Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center

You are  welcome to call us at (973) 733-7775 or e-mail us at njreference@npl.org.

Please note we can do three obituary lookups or 30 minutes research per patron per month.

This service is free for New Jersey residents and $15.00 for out-of-state patrons.

The Center is open during library hours at:
Newark Public Library (3rd Floor)
5 Washington Street
Newark, NJ 07102

You may walk in without an appointment. Masks are recommended. We recommend e-mailing in advance for requests for archives boxes.

Your support of the Library’s Robert Treat Endowment Fund helps to ensure that the New Jersey Information Center collections are enhanced and preserved in perpetuity. The fund was created in 2005 by Charles F. Cummings. To learn more about giving, click here.

Mr. Cummings, Assistant Director of Special Collections and Statewide Outreach, passed away on December 21, 2005. He was a valued employee since joining The Newark Public Library on July 15, 1963, and was recognized as the Newark City Historian and the expert source for “everything Newark” .  Learn More.

The Newark Public Library received a generous grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to digitize a portion of its historical materials. Many collections are already available in our digital archive @ digital.npl.org

or read more about the project.

Read: The activity books that pair with our digital collections: My Newark Story, Newark Eagles 101.

From 1996 through 2005, Charles Cummings wrote weekly Knowing Newark columns for The Star-Ledger. With the gracious support of The Star-Ledger and Newark Celebration 350, many of the columns are available in this keyword searchable website.

Read: The book version of this website (30+ columns) is also available digitally here.