Dear Friends and Members of the Society,
In 2007 the City of Port Jervis will celebrate the centennial of its creation with a series of events currently being planned by the City Historian Richard Roberts. The Minisink Valley Historical Society, as its contribution to the celebration, will be publishing a new book entitled Port Jervis: Then and Now. The book will be printed by Arcadia Publishing in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and will be available for Christmas 2006.
Arcadia has published a number of local works through its Images of America series. The Society has been involved with the publication of several of their Images of America books including: Deerpark (by Brian Lewis), High Point State Park and Civilian Conservation Corps, Hacklebarney and Voorhees State Parks and the forthcoming Promised Land State Park (all by Peter Osborne).
In Port Jervis: Then and Now, the focus will be on how Port Jervis looked in 1907 and how it compares to today. Matt Osterberg will author the book along with Ed and Betsy Krakowiak. Matt's previous Images of America books on Port Jervis, Dingmans Ferry, Matamoras to Shohola, and The Delaware and Hudson Canal and Gravity Railroad were all a great success. Matt, his wife, Carol, and their children are residents of Milford, Pennsylvania. He is president of the borough council and active in the affairs of the community. Betsy and Ed are active members of the Minisink Valley Historical Society; Betsy presently serves as the Society's webmaster and Ed has been a board member for a number of years. They own a number of internet related businesses, are avid photographers and live in Port Jervis.
The book will be beautifully illustrated, make an important contribution to the city's celebrations and make a great holiday present or keepsake. For those who remember Port Jervis in the "good old days" or want to better understand its history, this volume will be an important addition to your library.
To create the best book possible the Society is soliciting pictures from the public of Port Jervis from 1900-1915. If you have one or more photographs from that time period please call Betsy and Ed Krakowiak at 845-856-4894 or send an email to [email]webmaster@minisink.org[/email] and they will be glad to make arrangements to review them. You may also send an instant message to the Administrator of this Genealogy Forum or leave a reply to this post. We are particularly interested in outdoor and street scenes, family reunions, work photographs and parades. Selected photographs will be digitally scanned and returned to the owner. Because of the various publication deadlines the photographs will need to be in the Society's possession by February 15, 2006.
We wish you and yours a Happy Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and Happy Kwanza. Best regards from the Upper Delaware.