EASTON, Pa. – Three Lehigh Valley museums participated in Museum Store Sunday this weekend, a post-Thanksgiving shopping holiday intended to direct holiday spending to the country’s museum stores.
The National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem, plus Easton’s Sigal Museum and National Canal Museum, each offered 10% discounts on everything in their shops, with 20% off for members of each museum.
“The museum store is really the big way, besides admissions, that we can get enough money to cover operational costs.”Kasmira Zechman, National Canal Museum operations manager
Some of the items for sale are even pieces of history: a brick from Martin Tower, the former headquarters of Bethlehem Steel demolished in 2019, at the Museum of Industrial History; a reprint of an 1874 atlas of Northampton County at the Sigal Museum; mix for bolio, a storied coal country drink, from the Canal Museum.
All three museums offer work by local artisans and extensive selections of books on local history spanning from the colonial era to today, for readers of all ages.
Pieces of history available
Many of the items are unique to the museum shops — not sold anywhere else, online or otherwise.
“The museum store is really the big way, besides admissions, that we can get enough money to cover operational costs,” National Canal Museum Operations Manager Kasmira Zechman said.
“What we're trying to do is also to make sure that when folks do come to the museum and they really connect with something, they can take a bit of that home with them.”Sarah White, community engagement coordinator at the Sigal Museum
“Much of what we do relies on public support, and as a museum with a gift shop attached to it, we are furthering our mission,” said Sarah White, community engagement coordinator at the Sigal Museum.
“What we're trying to do is also to make sure that when folks do come to the museum and they really connect with something, they can take a bit of that home with them.”
The Museum Store Association, a trade group representing the non-profit retail shops attached to various cultural institutions, first launched Museum Store Sunday in 2017 to give its members a place in the crowded post-Thanksgiving shopping calendar.
Both the Sigal Museum and the Canal Museum have participated in Museum Store Sunday for years.
“This is one of our busiest weekends of the year,” White said. “I really appreciate that there is a day specifically dedicated to museums.”
