Historic Round Top Photos Featured In RTAHS Time Capsule Exhibit

The Round Top Area Historical Society (RTAHS) will host a public open house and reception at its Jaehne Pavilion for an exhibit of historic photographs on Sunday, May 24 between 2-5 p.m. The exhibit will feature representative works from three early area photographers, namely Gustav Froelich, Friederike Recknagel and Robert Fulton Adams. The RTAHS campus is located immediately behind the U. S. Post Office at 397 E. Mill Street in Round Top.

The exhibit, which is titled Round Top, Preserved Moments in Time...A Photographic Time Capsule, will celebrate the 250th birthday for the founding of the United States of America and feature about fifty (50) historical images spanning a sixty (60) year period following the end of the American Civil War.

The exhibit will also honor military veterans who served during the Great War and World War II (WWII) both in Europe and the Pacific. The focal point of the Pavilion will be a 9 x 5 foot 48-star United States flag, which originally draped the coffin of one of the area’s WWII fallen heroes. This ceremonial flag will hang from the domed ceiling of the octagon-shaped room. The flag and other artifacts are on loan from the Noak House Library, Museum and Archives located on the RTAHS campus.

During the open house, a self-advancing slide presentation on the photographic history of the Round Top area will be shown with audio on a repeated basis. Those attending will view this PowerPoint film on a widescreen, 75-inch wall-mounted monitor. Seating is provided.

Most of the photographs have been enhanced, restored and enlarged to a 2x3-foot size. A few landscapes and portraits are larger. Printing of the images and captions took several months and was processed by LG Print Company of La Grange.

Neale Rabensburg is the director of Round Top, Preserved Moments in Time...A Photographic Time Capsule.