Founded in pre-Revolutionary days, Bloomfield encompassed over twenty miles of Essex County in the early 1800s. The neighboring towns of Nutley, Belleville, North Newark, Montclair, and Glen Ridge were once a part of the Bloomfield landscape. After divisions of the land developed new communities, Bloomfield was left with little more than five miles. When the Morris Canal was dug through the middle of Bloomfield in 1824, industrial and residential growth strengthened and the town became the hub of Essex County commerce and manufacturing. Bloomfield continued its reputation as a progressive community for the next 150 years. The photographs in Bloomfield capture the essence of a community with small-town values and working-class ethics. From the earliest tintypes to the planting of a time capsule, the lives and times of people and events that shaped the town are captured here for the first time, with many never-before-published photographs. Images such as those of inventor Thomas Edison, President Woodrow Wilson, and landscape painter Charles Warren Eaton make Bloomfield a delight for all past and present residents of this American hometown.
