Upcoming Meetings and Events

  Fall Workshop Opportunites:

  Thursday, November 6, 2008, 7:30 p.m. at our new meeting location at Foxdale Village Auditorium, 500 East Marylyn Avenue, State College (see location map, once inside follow signs to the auditorium). Adam Rogers presents "The Readjustment of Centre County Soldiers Returning from the Civil War" addressing how Union soldiers from Centre County fared and readjusted upon returning home from the Civil War. Both historians and period contemporaries have tended to either ignore Civil War veterans, believing that they simply returned to their old lives, or portrayed them as damaged—possibly dangerous—individuals irrevocably distinct and separated from civilian society. Adam's work hopes to shed new light on the topic of veteran studies and promote a greater understanding of how returning soldiers participated in communities and made use of new local, state, and federal programs designed to ease their transition into the civilian world.

  Thursday, November 13, 2008, 7:00 p.m. at our new meeting location at Foxdale Village Auditorium, 500 East Marylyn Avenue, State College (see location map, once inside follow signs to the auditorium). Civilian Conservation Corps Camps presented by Beth Rider – our FIRST joint meeting between the Centre County Historical Society and the Centre County Genealogical Society. Program details to follow.

  Thursday, December 4, 2008, 6:00 p.m. at Hoss's Steak and Sea House, 1450 North Atherton Street, State College. Join us for a Dutch-treat meal at Hoss’s as Richard "Dick" Pencek, Emeritus Teaching Scholar in Integrative Arts and local antiquarian, presents "Pewter in America." Dick has worked in this field with over fifty students who’ve gone on to top graduate schools such as Winterthur, Deerfield and Cooperstown. His classes have won several State museum awards for preservation and former students are curators or similar positions at Landis Valley, Somerset Historical Society and Lancaster Heritage to mention a few. Dick will bring about 20 pieces of his personal pewter collection from the 17th century to the 19th century for viewers to handle during the discussion. He will discuss marks and makers and the differences between American and British pewter. Viewers curious about a piece of their own pewter may bring it for Dick to examine after the presentation.

  First Families of Pennsylvania. First Families of Pennsylvania is open to those who can prove their descent from an ancestor who resided in what is now Pennsylvania during the following time periods:

• Colony & Commonwealth – 1681- 1790
• Keystone & Cornerstone – 1791-1865
• Pennsylvania Proud – 1866-1900