New Jersey

The New Jersey panel highlights the many roles women undertook in Passaic County during the American Revolution.

As the Dey family hosted General Washington and the Continental Army in 1780 at their estate, free and enslaved women of the household worked to facilitate the needs of the troops and to support fundraising efforts. Women of the household prepared food (middle left) and fabricated clothing for Continental soldiers (middle right). As county leaders of the philanthropic group the "Ladies of Trenton," matriarch Hester Dey and her daughter-in-law (lower left) raised over $15,000 for the Continental Army.

The lower right vignette features a smallpox inoculation administered by Senior Surgeon of the Continental Army Dr. Bodo Otto. German-born Dr. Otto was tasked with establishing a military hospital in Trenton to inoculate troops against smallpox.

This initiative was critical in safeguarding the health of soldiers during a time when smallpox was more lethal to the Continental Army than British forces.