In November of 2007, William W. Leap, past president of the Camden County Historical Society, noted local historian, and author of the definitive history of Runnemede, donated his extensive collection of New Jersey historical materials to Stockton. Bill Leap’s generous gift of over 1,600 items, painstakingly collected over decades, includes maps, serials, books, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings covering a wide range of Jersiana such as the history of the state’s towns and counties, the Pine Barrens, our rivers and estuaries, the Jersey Devil, railroads, early crafts and industries, nineteenth-century laws, and New Jersey genealogy, along with many other topics of local interest.

The present exhibition provides a small sampling of the riches found in Bill Leap’s collection. All of these items and more are available for student, faculty, and public use in the library’s Special Collections.