Lecture at the Moravian Archives, with reception to follow, and via Zoom (registration below)
Christopher J. Malone, Curator at Historic Trappe

The Moravian town of Bethlehem went through a series of developmental changes that saw the community go from a closed-form of church-controlled communalism to an entirely open society. This change was precipitated by the outside world’s direct influence on the Moravian’s mission efforts towards the Native Americans. Bethlehem went from an economy based on supporting their missionary goals to one that focused on pleasing outsiders through the goods and services they provided to visitors. Outsiders flocked to Bethlehem for their health, to be entertained, and for the church’s international trade connections. Their new economy of goods introduced the Moravians to new textiles, books, and other objects, but most importantly, to endless cycles of the wider world’s changing tastes. Outsider visitation resulted in architectural, spatial, and social changes within the town and the wider Moravian community that slowly dissolved Bethlehem’s communal boundaries until the town was finally open to all.

Christopher Malone is a curator and scholar who focuses on the history and material culture of the Pennsylvania Germans with a special emphasis on the Moravians and other intentional communities. Christopher completed a Masters in Architecture at Syracuse University and a Masters in American Material Culture from the Winterthur Program. His thesis centered on the ways that outsider visitation changed Moravian material culture in the community’s first one hundred years in Pennsylvania. He won the program’s E. McClung Fleming Thesis prize for the most distinguished thesis. Christopher has worked for the Moravian Historical Society and was the curator at the American Swedish Historical Museum. He is currently the Curator at Historic Trappe, Digital Marketing Manager at the Lutheran Archives Center at Philadelphia, and the Content Curator for the publication Americana Insights. In his spare time, Christopher is a columnist for Maine Antiques Digest, and is the editor of The Daily Antiquarian, a blog focusing on the history, architecture, and material culture of the American Mid-Atlantic.