Berks History Center Executive Director Benjamin Neely has a long history in history, but it’s not where his story began. After beginning his career in business, he decided to follow his passion for the past and is now working to carry our local history center into the future.
Q: When and how did you get involved with the History Center? I’ve been here just a shade over a year now, and it’s been an interesting year! Previously I was the Executive Director for the Adams County Historical Society in Gettysburg for nearly 15 years. I wasn’t in the market for a job, but I was being nosy checking out the job description and realized it was a pretty neat place.
Q: Have you always had a passion for local history? This was not my initial career choice. History was always my escape from everything else. I worked in a number of different fields within the business arena, and in my last position I was about to transition into a new role. I decided that if I did, I would be in business for the rest of my life. I didn’t love it, and I wanted to do something I love. So, I decided to go back to school. I got a graduate degree in Applied History from Shippensburg University. I really enjoyed the work, and I’ve never looked back.
Q: What has the first year been like for you? We’ve had to make some changes; COVID is really going to change museum interpretation for a while. For years, everything was driven by hands-on activities, so now we’ve had to step back and find out how we can still get people to engage but in a contactless way, which will likely be technology driven. But we don’t want to shift everything to Zoom, so we’re also trying to figure out what programs we can do that are a little bit old school. Right now, we’re working on a driving tour. Families can pile in the car and follow instructions to take a historical road trip through Berks Country.
Q: Are there other ways people can get involved remotely? We publish a quarterly magazine for our members, The Historical Review of Berks County, that is really well done. It is chock-full of content and is a great dose of local history. We also supplement that every couple of weeks with our News Bits to share other happenings here at the center.
Q: What are your plans for the future? As much as I enjoy sitting at a table in the Research Library, digitization is the way of the future, and I’d like to move us in that direction. At some point we would like to create a portal through which you could access our digital records and be able to do research remotely. I also understand that some of our museum exhibits have been in place for a very long time. I really want to see a refresh of all our exhibits and to establish a rotation so when you visit us again it doesn’t look the same. I would love to see what other stories we can tell.
Taking the Museum Outdoors.
The Berks History Center is working on several outdoor programs to get people involved in local history in a safe way. Check out berkshistory.org for a full schedule of events.
Membership has its Perks.
In addition to the quarterly magazine, members also get free access to the center as well as the opportunity to participate on various committees to help preserve our local heritage.
