The D&L Blog

Robert Frick, who donated these small tin houses, was the grandson of Robert Linderman, president of Bethlehem Iron, later Bethlehem Steel, from May, 1890 to May, 1901. Linderman died Jan. 21, 1903 of blood poisoning after cutting his hand on a Christmas toy of one of his children.

You may have read the article in The Morning Call about a Bethlehem Steel wall mural at Unity Bank that shows a high-pressure cylinder being bored inside Bethlehem Steel’s No. 2 machine shop. Yes, that high resolution digital photo on the mural is from the National Canal Museum Archives! Unity acquired the right to reproduce the high resolution digital photo, and they also made a donation to the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor. Thank you, Unity Bank!

Our historian/archivist Martha Capwell Fox recently shared with us a bit about our holdings of canal, anthracite, railroad, iron and steel, and other industrial records, including some pretty unique oddities as pictured here:

• 3,753 artifacts
• digitized copies of historic mine, railroad, and steel films
• audio (oral history) tapes
• rare film footage of canal life
• 11,500 slides, photographs, and negative images
• a library of more than 7,300 volumes
• 261 rolls of microfilm

Access to the Archives is free for members–one of the great benefits of becoming a member of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor. Archival items like the high-res photo are available for license, too, but appointments are required to ensure your experience is the best it can be. Schedule your visit here.

In the National Canal Museum archives, you’ll find a most interesting display of Dixie cup lids from products featured over the years by Georgia Pacific Company.

The Sandy Andy is from the Louis J.G. Buehler collection. Famous for its appearance in the movie The Christmas Story, the toy was advertised in the 1930 Montgomery Ward catalog as “a willing worker.”

These tin toys were donated to the National Canal Museum archives by Bob Frick, the grandson of Robert Linderman, who was president of Bethlehem Steel from 1890 to 1901.