A Brief History:

In the diary, Hopper writes that Nathaniel Randall, went to Cape May, in order to find employment in a hotel. Cape May, is located in New Jersey and has a history of over three hundred years. The history spans from centuries of occupation by Native Americans, and the arrival of whaler yeomen during the Victorian age. The earliest inhabitants of Cape May were members of the Algonquin tribes and the specific tribe was known as the Lenni-Lenapes. The tribe was attracted to Cape May because of the forests and the abundant natural resources and hunting opportunities. Furthermore, there was also a name for another tribe which lived directly on Cape May Point, the Kechemeches. These Native American tribes lived and controlled the Cape May and the surrounding areas until the arrival of European settlers.  

Formation of the City:

The city was named after Dutch captain Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, who explored and charted the area from 1611 to 1614. It was during a voyage to Delaware Bay, that Mey gave Cape May the name it currently has. Through the course of the 1630s, Dutch explorers began to buy up land from the Native Americans. In 1641, Cape May was purchased by Swedish agents. During the 18th century, the city began to host vacationers from Philadelphia and thus earned the designation of one of the finest American resorts during the 19th century. Located on the southern tip of the Cape May Peninsula, the city is designated as a National Historic Landmark (1976), due to the concentration of Victorian era buildings. However, the city did not always look like it does. In 1878, there was a series of fires which destroyed over 30 blocks of the town center. The fire devastated the city and destroyed many of the city’s hotels and the original “Congress Hall.” Many of the Victorian era homes in the city center were built as a result of these fires. This was because that was the style during the time period. 

At the time in which Hopper was writing his diary, Cape May was a destination for tourism, and thus employment. By the 1850s, Cape May was seen as “America’s premier resort” and had enough hotels and hotel rooms to accommodate almost 2,500 guests. In 1850, there were almost 110,000 tourists estimated to have visited Cape May. This was before train travel made it easier to travel, and it could only be imagined how train travel would impact tourism. Touring was  boosted in the 1860s by the opening of the Tuckahoe and Cap May Railroads. 

Following the Civil War, Cape May suffered because it depended heavily on attracting Southern tourists. Furthermore, the beaches and bluffs faced an increasing threat of erosion, as well as, the destruction of its pier. Another factor which hurt the tourist industry in Cape May relates to the development of competing resorts along the Eastern Coast. Alongside all these problems, Cape May suffered drastically from a series of three fires. In 1856, a fire broke out and destroyed the Mansion House, which housed almost 300 guests. In 1869, another fire destroyed the Atlantic and United States Hotels. The loss of these hotels removed almost 600 rooms for guests. The most serious fire, mentioned previously caused the most damage to five major hotel and several smaller hotels, boarding houses and private cottages. Cape May began to lose most of its appeal to the wealthy and fashionable.  

Today, Cape May is one of the largest fishing ports located on the Eastern coast. While many of the original buildings in the city have been destroyed, the Victorian era homes, from 1878, still remain.  

Sources:  

"City of Cape May - City of Cape May." City of Cape May - City of Cape May. Accessed March 06, 2019. http://www.capemaycity.org/.

"History of Cape May." Sea Isle City | Cape May County, NJ - Official Website. Accessed March 06, 2019. https://capemaycountynj.gov/950/History. 

Page, Stephen J. Tourism Management. 5th ed. Routledge, 2015.

Stevens, Lewis Townsend. The History of Cape May County, New Jersey : From the Aboriginal times to the Present Day. Vol. 1. Cape May City, NJ: L.T. Stevens, 1897. 

https://archive.org/details/historyofcapemay01stev/page/n13  

"Victorian Cape May." New Jersey Transit Schedules. Accessed March 06, 2019. http://www.capemaytimes.com/history/victorian.htm. 

 Weiss, Thomas. "Tourism in America before World War II." The Journal of Economic History 64, no. 2 (2004): 289-327. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3874776.