JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
Big crowds come out on Saturday at the Germantown School Community Heritage Center for an art and local history reception created by local artist Patrick Henry. Henry spent nearly two decades compiling photographs, along with several more years restoring them, in order to depict “African-American Life in Another View.”

PHOTOS COURTESY PATRICK HENRY
Photos from the “African-American Life in Another View” exhibition included, clockwise from top left, workers in a canning factory, Virginia Smack Tingle on the Ocean City Boardwalk, Jennie and Charles Tingle Sr., and Civil War veteran Peter Henry and his wife Emma.

JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
Artist Patrick Henry, left, with Barbara Purnell and Victor Smack, enjoy the opening of Henry’s “African-American Life in Another View” exhibition at the Germantown School on Saturday.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Feb. 14, 2019) Berlin artist Patrick Henry’s restorations of scores of photographs – many more than a century old – were met with a strong community response last Saturday as “African-American Life in Another View” was unveiled at the Germantown School Community Heritage Center.

A four-hour reception on Saturday evening was well attended, and people inside the former schoolhouse could be seen staring intently at the dozens of images on display, which dated from the mid-1800s through the middle of the last century.

“I think this whole show brings back memories of the community,” Victor Smack said. “I’m glad that Pat Henry has done this at the Germantown School, and I’m glad that he’s doing this in the memory of Black History Month.

“It seems to me we’ve had hundreds and hundreds of people coming by and stopping to look at those photographs,” Smack continued. “It’s a great honor to me to walk around and see the pictures that Mr. Pat Henry has done. He’s done a great job.”

About halfway through the event, three men well known in the Berlin community, Gregory Purnell, Gabe Purnell and Town Councilman Elroy Brittingham, had gathered around a photo captioned “Jennie and Charles Tingle Sr.” Next to it was Jennie Tingle’s midwifery certificate, dated 1939.

“This lady had her hands on each of us the day we were born – and that was back in the 1940s,” Gregory Purnell said.

Gabe Purnell was born in 1945, Brittingham was born in 1948, and Gregory Purnell was born one year later, in 1949.

“Even before then, [she] was [famous] for bringing children of African-American decent into the world,” Gregory Purnell said. “It’s almost like seeing your mother! All I ever knew was ‘Miss Janie,’ ‘Miss Janie,’ ‘Miss Janie.’ And that was the first time that I’ve seen her picture.”

Purnell said it was also the first time he learned her real name was “Jennie.”

“She brought hundreds of Berlin, probably Snow Hill, Newark [and] Selbyville black babies into the world,” he said. “I’d bet hundreds … 500 or more easily.”

“That’s extraordinary right there,” he added.

Brittingham was equally awestruck.

“I’m learning so much history of people that I didn’t even realize [what they looked like]. I heard their names, but I’ve never seen them in pictures,” he said. “It’s so much history here.”

He said a younger woman walked up to him earlier in the evening and remarked, “I didn’t know Berlin had a tomato factory,” referring to several photos of a former canning operation based in the town.

“When I was a kid … they had so many trucks lined up with tomatoes, I just rode my bike right toward the tomatoes, walked up and started eating one,” Brittingham said with a laugh. “That was back in the day!”

For Henry, who put years of work into the project, the public response was more than gratifying.

He began his work at the end of the last century, compiling the photos from the collections of Edward Hammond Sr., Maude Armstrong, John Briddell, Jesse Fassett, Jeanette Smith, Margaret Smith and Leola Smack.

During the last several years, he restored the images on his computer and began printing them, at first unsure of what to do with the finished product.

“I was so intense into it that once I set it up and saw it collectively, it just blew me away,” he said.

Seeing everyone gathered to view and admire the photos, he said, was awe-inspiring. Walking in the door near the start of the reception, a man picked up a large, black and white photograph and held it in his arms like a long-lost friend.

“That’s what I wanted!” Henry said. “That’s exactly was I was hoping for. I would love to have a story for each of the photographs.”

He said one woman, a Philadelphia resident, contacted him after seeing a news report before the show.

“On TV, she saw a portrait of a Civil Water veteran and that was her great-great- grandfather,” Henry said. “Those kinds of connections and bonds [are so important].”

Barbara Purnell, who operates the old Germantown School as a heritage center, said she was overjoyed by result of Henry’s years of labor.

“It’s awesome – it’s just awesome,” she said. “I’m just so happy for what Pat did to bring our heritage and legacy around to us.”

Purnell said the reception was a perfect example of the heritage center’s mission.

“This is what it’s all about – bringing people together,” she said. “Today, this has really happened, bringing all these people together.”

She said one image in particular struck her: a photograph of her late mother, Virginia Smack Tingle, as a young woman standing on the Ocean City Boardwalk.

“She was working in Ocean City at the age of 17,” Purnell said. “When I saw it, it brought tears to my eyes – that’s my mother! That’s my mother.

“It just touched my heart. I still miss her,” she added.

Gregory Purnell summed up the viewers’ experience.

“When you see pictures, when you see some of this, it means a lot to you. Pictures are where time is made to stand still, and you can view what did happen. You don’t have to conjure it up – it’s right there. And that’s the magic of a photo,” he said. “When you see it, it can get you to an instant of time that is long gone – and sometimes long forgotten. It’s almost as if it’s magic.”

Henry hopes to collect enough donations to pay for a wall exhibit system for the Germantown School. When that’s accomplished, he plans to contribute to a collection of images to serve as a permanent educational component.

“I think that would be beautiful to have here,” he said.

For more information on the Germantown School Community Heritage Center, visit www.thegermantownschool.org or search “Germantown School Community Heritage Center, Berlin, MD” on Facebook.