author
Harriet Phillips Eaton
A late-19th-century local historian, she captured Jersey City's past in a lively, readable way that still appeals to readers interested in place, memory, and community history. Her best-known book grew out of a civic effort to preserve historic sites and make the city's story more visible.
1 Audiobook
Jersey City and Its Historic Sites
by Harriet Phillips Eaton
About the author
Harriet Phillips Eaton is best known for Jersey City and Its Historic Sites (1899), a historical survey published by the Woman's Club of Jersey City. The book was created after club members asked her to write a short history of the city, with proceeds intended to support memorial tablets at important colonial and Revolutionary locations.
Her writing focuses on Jersey City's early settlement, landmarks, and public memory, and it helped preserve details that might otherwise have been lost. Later museum records also connect her with Commander Charles Phillips Eaton and note that she was associated with objects and collections linked to him.
Reliable biographical details about her personal life are limited in the sources I could confirm here, so this overview centers on the work that is clearly documented. What stands out most is her role in turning local history into something accessible and civic-minded, written for readers who wanted to understand the places around them.