Description
Friends of the Wilhelm Reich Museum began in 1977 as a support organization to sustain the development of Orgonon as the scientific and educational center envisioned by Reich.
From then on, membership in the Friends became the most popular way for those influenced and moved by Reich’s legacy to contribute to its preservation and dissemination. The Friends Newsletter quickly became the principal communications tool for promoting the activities of The Wilhelm Reich Museum, i.e. infrastructure and property improvements, exhibits, conferences and other events, publishing, fund-raising, etc. The Newsletter was also instrumental for enlisting new members and expanding financial support to sustain these activities. And periodically, the Newsletter printed original, unpublished materials from the archives.
The first Newsletter in the Spring of 1977 consisted of two stapled, double-sided pages. The front page was a single article about the research, development and construction of the Biographical Exhibit on the first floor of the Museum, which was first unveiled in June 2006 at an Open House that attracted 200 people from the community. The third page was devoted entirely to a biographical profile of Tom Ross, who began working for Reich in 1946 as Orgonon’s caretaker, and who was instrumental in the creation and maintenance of The Wilhelm Reich Museum.
These newsletters, especially those from 1977 to 2004 when we began our “Email Updates,” are a fascinating and often inspirational documentation of the decades of efforts to preserve and renew Reich’s legacy. Newsletters were published about twice yearly until 2004, and then annually. There are 56 issues in all, spanning a period of 40 years, from 1977 to 2017.
