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Posted 02-26-2006 FIVE News-Bits of Reading-Berks historical interest... =============== =================== ============= =============== =================== ============= 1- Tonight (Mon. 2/26) GMMIX will give slide show at Leesport 2- This Wednesday at 7 pm is the Society's monthly BCTV program 3- BCTV's 30th anniversary year; it deserves your support! 4- FIRST THURSDAY(3/2) Society program: Bill Uhrich on Imhoff 5- Book Review: Albright College's sesqui-centennial publication ============== =============== =============== ============== =============== =============== 1- This evening, Monday, Feb. 27th at 7:30, your editor will present a slide program dealing with "The Passing Scene" series of illustrated Reading/Berks histories. Choice views from upcoming Volume 14--due out this coming November--will be shared. Information will be provided as to how the books get into print. This free program, open to the general public, will be held at Bethany Church in West Leesport, 308 Main St. Easy parking is available directly behind the building. This is a regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Leesport Historical Society. Come and bring friends. ============== =============== ============== 2- This coming Wednesday is the Historical Society of Berks County's monthly BCTV program---at 7 p.m. (March 1st) As usual, a plethora of old-time Reading and Berks views will be shown and discussed. ============== ============== ================ 3- Berks Community Television (BCTV)---now observing its 30th anniversary---is a survivor in a tough venue and a unique entity in that it's inter-active: you are encouraged to call in with questions and comments. Can you name another locally-based operation, similiarly constituted, that serves its general area all day/ every day? But like so many "local operations," it struggles to continue serving its public. It NEEDS your support. It REALLY needs your support! Why not salute BCTV on its 30th anniversary and send a check for $30 for a year's membership to BCTV, 645 Penn St., Reading, PA 19601. For the trivia buffs out there, be aware that during the years your editor and, in time, Gloria Jean have participated in BCTV's programming, we've provided approximately 10,560 photos to the viewing public. If you'd miss seeing these old-time photos, and everything else BCTV offers, DO consider sending a $30 check to BCTV now....before it slips your mind and another month passes. Time passes---but operating expenses never go away! =============== ================ ============== 4- This coming Thursday morning at 8:30 is the Society's monthly FIRST THURSDAY program (March 2nd). The program offering is super special. Bill Uhrich, photo editor for the Reading Eagle Company and unquestionably one of the leading photograpers now living and working in Berks, will give a slide program dealing with the art and life of German-born muralist Berthold Imhoff who decorated home and church interiors throughout Reading and Berks. His masterpiece was St. Paul's German Catholic Church, 9th and Walnut. Vintage views of the sanctuary defy belief. He also decorated local mansions; "Stirling," the Sternbergh home on Centre Ave., immediately comes to mind. The U.C.C. church at Spangsville, along Covered Bridge Road, is another of his masterpieces and readily accessible to the public. The congregation there fully appreciates what it has in its Imhoff art. Mr. Uhrich's camera-art appeared in the Winter issue of the Historical Review of Berks County, the most colorful and collectible issue of the magazine since its inception in October 1935. Greshville Antiques, Valerie and Curt Malmberg (proprietors), very largely made this "color issue" possible. Come and bring friends. This is one program you WON'T want to miss. It's open to the general public. And remember, you may now use the Society's new parking lot, directly behind our headquarters, at the former M&T bank building. ================ ================ =========== 5- In observation of Albright College's 150th anniversary, a committee there compiled a commemorative publication. Here is an overview of that work: “Albright at 150: A History in Photographs” by an anniversary committee; 48 pages; 9 by 10 inches softbound; 80 illustrations; edited by Barbara J. Marshall and Jennifer P. Stoudt; published by the college--2006. Cost is $20 plus tax at the college or at the Historical Society’s museum (gift) shop. Available by mail for $24 postpaid; checks payable to Historical Society of Berks County, 940 Centre Ave., Reading, PA 19601 The publication is divided into six clearly defined sections: 1856-1919 (Foundations), 1920-1939 (Consolidation), 1940-1959 (War and Peace), 1960-1979 (A Time of Social Change), 1930-1999 (Diversity and Expansion), and 2000 and Beyond (The New Millennium). For non-alumni / local history buffs, the first half of the work probably will be of greatest interest, largely because of the fine-quality, well-chosen vintage pictures. Included within the informative 3-page introduction by Dr. R. G. Androne, Professor of English, is a graphic time-line genealogy of Albright that is useful in trying to understand what earlier institutions at various locations existed before consolidation materialized at the present campus-site on North 13th Street. =============== =============== ============= =============== GMMIX..........end

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