Come view our current exhibit, “Building Bridges, Not Walls: Berkeley, America’s First Sanctuary City.” Shop for new and used Berkeley history books, meet volunteers and other members, and enjoy refreshments. Coincides with the Ecology Center Craft Fair in Civic Center Park.
Author Talk: Mara Melandry
Mara Melandry, a member of the Historical Society, is a long-time Berkeley resident and Cal graduate. She has researched the history of one of Berkeley’s most beloved institutions, the three family camps, Tuolumne, Echo Lake and Cazadero. Our Paradise: Berkeley’s Fabulous Family Camps covers all three. The history includes wonderful historic and more contemporary photographs. It is about 200 pages long, excluding photographs.
She has delved into the history of the camps from their beginnings in the 1920s to the present. She has found what inspired city leaders to establish the camps in the 1920s, chronicled their earliest years, recorded their ups and downs, and described their wonderful and occasionally wacky traditions.
She has found remarkable and entertaining stories about the camps. Among the fascinating items she has uncovered are Wobbles, the famous horse, who swam at Cazadero; the cow that fell into the septic tank at Tuolumne; men in tutus; “Plunge-o” performing at Cazadero’s Untalent Night; the time Rowan and Martin and the cast of Laugh-in visited Tuolumne; the legend of the purple-haired dog bear who kidnapped campers from Cazadero; the bridge named after Alferd G. Packer, the cannibal; and the truth about the “murderers” at Tuolumne and Echo Lake.
The book also describes the camps in the context of historical events such as the Great Depression, World War II, and the tumultuous 1960s.
Following the talk, there will be light refreshments and book signing.
20180930-Occupella at the Berkeley History Center
Meet local author Nancy Schimmel, who will discuss her work and read from her book, Occupella: Singing in the Lifeboats. The book is an account of the first year of Occupella, an activist song-leading group that grew out of song circles at Occupy Oakland and Occupy Berkeley formed by five professional singer-songwriters in 2011.
Occupella now sings at Berkeley’s weekly Tax the Rich demonstrations, monthly at BART transit stations, and at labor picket lines, climate change rallies and workshops of the San Francisco Folk Festival. They conduct song swaps and maintain an online songbook of original, topical and traditional parodies and rewrites.
Nancy Schimmel is a veteran of the 1960s peace movement and the women’s movement. Her songs have been sung by Pete Seeger, Sally Rogers, and Grupo Raiz. She is working on a biography of her mother, Malvina Reynolds, who wrote “Little Boxes” and other songs.
Also speaking and singing with Nancy will be fellow Occupella singer-songwriter Hali Hammer. Moving to the Bay Area from her native New York in the 1980s, she joined Freedom Song Network and was a member of the chorus that sang onstage behind Nelson Mandela at the Oakland Coliseum. She became active in the San Francisco Folk Music Club and was the coordinator of the 2003 Berkeley Free Folk Festival. She has worked with Country Joe McDonald, organizing a Protest Music Festival held at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists for several years and performing in various concerts with him including one at Ashkenaz that benefited the Berkeley Historical Society. She also served on the committee that fought to save the Berkeley Post Office.
Light refreshments will be served. Admission to this event is free; donations to the Berkeley Historical Society are always welcome.
40th Anniversary Exhibit Opening and Program
Our next exhibit, Collection Gems: Forty Years of Documenting Berkeley History, will display a wide variety of materials collected over the years since the BHS started in 1978. Items will be grouped into several topical areas: schools, businesses, politics and government, performing arts, and family life, as well as some highlights from the society’s own history.
The exhibit will open on Sunday, May 20, with a talk by Betty Reid Soskin, whose memoir, Sign My Name to Freedom, was recently published. The reception following her talk will include a big cake to celebrate BHS’s fortieth birthday.
This special occasion will also include the debut of our first permanent exhibit, an illustrated Berkeley History Timeline that will make it possible for all visitors to get an overview of the history of our city.