Virtual Event: Travel and Leisure in a Germanic Town: Visiting Moravian Bethlehem

On Thursday, March 31, 2022 at 7:00 pm (ET), Evening with Germanna presents a virtual lecture by Christopher Malone, Curator of the American Swedish Historical Museum.

Celebrate the first days of spring by joining us for a journey back in time to explore the material culture of Bethlehem, an 18th century Germanic Town.

The Moravian Town of Bethlehem went through a series of developmental changes between 1740-1745 that saw the community go from a closed-form of church-controlled communalism to an entirely open society. Bethlehem went from an economy based on supporting their missionary goals to one that focused on pleasing outsiders through the goods and services they provided to visitors and their German neighbors. Outsiders flocked to Bethlehem for their health, to be entertained, and for the church’s international trade connections. Visitors brought with them needs and wants that the Moravians were only too eager to supply. Their new economy of goods introduced the Moravians to textiles, books, and other objects, but most importantly to endless cycles of the wider world’s changing tastes.

About the speaker:
Growing up in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, Christopher Malone developed a passion for Germanic material culture and an appreciation for the rich cultural heritage found amongst the art, architecture, and folk customs of Pennsylvania’s Hinterland. To synthesize his studies and interests, he began writing The Daily Antiquarian, a blog focusing on the history, architecture, and material culture of the Mid-Atlantic. Christopher previously worked at the Moravian Historical Society. Under his tenure, the society saw a renewed focus on its important collection by highlighting stories and local history through social media.

Christopher completed a Masters in Architecture at Syracuse University before attending the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. While at Winterthur, Christopher studied the ways in which outside visitation effected Moravian material culture in the first one hundred years of Bethlehem’s history for which he won the E. McClung Fleming Thesis prize for most distinguished thesis in the Winterthur Program class of 2021.

Christopher is currently the Curator of the American Swedish Historical Museum where he is responsible for the museum’s collections, exhibitions, archival materials, and library. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of Historic Trappe, an organization that preserves and interprets two historic houses and a parsonage related to the Henry Muhlenberg family as well as the newly formed Center for Pennsylvania German Studies which includes a library, archives, and exhibition galleries.

This is a Donate-What-You-Can event. Your donation of any amount will go directly toward supporting this Germanna Foundation program and more programs like it as well as research, archaeology, and preservation of our historic sites. Thank you!

Upon completion of the below form, you will receive the link for this online Zoom webinar.

If you would like to sponsor the lecture, please make a donation with one of the below levels. We will recognize sponsors at the beginning and end of the program