FREEHOLD, N.J. -- The Monmouth County Historical Association in New Jersey has been fortunate over its 96 year history to have as patrons several highly regarded collectors of Americana. An exhibition of objects donated by, or from the collection of, Mrs J. Amory Haskell remains on view through March 17 at the MCHA's museum and library at 70 Court Street in Freehold.

Margaret Moore Riker (later Haskell) was born in 1864. Her early appreciation for history became a passion for collecting; she is said to have started at age 12. Born in a historic family house on Long Island, she grew up in New York City and also spent time in Monmouth County, where her family had a summer home. As a young girl, she attended the New York finishing school of Mrs Sylvanius Reed, who later founded the Monmouth County Historical Association and doubtless nurtured young Margaret's interest in things historical.

Margaret Riker married Jonathan Amory Haskell in 1891. Over the next few years his business took them and their growing family to Pennsylvania and then to Wilmington, where Mrs Haskell became friendly with fellow collector Henry Francis DuPont. They visited each other and corresponded about their mutual interest for many years thereafter.

The Haskells moved to New Jersey in 1907, settling in Monmouth County, which had been a summer retreat for both of their families. They acquired 240 acres of farmland in Middletown, which they named Oak Hill Farm after Mrs Haskell's family home on Long Island. Her feeling for family history was so strong that she had her childhood home moved by water to her new property in Middletown. To design their main residence, the Haskells hired the New York architectural firm of York and Sawyer. Their elegant brick Georgian Revival home was completed in 1911, and Mrs Haskell began to furnish its 44 rooms with her collection.

Mrs Haskell's relationship with the Monmouth County Historical Association spanned three decades, during which she generously contributed to the Association's museum and library as she continued to build her own Americana collection. In 1936, she presented the association with its first historic property, Marlpit Hall in Middletown, which was begun in 1686 and enlarged in the mid-Eighteenth Century. After the death of the last family occupant in 1931, and with the help of Miss Edna Netter, a local antiques dealer who often advised Mrs Haskell on her collecting, Mrs Haskell acquired, restored and furnished Marlpit Hall so that it might be operated by MCHA as a museum. Mrs Haskell even had a series of post cards of Marlpit Hall and its interior produced.

Like many collectors of her time, Mrs Haskell's interest were varied. Her gifts to the Monmouth County Historical Association ranged from important documents of local regional craftsmanship, such as the Rhea chair, made in Freehold in 1695; to objects owned by patriots of national prominence, such as a table purchased from the sale at Monticello that followed Thomas Jefferson's death; and a desk-and-bookcase made in Lancaster, Penn., for one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, James Wilson.

Objects with anecdotal histories were also of interest to Mrs Haskell. An example on view is a very plain ladderback armchair. It bears a brass plaque stating that "Jesse Ketcham an officer on Washington's staff made this chair with his jack knife when he was a boy about 1750."

In addition to well over 100 pieces of furniture, she gave ceramics, silver, textiles, prints and paintings to the association. Many items carry local histories. Three important portraits done by George Henry Durrie in 1842 depict members of the Conover family, who resided in nearby Marlboro, N.J. Also on view is a portrait of about 1790 by a local artist, Perry Hunn of Monmouth County, who painted his sister, Phoebe Hunn Vanderhoef.

Mrs Haskell's own collection grew so large that it was housed and warehoused in the residence and other buildings at Oak Hill and at the apartment that the Haskells kept in New York. During her lifetime, as her family recalls, the hallway at the brick house contained tall case clocks three deep, and the New York apartment was a maze of pathways between furniture.

A portion of the Haskell collection was also on loan to museums. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the museums of Harvard and Yale Universities benefited from these generous loans as did the Monmouth County Historical Association. After Mr Haskell's death in 1923, Mrs Haskell furnished a room at Kenmore, a historic house in Virginia, in his memory. In 1929, she lent nine pieces from her collection to the historic Girl Scout loan exhibition of American furniture and decorative arts.

Mrs Haskell died in 1942. Until that time, she was still actively involved with the Monmouth County Historical Association and was remembered in her obituary as "one of this generation's greatest collectors of antiques." The Haskell sale, conducted by Parke-Bernet in New York, was a landmark auction of Americana. It took 25 days over two years to disperse more than 7,000 lots. Friends and family purchased many of the lots for their own collections and some for gifts to the Monmouth County Historical Association in Mrs Haskell's memory. Many pieces of her furniture still circulate in the marketplace and can be identified by her brand, "Property of Mrs J. A. Haskell."

Illustrated here is a selection of decorative arts and paintings from Mrs J. Amory Haskell's collection along with her gifts to MCHA. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 am to 4 pm, and Sunday, from 1 to 4 pm. Telephone, 908/462-1466.