Broad Street Bridge Company

Stock certificate from 1871

     I recently finished the Broad Street Bridge Company collection I have been working on since the second half of summer. The collection was composed of minute books, correspondence, contracts, deeds, financial bookkeeping, and building plans relating to the Broad Street Bridge Company. The Broad Street Bridge Company was incorporated May 1st 1869. The Broad Street Bridge was made of iron and connected the west side of Main Street with West Bethlehem, crossing above Monocacy Creek. The length of the bridge is 460 feet, divided into three spans of one hundred feet and two of eighty feet each. The bridge was open for travel May 17th, 1871. It was purchased by Lehigh and Northampton counties in 1887, and the collection of tolls ceased May 14th that year. In December 1909, a new modern reinforced concrete bridge was officially opened to vehicles.
     It was interesting to look at the building plans and compare them to what the area looks like today. Looking at the deeds made me very thankful for computer technology. It must have taken a very long time to write out each one. I will now be working on finishing up the Lehigh Bridge Company collection that another Lehigh student worked on during the summer.

Bridge building plan from 1878

Check from 1868

                                                                                                             -Alli Kowalski

Student Catalogers

Two Lehigh students working with the Congregational Library material.

Introducing...

     I would like to begin my first blog by introducing myself and how I came to be part of the Moravian Archives project.  My name is Katey Fardelmann and I am a Masters candidate in Comparative and International Education at Lehigh University, where I also received my undergraduate degree. As an undergrad at Lehigh, I became involved with the Hidden Collections project, shared between Lehigh and the Moravian Church Archives, located just across the river. I was a double major in college, studying both International Relations and German, which encouraged people to ask, "What do you plan on doing with a German degree?"  Apparently the study of German just did not seem like a practical choice, maybe Spanish, Arabic or Chinese would have been better.  In opposition to all those naysayers, I have found a valuable use for my German skills by cataloging the “Personal Collection” at the Moravian Church Archives.  A majority of the collections I have worked on require a reading knowledge of German script. These skills are especially important with regards to personal correspondence, which was often with relatives who remained in Germany. I have worked on about six or seven collections so far that includes the collection of a Civil War solider, several Moravian ministers (many of whom also published academic articles and books), and missionary workers from South Africa, Tibet, Nicaragua, and Labrador.  In working with these collections, especially that of the Civil War solider, I am always struck by not only the historical importance of some of the pieces but also by the reach of the Moravian Church.  In a time period with minimal transportation abilities, the true scope of the Moravian mission and therefore the message of the Moravian Church are incredible. In future blog entries, I will discuss more fully the aspects of my collections, which will help express the influence that the Moravian Church had throughout the world.

                                                                                         -Katey Fardelmann

Making a Connection

     The Kilbuck collection was one of the first that I was tasked with assessing, researching, organizing, and cataloging. It still remains, after a multitude of other collections, one of my most fond and well remembered. The Kilbuck collection consists primarily of letters, journals, articles, and notes written by John and Edith Kilbuck about their time as missionaries and educators in the Alaskan wilderness. The collection dates from the early 1880s until the late 1920s.
     John Henry Kilbuck was the great grandson of Gelelemend, head Chief of the Delaware Native Americas, and a descendent of Netwates, King of the Delaware’s. He was born on May 15th, 1861 in what was then Indian Territory in Kansas. John spent much of his youth at a nearby Moravian mission.  The missionaries identified John as a gifted, young individual- this allowed him to receive a formal education at Nazareth Hall in Pennsylvania; later, he attended Moravian College and Theological Seminary from which he graduated with a B.A. in 1882 and a B.D. in 1884. After his graduation and ordination, John returned home to Kansas and met Edith Romig whom he married in 1885. The newly-wed couple journeyed to Alaska shortly after their marriage to serve as missionaries.
     My fascination with this collection lies in the character of both John and Edith. I spent a fair amount of time reading correspondences, journals, and papers written by John and Edith in order to properly organize the collection. In doing so, I was indirectly drawn into their lives. John and Edith wrote extremely comprehensive and inclusive journals to one another, and the inclusion of the small details in my opinion gives off the most profound effect.  It was all the small details that drew me into the lives of John and Edith. I discovered their extreme perseverance and good nature. They accomplished so much in the face of adversity. Despite losing his arm in a fishing accident, John was able to continue his work in Alaska, accomplishing so much more through his ingenuity and strong desire to live his life. This incident is only one of many that speaks to John’s perseverance and dedication to his mission-being able to personally examine their lives was highly rewarding and I highly recommend stopping into the Archives to read their correspondence. For out of all of the collections I have worked with so far, the Kilbucks have been the most intriguing.
                                                                                                 -Fred Carter

Moravian community’s eighteenth-century Congregational Library

As a cataloger for the Moravian community’s eighteenth-century Congregational Library in Bethlehem I am privy to one of the most important links they, like any colonial community, shared with the larger Atlantic world – their books.  While the Moravians were well known for their cultural and geographic insularity in the Americas, such isolation belies their interests outside German Protestantism and missionary activity.  The Congregational Library contains books from a wide variety of subjects suggesting that the Moravian community was aware of the larger Atlantic world. This collection of books is at odds with the traditional portrayal of the Moravians solely as missionaries to the Native Americans.

Most works are of a religious nature, as is to be expected.  These works are usually in German and range from the most basic tenants of Luther’s Protestantism to the unique scriptural insights of Zinzendorf and Moravian dogma.  The library even includes works of folk religion, including: Sensible and Christian thoughts on the Vampires or Bloodsucking Dead Which, among the Turks and on the border/frontiers of the Serbian lands, suck the blood from the living men and cattle Accompanied with all sorts of theological, philosophical and historical [things] fetched from the realm of the spirits. One would expect to find these kinds of works in any colonial community of pious Germans, and their presence in the congregational library is no surprise.

The Moravian library, however, expands thoroughly past the limited borders of theology and Christly proverbs.  Dictionaries and encyclopedias, ranging from 5 to 20 volume sets, were available to the community.  These intricate anthologies served as collections of the western world’s combined scientific knowledge, collapsing the realm of European knowledge onto a shelf in Moravian settlement, located in the newer, more sparsely settled parts of Pennsylvania or the Backwoods. Collections of laws from the various colonies and plantations of the British world kept the small German community abreast of the growing empire of which they were a tangential part.  Books on mathematics, often in the context of seamanship, explained how the world that their deity created operated on a fundamental level.  In sum, despite their location in the Backwoods of Pennsylvania, the Moravians were unusually well-connected to the Atlantic world around them.

Future postings will follow the idea established here, focusing on the unique and seemingly-unusual books found in the Moravian library and how they connect the little Bethlehem community to Europe, empire, and a rapidly-growing Atlantic world.

                                                        -Andrew Stahlhut

Exit Essays

Because we did not have the blog site up and running before some of our student staff moved on (graduated!), we asked them to write essays that discussed their experiences at the Moravian Church Archives.  To follow are some of the highlights-

     Beyond the books themselves, I was also interested in the provenance and other inscriptions on the books. In particular I enjoyed looking at how particular people signed their books. Some of the signatures were absolutely beautiful, clearly the result of much thought and practice. One of my favorite signatures was from one gentleman who wrote his initials in a very intricate, looping pattern in a single stroke. There was also a hymnal, a common Moravian hymnal from the period, which was full of drawings. The insides of the cover and all the blank pages were full of horses, as well as a few people riding some of the horses. It seemed to be a child’s hand, and examining the different drawings was fascinating.
                                                                                                         -Alexander Haitos

     It is hard to believe that only 10 months ago I walked into the Moravian Archives for the first time.  I showed up for the interview almost completely in the dark as to what the work would entail.  All I knew was that the job required some German and that I would be reading old documents concerning the Moravians.  Apart from that I was oblivious--I didn’t even know who the Moravians were.  The learning curve for the job was fairly steep; however, and I soon became adept at reading through, organizing, and cataloging the documents I was assigned.  Moreover, with each collection I was able to experience a different take on Moravian life, whether it was through the account of a sailor, a missionary, a composer, or any of the other different accounts I was fortunate enough to receive.
                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                      -Mark Whitmeyer

I interned at the archives between March of 2010 and June 2011. While there, I worked on the Hidden Collections Grant funded by CLIR. My duties at first were to examine and catalog handmade maps and architectural drawings from late 18th century to mid 19th century. Over the course of the year, my duties grew to include maps and drawings from 1850 to present day. After cataloging the maps and drawings in the archives, I worked on organizing and cataloging the Archives' documents from the Lehigh Bridge Company.

     

The main tool of the cataloging process was Augias. It’s an archival program developed to catalog various documents and items. Input to the program is straight forward and much like a word processing program.The catalog process for the maps had numerous steps. All information was entered into Augias. The title was first recorded as it appeared on the piece, if needed I would then translate the title to English and give a short description of the work, noting important features. I would then date the piece and record the technique used to produce the work. The artist’s name and the dimensions of the work would be entered next. The scale and any damages also had to be noted. Finally I would give the piece a reference number and place it in a folder.

Bethlehem, 1758

There were over 1000 entries in this project. Much of the earlier work was in German and written in Fraktur, an old form of German script which the Archives educated me on. I would not have been able to complete the projects without my prior knowledge of German. My civil engineering experience came in to play particularly when cataloging blue prints and identifying what systems were covered and the proper names of different drawings. Over the course of the project many interesting pieces crossed my desk, some stick out. There are detailed drawings of the pipe system at Bethlehem Gas Works in 1850 (f.125.5). There is also a small “travel map” of Pennsylvania from 1750 (f.037.6).

In addition to the maps and drawings, I also cataloged the collection of documents from the Lehigh Bridge Company. These consisted of numerous boxes of documents from 1791 to 1920 filled with items from the Company. I was tasked with familiarizing myself with the documents, creating a system to categorize them, and then cataloging them using Augias. After this was completed and all the pieces were arranged in their folders, and the folders into boxes, I had to write a scope for the collection and a brief history of the company.

    

The main challenge to this project was time. During the school year the hours of the archives gave a limited window to work in, particularly when working around tests and projects. Since the hours of the archives (8:30am to 4:30pm) perfectly overlap with class hours (7:55am to 4:00pm) I had to plan accordingly to ensure I put in time at the archives. During the summer however these barriers didn’t exist. If there were any questions about the pieces or archival process, Paul Peuker and Lannie Graff were always available to help.

Overall my time at the archives was incredibly interesting. Every day I was able to physically handle pieces of history, some from before the founding of our country. Additionally I was able to learn much more about the history of Bethlehem and the surrounding area to Lehigh. It gave me more of an appreciation to where the University was located and its complex background.

                                                                                                                     -David Zboray

Small Finds

During my dissertation days, I had a friend, who was conducting research in the National Archives on 1930s Public Housing. She read through lots of government documents held together by a variety of fasteners. She commented once that someone should research the evolution of paper clips, staples, and the like. I found this doozy at Moravian. It took a nail file to remove, and we did so without damaging the document.

Imprimatur

     An interesting question came up while I was assigning the call numbers to books that are in the Congregational Library Collection. The book I was working on was titled The Harmony of the Four Evangelists, and their Text Methodiz’d, According to the Order and Series of times, in which the several things by them mentioned, were Transacted. Wherein the Entire History of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is Methodically set forth. It was written by Samuel Cradock and was published in London in 1668. I as given pause, because opposite the title page the text, “Imprimatur, June 7, 1667. Tho. Grigg, R.P. ac Dno Dno Humfr. Episc. Lond. À Sacr. Dom.” appeared.  I had not yet encountered anything of its like as I sought to identify publisher, bookseller, and printer information. So, what is an imprimatur? And what is its significance? 

     It turns out that an imprimatur is a statement of authorization that was needed before a book could be published.  The imprimatur was required for Cradock’s book, because The Act for Preventing the Frequent Abuses in Printing Seditious, Treasonable and Unlicensed Books and Pamphlets, and for Regulating of Printing and Printing Presses, was established in 1662 (and was not too long after abandoned). Its purpose was to limit the number of books that could be printed and to require official approval before a book could be printed or sold. This regulation gave the government control over what the public could read. Authorization was given from a variety of important religious and government officials, such as the Bishop or London, a principal Secretary of State, or the Lord Chancellor. When a book required an imprimatur from the Bishop of London, it was typically sent to a chaplain of the Bishop for examination.   In the case of The Harmony of the Four Evangelists, Tho. Grigg, refers to Thomas Grigg, chaplain to Humphrey Henchman, Bishop of London. In order for Cradock’s book to be published in 1668, Grigg needed to grant permission after checking the book for anything perceived as being harmful to the church or government. (Information about Thomas Grigg and the 1662 Act were found from N.H. Keeble’s book, The Restoration: England in the 1660s, on pages 148-149.) 

     Today, especially in the United States, it is hard to imagine a book censure such as this one. Anyone can write and publish a book or put information out on the internet. It was quite enjoyable to do a little research and discover an interesting history lesson about book printing in 17th century Britain! 

Source:
Keeble, N.H. The Restoration: England in the 1660s. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2002.

                                                                                                                     
                                                                                                     - Meghan Fitch
                                                                                                           

The Moravian Community in the New World: The First Hundred Years from the Catalogers’ Perspective

     Lehigh University, in partnership with the Moravian Archives, was awarded a $90,000 grant under the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives Program to enhance scholarly access to books, records, and maps held by the Archives.  This two-year collaborative project, “The Moravian Community in the New World: The First Hundred Years,” will process collections documenting the material culture, religious values and cultural diversity of the Moravian community of Bethlehem from its founding in 1741 until the opening of the community to non-Moravians in 1844 and the subsequent incorporation of Bethlehem in 1851.

     The collections being cataloged through the grant reflect the multi-faceted life of Moravian Bethlehem, a transatlantic community in its interaction with other cultures. Because the church controlled every aspect of life within Bethlehem, matters were recorded in order to be reported to church leadership; matters that in other communities went unrecorded. Included are personal papers of artists, tradesmen, missionaries, and sailors, along with business records and the 2,000 volume Congregational Library. In addition, approximately 800 maps and architectural drawings showing the earliest documentation of European settlement in Pennsylvania are included in this project. 

     Created in 2008, the Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives awards program supports the identification and cataloging of special collections and archives of high scholarly value that are difficult or impossible to locate. It is administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources in Washington D.C.  Award recipients create descriptive information for their hidden collections that will eventually be linked to and interoperable with all other projects funded by this grant program.

The Moravian Archives

41 West Locust Street

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18018 

Phone: (610) 866-3255
Fax: (610) 866-9210
info@moravianchurcharchives.org

Lois Fischer Black 

Curator of Special Collections 

Lehigh University 

Bethlehem, PA 

lob206@lehigh.edu