A Look Into Newtown’s Past:

An Opportunity At Booth Library

By Shannon Hicks

The opening of “Passport To Newtown’s Past”at C.H. Booth Library  last weekend brought back a number of memories for some longtime Newtown residents. A complementary music and dance program that following the exhibition’s opening also created musical memories for residents of all ages.

Andrea Zimmermann, the director of The Newtown Historical Images Archive, put up 36 large-scale remastered prints from the archive she has been creating for two years. The exhibition’s signature photo, “Girl on A Swing,” was among the pieces that then sold during the opening, to a Newtown artist.

“I saw him as he walked into the room, and he had a twinkle in his eye from the moment he saw that photo,”  said Town Historian Dan Cruson, who was among those amazed at the clarity of the photographs on view.

“I’ve worked with some of these images before, but I’m just amazed at what was put together,” he said. “I’m seeing details that I have never noticed before.”

For others who were attending, it was like stepping into a family album.

Lillian (Canfield) Ermish, a 12th generation Newtown native, was at the opening with her niece, Maureen McCarthy, also a native of Newtown. Mrs Ermish was in Newtown’s first Girl Scout troop, a photo of which is on view. Her father is in a photograph showing the 1912 Newtown High School football team.

Mrs Ermish, who went to Hawley School and then went on to graduate from NHS in 1936, spoke with Mr Cruson about growing up in a town that had a population of 2,500 people.

“This show is wonderful,” she said, as her niece smiled and kept looking around the room. “It brings back a lot of memories.”

It was an enjoyable event whether one took it in as a historic photography exhibit or a mingling of generations of Newtown’s residents.

Continuing the afternoon was a program by Patricia Campbell & The Reel Thing. Mrs Campbell, a Newtown resident, welcomed attendees to the musical event by explaining that it would offer “a feel for the music of Newtown’s past.”

Mrs Campbell introduced each song that was performed by the very talented four-member band The Reel Thing, which includes her husband Bob Campbell on guitar, Julie Sorcek on flute and piccolo, Gwen Glasser on fiddle, and Fran Hendrickson on keyboard.

The program included songs that had been researched over the years by Mrs Hendrickson and her husband Chip. It also featured a number of songs from The Blackman Collection, music for social dancing collected by the Newtown resident Isaac Blackman in the early part of the 19th Century.

“Passport To Newtown’s Past” will remain on view in The Olga Knoepke Memorial Meeting Room at the library until August 31.