Berlin has had many residents that have shaped its history. You’ve met some of the industrialists. Meet some others:
- Noted artists N. A. Moore and Robert Bolling Brandegee. Some of their art and photographs hang at the Museum.
- Authors Peter Parley (Samuel Goodrich) wrote a selection of children’s books and and Catharine North wrote The History Of Berlin Connecticut, still readily referred to today.
- Entrepreneurs Charles Jarvis, past president of Berlin Iron Bridge, and being one of the first to plant alfalfa in the area, and, Norman Porter, gentleman farmer, who is purported to have been the first in the area to eat a tomato (which were thought poisonous).
- Emma Hart Willard, noted woman educator, author, poet, and composer, she taught school in Berlin and established a successful school for women in New York, teaching subjects thought not germane to women at the time, as math and science.
- Berlin had many men serve in the Revolutionary War and Civil War, and the many men and women that served in all the major conflicts of the 20th century.
There are so many more, too numerous to mention, but no less important – they served and now serve our community every day. The Berlin Historical Society is thankful to all of them.
A new 2019 exhibit honors one of Berlin’s own, Alphonse “Al” Pegolo, who served in the Army during World War II. He was part of D-Day invasion and the Battle of the Bulge. Come to the Museum and learn his story. (Artifacts were generously donated by the Pegolo family.)
