Through the course of 20+ years of visits to churches and homes, I've seen a lot of fascinating items that would be of great value in the book I plan to publish. Unfortunately, I saw many of these things before I had a laptop with a scanner. Once I had such equipment, it was much easier to collect and preserve these materials, by doing it electronically. Unfortunately, when I went back to where I saw some of those things, they had disappeared. Other items, like certain photographs, were published in a book but at a small size or with poor quality. If I could find the original, I could reprint it at much higher quality.
I'm hoping some readers may know where to look for them, and can track them down for me, or that they might even have the item in their own possession.
Some of the items I'm seeking are the following:
- Leisenring: 25th anniversary booklet of St. Stephen's Greek Catholic Church. I want to scan the photographs in the book.
- Mayfield: many of the photos that appeared in the 100th anniversary book (1991) of St. John's Russian Orthodox Church, which unfortunately were printed on textured paper that makes them difficult to scan, such as this one:
Also of special interest from Mayfield is the funeral photograph that appeared on the cover of the 1991 centennial book.
- Newtown/Bobto(w)n: photos of the former St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church.
- Plymouth: Ss. Peter & Paul Greek Catholic Church - photograph
(1910s?) of the church choir holding a sign that said РУССКІЙ ХОРЪ. I came across it in the rectory of Holy Transfiguration Ukrainian G.C. Church in Nanticoke around 1999-2000, but seems to have disappeared. I want to scan the photo.
- Saint Clair: photograph of the dramatic club of St. Mary's Russian Orthodox Church. I want to scan the photo. I have a photocopy but the quality is not suitable for reproducing in a book.
Sheppton: 50th anniversary booklet of St. Mary's Greek Catholic Church. I want to scan the photographs in the book. (I found a copy in the office of Ss. Peter & Paul Church in Beaver Meadows; it has since gone missing.)- Simpson: photographs that had been hanging in the hall of Ss. Peter & Paul Greek Catholic Church. I want to scan them. Some of them were reproduced in the 100th anniversary book (2004).
- Simpson: photographs that appeared in the 75th anniversary book (1979) of St. Basil’s Russian Orthodox Church. (I have the book; I'm looking for originals.) I want to scan the photos, especially this one:
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"Old Country Wedding" by members of St. Basil's R.O. Church,
Simpson, ca. 1941. The cast is wearing Lemko Rusyn costumes,
unlike in many other "Russian" parishes where they adopted
ethnic Russian-style folk costumes for such productions. |
Taylor: 50th anniversary booklet of St. Mary's Greek Catholic Church. I want to scan the photographs in the book. (I found a copy in the office of St. Nicholas Church in Old Forge; it has since gone missing.)
If you have knowledge of any of these items' whereabouts, please contact me in the comments or better yet at rusynsofpa@gmail.com.
As I locate some of these materials, or identify others that I need to find, I will update and re-publish this post.
Original material is © by the author, Richard D. Custer; all rights reserved.
