Professor Hamilton's Diary: Dec. 9, 1935

He courts a history conference for Albright; Reading Community Chest falls short of goal

After teaching his morning classes, Professor Hamilton called on a man “at his office & talked with him about the Pennsylvania Historical Association coming here.” I suppose it would be a feather in Albright College’s cap to host this prestigious meeting.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Reading Community Chest were pulling out all the stops to close the $57,000 deficit in their annual campaign. Paid subscribers can read on about the work of these organizations, which morphed into the modern United Way, in the days before there was a government “safety net.”

A reminder, readers, that only paid subscribers will learn what happened to Professor Hamilton and his family at the end of the year. Give yourself an early Christmas gift and sign up today for just $5 a month or $50 a year. That way you will also be ready to enjoy the diaries of Mrs. Ross, a Washington, D.C. matron writing about the early days of World War II in 1942; Walter E. Askew, chief of police in Newnan, Ga. in 1930; and Myra Jackson, a young mother living in Petrey, Alabama in 1932. For various reasons, the diaries are incomplete, but each provides fascinating insights into America during those very turbulent years. I am very excited to share them with subscribers!

The photo of a man putting up a Community Chest billboard in Omaha in 1938 was accessed via Wikimedia Commons.