The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) will host a Vintage Post Card and Ephemera Show and Sale Sat., June 16 from 10 to 3 at the HSM hall, 778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville.

Admission is $3; HSM members get in free.

Several vendors will offer old post cards, documents, maps, advertisements, flyers and other paper items. While the focus of the show is on old New York State views, dealers will also have topical, foreign, and holiday cards. The show is coordinated by John Duda of Fleischmanns, well known post card collector and dealer.

A special exhibit of antique post cards, “Wish You Here,” on loan from the Delaware County Historical Association, will be also on view.

MARGARETVILLE – Middletown residents and visitors have long had a love-hate relationship with the Catskills environment: While beautiful and generous in its abundance, its stony ground, weather extremes and flood-prone waterways can be unforgiving.

In “The Great Outdoors,” an exhibit mounted by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM), drudgery, damage and disappointment are banished, while the playful, joyful connection between humans and nature, then as now, is on exuberant display.

The exhibit can be seen this Saturday, May 19 when HSM unveils its new headquarters at 778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville. The Open House will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. There will be light refreshments, door prizes, and the opportunity to stroll around the beautiful pond and grounds which were donated to HSM by the property’s most recent owners, the New Kingston Valley Grange.

The meeting hall was built in 1938 by the Catskill Mountain Chapter of the Izaak Walton League, a group of outdoorsmen who worked to conserve and protect water, land, fish and wildlife.

“We thought that, in honor of the Izaak Walton League, which was so active here from the 1930s through the ‘60s, that it would be appropriate for our first exhibit in our new space to focus on nature and how people in Middletown have enjoyed it,” explained HSM President Diane Galusha.

Historic and contemporary photographs and some fascinating artifacts highlight the many recreational activities that have long been pursued in this area blessed by mountain, stream and the Catskill Forest Preserve: fishing, hunting, camping, skiing and hiking of course, but also swimming, boating, biking, birding, skating and snowshoeing.

Guests at the many hotels and boarding houses in the area enjoyed lawn games and walks in the country, and even willingly participated in farm chores. Artists, including those at the Pakatakan Arts Colony in Arkville, have always been inspired to sketch and paint in the open air. Parks, playgrounds and ballfields have been the centers of their communities.

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) is happy to announce that five more years of vintage Catskill Mountain News have been posted online.

Web users can now search and browse the Margaretville-based newspaper from July 13, 1902 to April 28, 1961. Visit http://history.catskill.net to find this treasure trove of history, made possible by several individual donors and the O’Connor Foundation.

HSM is steadily working to have the News digitized through 1973.

A sample newly posted front page, February 1, 1957, offers the following tidbits: