Easton’s community and foremost historians sent a message through time this week — to Eastonians over 100 years in the future.
“We thought that it would be a beautiful gift to give the future curators, and the future programmers and the future people of the museum,” said Megan van Ravenswaay, executive director of the Sigal Museum, which hosted the event.
The Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society celebrated its 120-year anniversary on March 26 by leaving a love letter to Easton’s future in the form of a time capsule, set to be opened in another 120 years. The Sigal Museum, operated by the society and located in downtown Easton, is dedicated to Easton and will keep the time capsule in its archive room until its opening.
“There have been some people that have written letters to the future,” said Monica Bugbee, the society’s curator of collections. “We have a bunch of pennies because, of course, they’re not producing pennies anymore.”
Many people also submitted newspapers, local publications and guidebooks for the Easton area — someone even put in a gas receipt.
Carolyn Daub, the wife of one of the founders of the Sigal Museum and an event attendee, put what we might consider an artifact now in the time capsule.
“It was very old, I think maybe from the ‘30s,” she said of a postcard. “It was in a flap, so when you opened it up, there were maybe five different scenes from Easton way back then.”
Mike Bennett, another attendee, placed some artifacts that depicted important parts of his life in Easton. Bennett has been a volunteer tutor at nonprofit ProJeCt of Easton for the past 25 years and submitted a brochure from the organization alongside his personal items.
“We put in the mass card of her mom, my wife, who passed away about 10 years ago already, and she was very involved in the community,” said Bennet, who attended the event with his daughter.
Event attendee Melissa, who did not give her last name, is of three generations in the Northampton area. She put in a family photo of a baptism that took place at one of the churches up the street, a church bulletin of a Palmerton Township newsletter and a printed family photo.
Tim Betz, the curator of exhibitions and programming for the museum, noted that items they wanted to see in the time capsule were everyday items that would showcase what life was like in 2026.
“I was gonna write a letter to the future curator about what it means to do history today,” he said.
“It’s mind-boggling to try to imagine when they open that,” Bennett said. “Will this building still be here? What’s downtown Easton going to look like in 120 years?”
A correction was made on April 6, 2026: A previous version of this article contained a misspelling of the names Carolyn Daub and Tim Betz.