Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston, and Bruce Springsteen are just a few of the artists who have called New Jersey home, but for centuries this state has served as fertile, creative ground. This presentation will focus on lesser-known musical treasures primarily from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that are housed in an archive of sheet music in Rutgers University's Special Collections and University Archives. Some pieces praise the pristine beauty of New Jersey, while others draw on humorous stereotypes of the Garden State. Other themes include marital infidelity, nostalgia, and state pride.

Jonathan Sauceda has been the Music and Performing Arts Librarian at Rutgers University-New Brunswick since 2013. His research areas include popular and art music of Latin America and the United States from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Jonathan teaches courses in music history and research.