The Moravian Historical Society in the Morning Call Newspaper, 1984 to today

---

<< Back to Archives Home

AN INTRIGUING QUESTION CAN MAKE THE DAY OF MORAVIAN COLLECTION CARETAKER

Morning Call - Allentown, Pa. Author: JENNIFER RITENOUR (A free-lance story for The Morning Call)

Copyright Morning Call Feb 16, 1997

Meet people from various backgrounds and lifestyles who share their thoughts as you enter the world of people we meet "On the Beat." Jennifer Ritenour is a free-lance writer.

Northampton County is rich in history and in the small museums that preserve that history.

"We all seem to have our own sort of niche," says Susan Dreydoppel, executive director of the Moravian Historical Society.

Since the mid 19th century, the society has been collecting, preserving and exhibiting things Moravian -- from putzes, books and local artifacts to musical instruments played by Moravians of yesteryear -- in a historic 18th century Germanic stone structure on East Center Street in Nazareth.

Dreydoppel has been the caretaker of that collection for the last seven years. She serves as curator, researcher, historian, teacher, fund raiser, hostess and publicist, among other responsibilities.

"What I think I'm going to do when I come in in the morning is generally not what I end up doing," she says.

"Some days I come in in jeans and climb ladders and adjust lights or hang pictures. Then there are days when I come in dressed up and have to do fund-raising or make a presentation. Often when I'm doing what I've planned to do for the day, someone calls and asks an intriguing question. Either they need an answer right a way, or I find the subject so intriguing that I drop what I'm doing and see if I can find the answer. That's what makes the job fun. You get a chance to look up things and read things and learn things that most people would love to do, but don't get the chance."

Here, Dreydoppel discusses the pleasures, challenges and rewards of running a small museum.

Question: What are the biggest advantages of a small museum like the Whitefield House?

Answer: A small museum is more personal. If someone comes in here and says he was here years ago and remembers seeing something that was here at that time, I can usually locate it and bring it down to show him. Researchers can come in and tell me who or what they're looking for, and I can pull out books and other items to help them.

Our tours are not simply set lectures. We go around with the people and talk with them about what they're interested in. We ask questions and get into a dialogue rather than a lecture. In fact, the tours we enjoy the most are the ones where we connect with the people and have a good discussion.

Q: What are the major challenges of running a small museum?

A: Money can be a problem. It's always a struggle between what you'd really like to do if you have the money and what you have the money to do.

Another problem is time. It's difficult to find time to do all the things I want to do. There's a lot that has to sit and wait. For example, I wanted to a concert series early on, but it took a couple of years to find the time to get it off the ground. And the renovation of the second floor -- we started that years ago, but it was several years in the planning. Things just take a while.

It's getting better. We've hired a part-time person, and we have college interns. But the more help I have, the more I take on.

Q: Do volunteers help you in this respect?

A: Yes. We have a good corps of volunteers. Some come in regularly; some come in for special events and festivals. Volunteers are one of the things that you can never have too many of.

Q: What type of people does the museum attract? Members? Local people? People from out of town?

A: All of the above. We usually ask people where they're from. It gives us a clue to how much local history we have to tell them. Our members come to events and exhibits. We also get local people; some of them come in for the first time when they have out-of-town visitors. Then we have our own visitors from out of the area. Some see the listing for Nazareth in the AAA guidebook and stop in. We get a fair number of people from far away, including other countries. When we go through the visitors' book at the end of the year, we usually have visitors from the majority of states and between 10 and 12 foreign countries.

Q: What type of exhibits draw the biggest crowds?

A: Anything Christmas. We always try to do a different angle on Christmas. And Nazareth's 250th anniversary exhibit was very popular with the people here.

Q: Where do you get the ideas for exhibits?

A: Most come from my head based on what I have here. Sometimes, there's a timely connection. When I first started, it was Nazareth's anniversary, so I did an anniversary exhibit. The next year, it was Bethlehem's anniversary.

I wanted to do something for the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Amos Comenius. We have some rare original copies of his books, and our president at the time had a collection of Comenius items, but it wasn't enough. We got a grant, and I hired a photographer. We focused on education and how Comenius' ideas of education are still being used today.

Q: That sounds like a lot of work. Is that typically how you plan an exhibit?

A: No. Typically, you start with a topic and make a list of everything you have that has to do with it. Then you see how all the items fit together and what shape they're in and play around with them to try to fit in as much as possible.

Q: Is there a lot of research involved in putting together an exhibit?

A: The amount of research depends on the topic. We know what most of the items here are and, in some cases, where they come from.

Q: Where do the museum's artifacts come from?

A: Most are given to us by individuals and organizations. We don't have an acquisitions budget. We don't buy much, but we do add to the library. The society is almost 140 years old. We've been collecting for a long time, and we have a very good collection. I'm always surprised at what's upstairs.

Q: What have been your favorite exhibits?

A: The exhibit of John Valentine Haidt's paintings was fun to do. We took these pictures that we'd had on display for a long time in a dim room and brought them down to a white room with bright light. It was good to see them that way.

I also liked the exhibit we did this summer on Robert Wendler's houses. It was something that needed to be done, and what made it so special was that he was able to be a part of it.

The Morning Call has graciously allowed us access to their electronic archive. The articles are presented here as they appear online.

This article is © copyright The Morning Call Online.