Help Protect the Marx Local History Room

When the Friends of the Easton Area Public Library learned that the Marx Local History Room has no fire protection system, they decided to take on the job of providing one.

The Marx Room has been a pet project of the Friends, who originally raised the funds to build the environmentally controlled room patrons use at the Main Library. Established in 1987, the Marx Room now houses the largest collection of local history and genealogy in northeastern Pennsylvania.

There one finds many rare and irreplaceable items, among them, the Easton Flag, believed to be first displayed during the reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776, in Center Square; the Penn Patent for Easton Town Lot No. 96 dated January 18, 1763; a baptismal fraktur by Easton Bible artist Johann Spangenberg dated 1809; and a portrait of Easton resident and signer of the Declaration of Independence George Taylor painted in 1917. 

In addition, the Marx Room holds over 18,000 catalogued items, including over 200 volumes of Northampton County church and cemetery records, over 1200 volumes from the Library’s 1811-1855 collection, and many local family histories. The room attracts patrons from around the United States and processes genealogical requests from people the world over.

Comprehensive Fire Technologies has provided an estimate for a Clean Agent Fire Suppression System of approximately $28,000. This company installed a similar system for Easton’s Sigal Museum.

The Friends’ fundraising campaign is off to a good start with a $10,000 grant from the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation, made possible by the Louise Moore Pine and Roswell Dean Pine Fund and three large individual donations by Marx Room patrons and supporters. A mail campaign has put the fund over the halfway mark.

But there’s much further to go. Anyone wishing to make a donation can pick up a form at the Main Library or the Palmer and South Side Branch. A downloadable form is also available at www.eastonpl.org.