Experience the museum at home!
The Covid Chronicles
Throughout 2020 during the COVID-19 global pandemic, NCHGS encouraged community members to submit their experiences to our archives. These were written accounts, photos, video, audio, and scrapbooks. We sought to document the event as a way to understanding history’s impact on our lives.
To see the daily journal prompts visit The COVID Chronicles Facebook group. The project was sponsored by the Lehigh Valley Engaged Humanities Consortium, with generous support provided by a grant to Lafayette College from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Virtual Gallery Tour
Enjoy a virtual tour of the first floor gallery at the Sigal Museum. Explore topics including Lenape life, early settlers, colonial life, agriculture, tools, furniture, history of conflict, our Northampton County photo wall, and industry.
NCHGS Online Collection
Browse our Online Collections page for virtual exhibits like Tablets + Tinctures: A Brief History of Patent Medicine, highlights of our world-class textile collection featured in our past Eras of Elegance exhibition, and Prohibition artifacts from The Cat’s Meow: Lehigh Valley in the Age of Art Deco & the Roaring Twenties exhibition. View a growing selection of objects from our archives, including a collection of local trade cards (image above: A.S. Miller, Dealer in Fine Boots and Shoes, Easton, 1883), war-time political posters, and photographer Norma McFall Collmar’s glass plate images.
Destination: Northampton County Digital Archives
View some of the photographs, objects, and primary sources from this award-winning exhibition in the Lehigh Valley Engaged Humanities Consortium Digital Archives.
Online Collections and Archival Records
Access over 6,500 records and items through our PastPerfect database. Search for family files, genealogical information, and highlights from our collections database. This collection supplements information that can be found in our Jane S. Moyer Library.
Virtual Programs and Archival Footage
Visit our YouTube channel for historical video footage, including our “Finding Family” video segment for virtual Heritage Day 2020 on researching Black Heritage. There is also a growing series preserved and digitized by Ray Morris. Current highlights include “The Houseparty,” a film made by Lafayette College students in 1936. Subscribe and share!
Columbus in the Crosshairs: Navigating Symbolism in Public Art
Watch a recording of the July 15, 2020 digital panel discussion which focused on the history of the Christopher Columbus statue in downtown Easton, Pennsylvania. This event was sponsored by the Lehigh Valley Engaged Humanities Consortium with generous support provided by a grant to Lafayette College from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Lehigh Valley Passport to History:
Enjoy previous virtual programs here:
July 16, 2020 – Sebastian Goundie, Town Brewer with Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites. Click here for the recording.
July 23, 2020 – Hugh Moore, the Slightly Wacky Inventor of the Dixie Cup with the National Canal Museum. Click here to watch the recording.
July 30, 2020 – Early Pennsylvania Dutch Therapies for Pandemics (and Other Diseases) with Williams Township Historical Society. Click here to watch the recording.
August 6, 2020 – America Revolutionary War – Henry Gun-Making Family, Revolution, and Re-enacting with Jacobsburg Historical Society. Click here to watch the recording.
August 13, 2020: History’s Heroic First Responders – Firefighters with Karen Samuels of Lower Saucon Historical Society and Slate Belt Heritage Center. Click here to view a recording of the program.
August 20, 2020 – The Lost Village of Christian’s Spring with Moravian Historical Society and Dr. Scott Gordon of Lehigh University. Click here to view a recording of the program.
January 14, 2021 – Cabinet of Curiosities: Guess that Artifact! Partners open their attic treasure chests to share the most curious objects in their collections. What stories do they tell? Participants: Liberty Bell Museum in Allentown, Shelter House in Emmaus, and Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles.
February 11, 2021 – Black History in the Lehigh Valley. Celebrate Black History Month and tune in as partners share notable Black history from our community, including oral histories from the Slate Belt, the life of canal boat captain James Brown, and the history of the first African American church in Stroudsburg, deeded to local members of the United States Colored Troops who joined the Union Army in the Civil War. Participating partners: Slate Belt Heritage Center, National Canal Museum, and the Little Bethel Historical Association.
March 11, 2021 – Changemakers (a Women’s History Program) Partners share stories of local women who helped shape our modern world. Learn about how Moravian women influenced education in the 1700s, how the bicycle emancipated women, and how a group of teenage textile workers fought for labor rights and helped shape our modern workday. Participating partners: Moravian Historical Society, Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles, and National Museum of Industrial History.
Conversations through Time: The Women who Won the Vote
Step back into the past as we “interview” trailblazing suffragists who helped secure women’s right to vote. Learn about the lives, beliefs, and struggles of some of our earliest feminists in their own words. Click here to watch the program.
Would you like to learn more about the Black women’s suffrage movement? Read “Speaking of Rights and Wrongs: Fighting for Black Women’s Suffrage” by Jean Bemesderfer.
Easton at the Pass: Author Talk with Rebecca Price Janney
Co-sponsored by Easton Book Festival, this program includes an interview between author Rebecca Price Janney and Peter Kichline, her ancestor and protagonist in Janney’s Easton series of historical fiction. Step back into Revolutionary-War Era Northampton County and experience some of the uncanny parallels between events in the 18th century and present day. Signed copies of Janney’s books are available in the Sigal Museum Store. Click here to watch the program.
History of the German Reformed Movement in Northampton County
Reverend Richard Taylor discuss the history of the German Palatine settlers in the Lehigh Valley area, how German Reformed thought influenced our developing country, and the clergymen and congregants who joined the colonies’ fight for independence from British rule in the Revolutionary War era. Click here to watch the virtual program.
Ed Henning Presents!
In honor of the many educational programs volunteer Ed Henning has presented at the Sigal Museum, we have posted a series of audience favorites below. Ed has converted the material from his talks into a digital format for easy viewing from home.
The Early Industrial Revolution in the Lehigh Valley
Construction of the Lehigh Canal
Lenape: The First Residents of Northampton County
Lenape Sacred Sites
Native American Gardening
Jane S. Moyer Library – “This I Remember” Series
“This I Remember” by Harvey C Morgenstern is a 36-part series originally published in the Easton Express over the summer of 1969. Morgenstern recounted what life was like growing up in Easton during the 1890s-1900s. This spring/early summer 2020 series that shared Morgenstern’s memories from over a century ago can be found on our Facebook page.
For Fun
What’s Your Old-Timey Business? Think like an old-fashioned entrepreneur. Download or check out our Facebook post, follow the instructions, and find out which Old-Timey Business is yours.
For Children and Families
Following is a collection of educational activities that will get families making, sharing, and learning. You’ll find art and craft projects, outdoor activities, games, online story time, and links to digital resources that will expand your world, even while you are at home.
Games and Activities
Shut the Box – Make this popular Civil War-era game with items you can find around the house and brush up on your math skills.
Rainbow Crow Slider Toy – The legend of the Rainbow Crow is a Lenape story that tells how the crow got its black feathers and croaking voice through an act of selflessness and service. Make your own flying Rainbow Crow with items on hand at home. Download and print Crow here and view a step-by-step photo tutorial here. See below for story links.
Outdoors – Step Away from the Computer
Expedition Easton – A Walking Tour for Kids – Get some fresh air and learn about Easton’s history with this short tour conducted entirely in “the Circle” or Centre Square.
Museum of Me – People’s belongings and the objects they collect can tell us a lot about them – what they are interested in, what they value, places they’ve been, and more. The Sigal Museum uses our collection of objects (or artifacts) as a way to tell the story of Northampton County and the people who live there.
Please enjoy the story, The Museum of Me by Emma Lewis (read by Education Program Coordinator Holly Houser), and explore the connections between museum collections and your own. After, view the amazing collections submitted to us.
Fabric Yo-Yos – The second floor of the Sigal Museum houses our Decorative Arts Gallery. Some of the artifacts on display are beautiful, intricately designed quilts.
During the Civil War, many American women made quilts to provide bedding for soldiers. Today, Americans are using fabric to sew masks as a protective measure to use during the Covid-19 pandemic; continuing the tradition of using crafting abilities to help others.
If you’ve got scraps of fabric at home, you can easily make some fabric yo-yos, which were a popular way to use small fabric scraps in the 1920s. Handmade items are a wonderful way to show someone you care!
Fraktur Art – German immigrants brought fraktur art to Pennsylvania, blending religious and artistic expression in a variety of media. They drew with pen and ink, using many colors.
Fraktur art was popular within the Pennsylvania German community between 1750 and 1900. From the 1780s on, artists made printed forms available to fill in and decorate. By 1835, entirely hand-painted fraktur was rare.
Another type of art common in Pennsylvania German communities are hex signs – these colorful works use motifs similar to those found in fraktur.
Take a look at a sample fraktur piece from our collection. Download instructions, watch this hand-lettering video tutorial, or print some coloring pages to make fraktur-inspired art of your own!
Hex Sign with Bird, Hex Sign with Compass Rose, Hex Sign Symbols and Designs, Hex Signs 2, Hex Signs 3, German Folk Art Couple
Durham Boats – Just south of Northampton County in Durham, PA, the Durham boat was built. These sturdy, flat bottom boats were extremely useful in carrying large, heavy loads of freight through the waterways in the area. George Washington and his men famously crossed the Delaware River in a Durham boat on December 25, 1776.
Did you know that Jacob Nicholas, owner of the small stone bank house at 5th and Ferry Streets in Easton (the Jacob Nicholas House), was a Durham boat captain? He and the two-man crew of the “Little Belt” broke a water speed record, making the trip from Easton to Philadelphia in fifty-eight hours, in 1826.
There are no known plans for building a Durham boat in existence today, but we do know they were strong, flat bottomed boats that made it easier to navigate in shallow, rocky waters. Watch this video to see a Durham boat replica at Washington Crossing Historic Park and learn more about their history.
Then, make your own Durham boat out of foil and see how much weight it can hold. Here is a video of a local family testing out their boats.
Online Story Share – We’ll be posting links to virtual read-alouds with historical themes or connections to our museum collection. You can visit our Facebook page each weekend for a new story or check back here for the complete list.
Our first stories are brought to you via Save With Stories, a partnership with Save the Children and No Kid Hungry that is collecting donations to feed millions of kids across the U.S. who rely on school breakfasts and lunches.
The Big Red Barn – read by Jennifer Garner (ages 2-3)
Our field trip students learn all about the earliest settlers to Northampton County and our agricultural roots. Find out what happens when the farmer is away.
Iggy Peck, Architect – read by Laura Dern (ages 5 and up)
This one is for young fans of our Industrial History exhibit, junior builders, and irrepressible creatives of all ages.
Hear more at #savewithstories.
Rainbow Crow – Discover the legend of Rainbow Crow:
Order the Rainbow Crow book by Nancy Van Laan.
VIDEO: Rainbow Crow (3 minutes)
SHORT FILM: Crow: The Legend (18 minutes)
Museum of Me – The Museum of Me by Emma Lewis: Explore the connections between museum collections and your own.
Strega Nona – Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola, read by Mary Steenburgen for storyonline.net – We have a long tradition of folk healing in Northampton County, particularly amongst Pennsylvania Germans. One of the gems of NCHGS’s collection is the Jacob Wilhelm Cure Book, a 306-year-old, leather-bound tome thought to be the oldest surviving handwritten collection of remedies, cures, and blessings brought to Pennsylvania from Germany. We’ll share more about the Wilhelm book in a future post. For now, we hope you enjoy this story of another folk healer (Strega Nona or “Grandma Witch”) who has a touch of magic up her sleeve.
The Miraculous Bird (Hungary): The Miraculous Bird folktale – We share this story in honor of the Szime and Szabo families whose story is featured in our Destination: Northampton County exhibition. Gabor Szime was a Hungarian immigrant who lived in SouthSide Bethlehem. His granddaughter Maggie Szabo served on Bethlehem City Council until her death in 2007. Her sister Louise Szabo Valeriano donated Gabor’s home wine press to South Bethlehem Historical Society, and it is now on display in the Sigal Museum.