WEBINAR – The Delaware River: An Immigrant History

Water played a practical role in the development of American societies. The availability of navigable waters affected settlement and migration patterns. The Delaware River basin is an ecosystem, a thorofare, a natural resource, and a dumping ground! The history of the Delaware River’s settlement and the diverse waves of migrations that peopled its shores, and the changes wrought by the leveling of forests, the conversion of wetlands to arable land, the capture of its fish and wildlife, and lastly its use as a source of safe drinking water and the dilution of wastes, speaks volumes about the challenges we face to keep it sustainable and a testimony to both its endurance and frailty. Please join us as retired research scientist Thomas Belton explores how the Delaware River both shaped and was shaped by the constant flux of travel and immigration through that waterway, particularly in the context of New Jersey’s history.

Thomas Belton is a retired research scientist and public health official for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. His professional memoir, “Protecting New Jersey’s Environment: From Cancer Alley to the New Garden State” (Rutgers University Press) won “Best Book in Science Writing for the General Public” by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. He continues to write and lecture on environmental issues in retirement.

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