Delaware

Newark was founded primarily as a farming community of Scots-Irish, English, and Welsh immigrants in the early 1700s near the intersection of two Native American trails. Since that time, Newark has transformed into a bustling college town that still maintains a small-town feel. The 1767 arrival of the academy founded by Francis Alison inspired the town's growth, and the small academy eventually grew into the University of Delaware. The arrival of industries, particularly along White Clay Creek, also helped encourage Newark's growth into the third-largest city in the state. By the early 20th century, Main Street emerged as the retail center of town. Many of the images included here depict some of the early businesses that served Newark residents and document the shift from horse-drawn carriages to automobiles as well as the expansion of the University of Delaware.

On the first of September 1785, with night coming on and the weather deteriorating, the crew of the ship Faithful Steward sailed toward Delaware's notorious False Cape. In the summer of 1785, a group of Irish migrants took to the Atlantic to escape the abuse and persecution of the ruling classes at home. They sought a new life in the United States, a place "where the banner of freedom waved proudly" and "every good was possessed." Their ship was new and sturdy, and its captain had a good reputation. On this voyage, however, it was overloaded with migrant families and a massive cargo of counterfeit coins. By the first of September the ship was lost, somewhere off the mid-Atlantic coast. Michael Timothy Dougherty tells the story of the wreck and the people on board.

From its earliest days as a stagecoach stop, Harrington has long been nicknamed the "Hub of Delaware."

First established on September 17, 1740, by Thomas Clark, the lands surrounding Clark's dwelling place became known as Clarks Corner. By the 1790s, Thomas Clark's son Benjamin and grandson Matthew Clark had built an inn and stagecoach stop there. The crossroads remained unchanged throughout its early history, save for the addition of a mill and blacksmith's shop. Over half a century later in 1856, the town was made the major junction of the new train lines serving the entire Delmarva Peninsula. After it became a "hub," the town was renamed Harrington in honor of Judge Samuel Maxwell Harrington, the chancellor of the court in Delaware. The town may not have the same impact today as it did before the popularization of automobiles, but it still keeps the small-town charm captured in the images and imaginations of so many.

From the beginning of World War II, Delaware's movie theaters played a starring role in the state's war effort.

Delaware and every town in it - from Claymont to Delmar - did its part to support the war. From base theaters to opera houses to movie palaces, Delaware's theaters sold hundreds of millions of dollars in war bonds. They served as WAAC recruiting stations. They were collection points for resource drives. They screened countless newsreels and documentaries about every aspect of the war. And they hosted the likes of Fay Wray, Gene Lockhart, Gail Patrick, Paulette Goddard, and other Hollywood stars who came to the state to keep morale high, support strong, and dollars flowing.

Author Michael J. Nazarewycz recounts how the First State, the Greatest Generation, and the Dream Factory joined forces when America's forces needed them most.

Smyrna, Clayton, and Woodland Beach, Delaware, share a history born from early settlers with big dreams, landowners who helped grow their importance on the regional stage, and industries that shaped the local economy. The story of these communities is wrapped around transportation, great location, and fertile agricultural soil. Smyrna, beginning as the settlement of Salisbury and then Duck Creek Village, sprang up on its river namesake before moving to Duck Creek Crossroads, where it continued to thrive. Large steamers regularly docked in Smyrna Landing to take shipments of grain, fertilizer, and even passengers to Philadelphia. The installation of the train depot, called Smyrna Station, cemented the importance for a renewed generation of history by almost instantly creating the town of Clayton. To the east, Woodland Beach enjoyed a surge of popularity, boasting a Ferris wheel, dance hall, and beer garden.

Marian Cruger Coffin (1876-1957), one of the first American women to work as a professional landscape architect, may not be a household name; however, with designs at some of America's foremost horticultural institutions, it should be. While Coffin's designs can be seen at locations as varied as Winterthur, New York Botanical Garden, Mount Cuba Center, and the University of Delaware, Gibraltar is perhaps one of her most important commissions. In 1916, Coffin was introduced to the owners of Gibraltar, a country estate home situated high on a roughly six-acre site in Wilmington, Delaware, by her longtime friend Henry Francis duPont. Beginning that year, Coffin transformed the grounds of the early-19th-century estate into a paradise of romantic gardens that seamlessly merged the Beaux-Arts classicism of her Massachusetts Institute of Technology training with the complex flower garden style of Beatrix Farrand, whom she much admired. While the gardens fell into disrepair following the death of their first owner, they were eventually restored and are now open to the public, allowing all who visit to enjoy their beauty.

Situated on high ground above the Christina River, Holy Trinity Church, known as Old Swedes, is the surviving tangible remnant of the New Sweden Colony, established in 1638. Today, the church, constructed in 1698, and its surrounding burial ground, established in 1638, are part of the Old Swedes Historic Site, which welcomes visitors from across the country and around the world. At the historic site, Delaware schoolchildren learn their state's early history; Iowans and Minnesotans research their Swedish family roots; and worshipers attend services, weddings, and funerals, as they have for 325 years. The church was declared a national historic landmark in 1961 and was included, with the burial ground, as a unit of First State National Historical Park in 2015. Tracing the legacy of the Swedish colonists in what is now Wilmington, the site offers visitors a distinctive view of the history of Delaware and the surrounding area.

From the opera house and movie palace to the modern multiplex, the big screens in Delaware have been delighting moviegoers for more than a century.

Hollywood legend Cary Grant visited the Playhouse Theater in 1955, fondly recalling his days on its stage as a child actor. Clint Eastwood came to Wilmington for a secret test screening of his film The Gauntlet at the Branmar Cinema. The groundbreaking history of Star Wars includes a Delaware theater that was one of only forty-five in the country to open the film. Author Michael J. Nazarewycz recounts the cinematic history of Delaware's grand movie theaters.