NJ 'Princesses' Topic Of Talk By Monmouth Historical Association

FREEHOLD, NJ — If your interest in British nobility has been piqued by the flood of leaks from Prince Harry's tell-all book "Spare," the Monmouth County Historical Association is offering a different perspective on royal love stories.

The association's Historically Speaking virtual lecture series will resume with a Zoom presentation on Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. on the topic of the daughters of wealthy New Jersey Americans who married into the British nobility during the Gilded Age.

Melissa Ziobro, public history professor at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, will be presenting the lecture, "American Women and Royal Marriages: NJ’s Dollar Princesses."

Advances in American industrialization created a sect of "new money" families, the association notes. While they had enormous wealth, they could not compete with the social standing of the more established "old money" families.

To remedy this, the association says, daughters from these American families traded wealth for titles as they married into the nobility of Europe - particularly those families who were hard-pressed for cash.

This phenomenon was at the heart of the "Downton Abbey" series, in which wealthy American Lady Cora Crawley married into a fictitious British noble family.

According to a bio on the association website, Ziobro, a trustee of the association, served as guest curator of its exhibits “Tracking Sandy: Monmouth County Remembers,” “Monmouth County, 9/11 and its Aftermath” and co-curator for “Springsteen: His Hometown.”

She is Monmouth University’s Specialist Professor of Public History, President of Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region and editor for "New Jersey Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal," among other roles.

You can register for this free Zoom lecture, as well as future ones that are planned. Browse the association's upcoming line-up on its website and follow the instructions for registration.

Choose the last name of each lecturer you would like to hear, or just type "All" if you would like to be automatically registered for all future lectures. There is no need to register again if you have selected "all" at any point. You will receive a reminder email a few days before the lecture date, and the link will be emailed a couple of hours prior to start time.

Historically Speaking, now in its third year, features respected Monmouth County historians, and the Zoom audience can participate in a Q&A at the end of each lecture.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the Monmouth County Library.