April 7 “Moon Shining: Conserving the Portraits,” illustrated talk by artist-conservator Tom Burke, 1 pm, Sigal Museum, 342 Northampton St., Easton. Free with admission to the museum or $5 donation requested.

The portraits by Easton artist, Samuel Moon (1805-1860), housed in the collection of the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, have been subject to the ills of time and environment. To prepare them for a brighter future, artist and art-conservator Tom Burke cleaned them of disfiguring dust and damage for the current exhibit in the Sigal Museum. At this talk, Burke will discuss how he diagnoses the causes of the damage and figures out how to restore them, as nearly as possible, to their original pristine condition. An artist himself, Burke understands the materials, craftsmanship, and historical context of the pieces he works on, whether canvas, wood, or paper, and how he decides on the treatment best suited for the particular portrait.

April 20 “Artifacts & Memories: What’s in the Attic at First UCC of Easton,” by Michael Dowd, Senior Pastor, 1 pm, Sigal Museum, 342 Northampton St., Easton. Free with admission to the museum or $5 donation requested.

Many early churches of communities became repositories for precious family, religious, and even political records and for actual artifacts that tell stories about how people lived and worshipped at a given time. Pastor Dowd will share information about the history and some of the artifacts placed in the care of First United Church of Christ of Easton. Organized as a congregation in 1745, even before the founding of Easton, a German Reformed group would light bonfires on Morgan Hill to alert people of next-day services, at the junction of Morgan Hill and Cedarville Rds. The congregation evolved into First UCC of Easton.

April 21 Northampton County’s Passport to History Program, 2 pm. Sigal Museum, 342 Northampton St., Easton

More than 20 county historical groups will celebrate their 2012 activities and acknowledge citizens who attended all historical sites in the passport. Plans for the coming year will be announced. Individual societies will have displays of artifacts, program materials, and representatives who can share their knowledge of particular sites in the county.

April 21 “Tea with Mrs. Bachmann: Katrina’s Colonial Tea Party,” Tea party for adults with discussion of colonial myths, 2 pm, $15/person. Reservations requested (610-253-1222). Bachmann Publick House, 2nd & Northampton Sts., Easton.

Program director Marianne Phifer will host a tea party in the style of the 1753 tavern mistress, Katrinna Bachmann (whose name is embedded in a date stone near the roofline of the “publick house”). Attendees will enjoy foods typical of the time and learn about some of the misconceptions as well as the facts of women’s lives during the very dangerous French and Indian War era.

April 27 Free Children’s Fraktur Art Workshop, led by art teacher Larry Brown, 10 am – 12 pm, for children 8-12 yrs. old, Lower Level, Sigal Museum, 342 Northampton St., Easton. Free for children and their accompanying adult.

Children 8-12 yrs old learn about the colorful Pennsylvania-German folk art form, fraktur, used in birth, baptismal, and marriage certificates and as rewards for outstanding achievement by their schoolmasters. The children then make their own imaginative fraktur pieces to take home.

May 4 Bachmann Publick House Tours, 10 am – 4 pm, 2nd & Northampton Sts., Easton. $5 donation requested.

Learn about life from 1753, the building of the tavern, through the 1800s, when the building had been enlarged by successive owners like George Taylor, colonial ironmaster and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Hear what travelers ate and drank, how they slept (you might be surprised!), how they entertained themselves, how like and unlike they are to us.

May 12 Mother’s Day at Sigal, Mothers attend free, 12 – 4 pm, Sigal Museum, 342 Northampton St., Easton.

Bring Mom to the Sigal Museum as a special treat after her dinner-out.

May 18 “Lewis & Clark & Me,” Peter Osborne, 1 pm. Sigal Museum, 342 Northampton St., Easton. Free with admission to the museum or $5 donation requested.

Peter Osborne details his journey in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark. Osborne spent 12 weeks following Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s 1803-1806 journey, researching and photographing locations. This presentation will bring to life the first American overland journey to the Pacific coast and back. The explorers’ (and Osborne’s) route took them through what are now the National Forests that Gifford Pinchot and President Theodore Roosevelt formed in the early 1900s. Peter Osborne is a writer and an historian who has worked in the public history field for more than thirty years.

About Sigal Museum:

The Sigal Museum is Northampton County, Pennsylvania’s leading institution of local history, and home to significant collections of pre-European settlement artifacts, decorative arts and textiles, farming implements and colonial furniture.  The Museum opened in summer of 2010, offering its visitors interactive exhibits, self-guided and docent-led tours, special children’s programs, and a lecture series on local and American history.  It is one of four museums operated by the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society (NCHGS) in Easton, the county seat.In addition to its exhibits, the Sigal Museum is home to the Jane S. Moyer Library, providing vast and often rare resources for students, scholars, and genealogical researchers.

The Charles Chrin Changing Gallery serves as a showcase for special exhibits, highlighting collections of the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society and its partners.

The Museum serves as a gathering place and a cultural center, visited by youth and adults for programs in fraktur art, on Lenape Lifeways, and story-telling.  Works by current regional artists have also found a home in this center for old and new history, and are highlighted on a rotating basis.

The Easton Visitor Center is now at the Sigal Museum!