disappear.
Everyday life in Camden County
We're looking for items that tell the story of everything from pop culture and fashion to communication and politics. A Wish List
has been posted to the Society's web site at 
