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Victorians in Iron Coffins at Montclair Women’s Club
April 15 @ 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
$10Victorian Society in America
Northern New Jersey Chapter
VSA-NNJ meets monthly from September to June for lectures and events related to 19th Century history, usually on the third Monday of the month.
Victorians in Iron Coffins
Presented by Scott C. Warnasch
And our Annual Silent Auction
Monday, April 15, 2024 at 6:30 PM
Montclair Women’s Club,
82 Union Street, Montclair NJ
This venue is handicap accessible. Parking is available behind the building and on the street.
Light refreshments, coffee and tea will be served.
The program is free for members, and $10 for guests.
American Mummies: Cold Cases from the Dawn of the Modern Age offers a holistic glimpse into the investigation and identification of three individuals who died in the early 1850s and whose remains were naturally preserved in iron coffins. Two of the individuals were recovered from the former First Presbyterian churchyard in Newark, NJ—now the Prudential Center––and the third from an abandoned African American churchyard in Elmhurst, Queens. Through forensic investigation, archaeology, genealogy and archival research, Mr. Warnasch has identified the two Newark individuals as Mary Camp Roberts (1764-1852) and William Pollard (1818-1854) and the woman from Queens as Martha Peterson (1824~1851). The lecture will also include background on the coffins and what they teach us about this critical period of American history.
Mr. Warnasch is a forensic archaeologist, author and documentarian. During his tenure at the NYC Forensic Anthropology Unit, his primary duties involved extensive victims’ remains recovery excavations conducted at the World Trade Center site between 2006 and 2014. His book, American Mummies: Cold Cases from the Dawn of the Modern Age, is about his research into the lives of three mid-19 th century mummies naturally preserved in iron coffins he discovered in New York and New Jersey. One of the mummies is the subject of the PBS series Secrets of the Dead episode, “The Woman in the Iron Coffin”.
This meeting will also include our Annual Silent Auction. Doors will open at 6:30 PM, and the auction bidding will begin before the presentation starts at 7:00 PM.
For more information, please contact christinapmayer@gmail.com
or 973-886-9956.
Visit us online at www.vsa-nnj.com
