This collection—the latest to be posted on the website of the Media Historic Archives Commission —focuses mainly on the Media Centennial Celebration, which ran from June 3-10, 1950, with a multitude of activities that included thousands of participants and attracted tens of thousands of spectators. The centennial events included five parades, a beauty pageant, concerts, dances, a marching band competition, performances by local school kids, a historical pageant and storefront displays of historic memorabilia, Historical costumes were encouraged, and men were encouraged to grow facial hair as a tribute to the mostly-bearded founders of the borough. To see a selection of Zimmerman’s Centennial photos, click here.
Besides covering the centennial activities for local newspapers, Zimmerman—a professional photographer who lived in Wallingford but maintained a studio at 6 E. Front Street in Media—took many photographs of local business, churches, and community organizations for inclusion in a souvenir book sold during the events. The Media Archives collection includes both this souvenir book, all the newspaper coverage of the weeklong celebration, and even a sound recording of the 100th anniversary meeting of the Media Borough Council, along with many other photographs taken by other people of the events of this week.
The Media Historic Archives Commission is interested in learning more about Francis F. Zimmerman. If you have any information about his life, family, and the location of the many other photographs he took during his career, please let us know. We’d love to add this information, and any other images that might exist, to our growing collection. You can contact us at mediahistoricarchives@gmail.com.
The 717 photos in the Zimmerman collection include the faces of many people, most of whom are unidentified. If you were a child in Media at the time, you might find yourself in one of the pictures, or be able to identify some of the other people in the shots. Tell us who you find, so we can add these names to our catalog.
