Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society (NCHGS)
Founded in 1906, NCHGS serves the community as the official historical society for the County of Northampton. For over 118 years, NCHGS has collected, preserved, and presented Northampton County history to the community.
The mission of NCHGS (adopted in 2018) is to share the stories of Northampton County’s past to encourage personal reflection, community dialogue, and an understanding of history’s impact on our lives. The vision is through exploring local history, we will foster a more respectful, caring, and inclusive community.
The team fulfills this mission and vision annually through relevant exhibitions, thoughtful programs (designed for adults, families, and/or children), educational offerings including formal field trips with dozens of schools from three surrounding school districts, a series of virtual offerings including neighborhood and topic tours, scholarly publications, and in-person tours. NCHGS hosts community activities, fundraisers, and special events. It offers student and adult research opportunities, preserves three National Historic Register structures, maintains a public garden, and an outstanding museum collection. It also provides on and off-site custom group tours and talks. In a typical year, NCHGS interacts with 10,000 – 20,000 individuals.
NCHGS conducts these annual activities at the Sigal Museum, the Jane S. Moyer Library & Archives, the Kressler Memorial Garden, the 1753 Bachmann Publick House, the Jacob Nicholas House, the Mixsell-Illick House, and a online, web-based platform.
NCHGS’s relationship with the community is paramount to the team. The team collaborates constantly with area non-profits and individuals on a variety of projects. NCHGS is proud to be the founders and chair of the Lehigh Valley Passport to History group, a professional network of over seventy museum, historic sites, and archives in the region which focuses on sharing local history resources to cultural tourists, locals, and educators. NCHGS is a co-founder of the Lehigh Valley 250 initiative along with Lafayette College. The staff, volunteers, and board of NCHGS feels passionately about connecting our community to Northampton County’s history, art, and culture through all aspects of its work by presenting and amplifying unheard voices and stories in our community.
Operating expenses, supplies and equipment, development costs, including marketing, programs and events, and exhibitions are being funded in part with funding received through the County of Northampton’s Hotel Tax Program.