Along with two family members, I visited the National Museum
of Industrial History (NMIH) on a Sunday morning in mid-June 2017. The museum
is open on Wednesdays through Sundays from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm, with
closures on major holidays including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s.
Admission costs $12 for adults (with a small discount for senior citizens,
veterans, and students) or $9 for children ages 7 to 17 (free for younger
children). Credit cards are accepted. Complimentary parking is available in
several surface lots. A small shop offers unique gift items and upscale
souvenirs.
The museum, which opened in August 2016, is located on
Bethlehem’s South Side in a 100-year old former factory/repair shop for the
Bethlehem Steel Company. Re-purposing the old mill building and the larger property
on which it sits is part of an extensive brownfield project that has
revitalized the neighborhood. The museum is adjacent to the ArtsQuest
SteelStacks campus (which houses the Frank Banko Alehouse, Levitt Pavilion,
Hoover Mason Trestle, and a Visitor’s Center) and near the Sands casino, outlet
mall, and hotel.
The goal of the NMIH is to preserve industrial heritage,
accomplished through an affiliation with the national Smithsonian Institution,
which has loaned many of the artifacts on display. Bethlehem Steel has also
donated many objects. The huge cavernous space contains machines, equipment,
and objects of America’s industrial past. Although there are many references in
the museum to the Steel, this museum is not dedicated to steelmaking but rather
to the industrial age as a whole. A smaller part of the museum focuses on the
history of textiles (by 1900, with 74 mills, the Lehigh Valley was the
second-most important silk making region in the United States), and another
section emphasizes the importance of the propane industry (including a
small-scale hot air balloon basket that you can climb into).
After we purchased our admission, we each received a replica
timecard to punch as we entered the warehouse, as if we were reporting to work
at the old machine shop building as so many Bethlehem residents did for nearly
a century. The first gallery we encountered displayed a temporary (rotating)
exhibit about baseball, including explanations on how balls, mitts/gloves, and
bats are made, along with local information about the historic Bethlehem Steel
baseball teams. (This exhibit, called “Making America’s Pastime”, runs until
the end of October.) The museum presents its collection with a multimedia
approach (visually, orally, and tactilely), which piques your interest as you progress
through and make the connection between America’s industrial past and todays
innovations. Favorite items included an overhead crane, a Bethlehem Steel
I-beam (where you can sit for a photo op that mimics that famous “Lunch Atop a
Skyscraper” photograph), the country’s longest-operating portable steam engine,
a huge collection of machinery (boilers, turbines, engines, and pumps), and a
line shaft (that uses a steam engine to drive a series of belts and pulleys
that operate other machines [like lathes and drills] positioned beneath it).
We were impressed with our visit to the National Museum of
Industrial History – well done!
