Chester County is reminiscing of a time when color TV was a new obsession, The Beatles were on everyone’s lips and movies like “Goldfinger,” “How the West Was Won,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “The Longest Day,” “Mary Poppins,” “The Sound of Music” and “West Side Story” were showing on the silver screen.

With its first of two exhibits this year showcasing the sweeping changes now 50 years ago, the Chester County Historical Society is hosting the personal collections of the late Steve “Mr. Movie” Friedman in its “The 1960s Pop Culture: Movies, Memorabilia and the Media.”

“Movies are windows into the national psyche,” an announcement of the exhibit from the historical society stated. “They capture the issues of the day and also reveal how movie-makers influenced the public. This extraordinary collection, being publicly displayed for the first time, graphically depicts the triumph and tumult of those years. Civil Rights, space exploration, the war in Vietnam and the Cold War are among some of the themes, while others portray light-hearted characters and humorous storylines.

“Movies are a core part of how we as a society have evolved,” owner and guest curator Michell Friedman added.