As this warm summer, with its repeated heat waves, draws to a close we can begin looking forward to colder weather and perhaps even winter scenes, such as the one seen above, which was taken in the early 20th century by local photographer Eugene A. Rau (1848-1932), and is part of a segment of his photographs that we have recently made available through our online finding aid.

Eugene Abraham Rau, shown in the photograph above, was born in Bethlehem in 1848, the son of Simon Rau, a druggist who ran an apothecary shop [1] on Main Street, which he had purchased in 1839. Eugene Rau followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a druggist and continuing to operate the apothecary, as well as marrying one Matilda Klose, before passing away on October 16th, 1932. Eugene Rau also had a fascination with photography, he was an active member of the Bethlehem Photographic society and took or purchased thousands of photographs, many of which are now in our holdings. These included prints, glass plate negatives, and positive glass slides. The photographs we are discussing here are positive glass plate slides related to Pennsylvania. They were digitized and described by Brandon Sherer, a 2023 graduate of Lycoming College who interned at the Archives in Spring 2024 and has continued to volunteer here while pursuing his Masters in Library and Information Science. Brandon has also written about a project he worked on during his internship, which can be read here.

The photograph at the top of this post is undated and labeled “Nisky Hill” and as such was likely taken in or near Nisky Hill Cemetery, which sits atop a hill overlooking the Lehigh River. It shows a lovely view through snow covered trees and down the slope to the river, while across the river can be seen some of the buildings and smokestacks of Bethlehem Steel. The round shape of this image is the result of matting over the original rectangular image. Often in these posts we have focused on the historical value of various items and what they can tell us about the past, but it is also good to take a moment to appreciate something simply for its beauty.

Of course, many of the photographs do provide insight on Bethlehem’s history, such as this one that shows a scene of ice cutting, an industry that flourished in the 19th and early 20th century but is now largely forgotten. There is a long history of people cutting ice, either from natural or purpose made bodies of water, and transporting it for use in preserving food or other materials, but the development of large scale, comparatively fast, transportation networks by railroad and ship in the 19th century allowed this to dramatically expand and become a major business until it was supplanted by advances is refrigeration technology in the 20th century. This photograph is labeled “Ice Cutting So. Beth. Water Co reservoir, 1902” and shows several men cutting ice and using a ramp to move the resulting blocks onto the shore. From here they would most likely have been transported to an ice house, of which Bethlehem had several [2], where they would have been kept frozen using insulated walls and materials such as sawdust until they were sent to homeowners or businesses.

As mentioned earlier, the Eugene A. Rau Photograph Collection is very large and the majority of it has not been cataloged or made available online. If you would be interested in working on this project as a volunteer, which would involve scanning and describing the photos so that they can be added to the online finding aid, please contact us at info@moravianchurcharchives.org and we would be delighted to discuss this.

[1] The apothecary building is still standing and currently houses a jewelry store.

[2] At least two ice houses still stand in Bethlehem, one having become a community events venue, the Charles A. Brown Ice House, and the other converted into apartments.

Top image: “Nisky Hill,” Eugene A. Rau | PhotRau P 013, Moravian Archives Bethlehem