Allentown, PA Art Museum Allentown, PA Historical Museum Allentown, PA National Museum

Lehigh Valley Museums. Lehigh Valley offers many unsual museums and places to check out. Visit the Cement Museum in Northampton, the Lock Ridge Furnace Museum in Alburtis, the Mack Truck Museum in Allentown, and the Allen Organ Company in Macungie. No music lover should leave the Lehigh Valley without a visit to the Martin Guitar Museum and Factory, with a new gift shop and visitor's center. Train enthusiasts will enjoy a ride at the Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern Railroad.

Allentown Art Museum. The Allentown Art Museum offers extraordinary American and European collections and exhibits, educational programs, an extraordinary art history library, and public events that stimulate the exploration of the arts in the Lehigh Valley. The Museum's collection of 11,294 works of art offers over 700 years of Western cultural heritage as well as ethnically diverse cultures. Defined by European paintings and a large collection of textiles and works on paper, the Museum displays Gilbert Stuart's beguiling portrait of Ann Penn Allen, granddaughter of the founder of Allentown, which sets the benchmark for its American collection. See the Museum’s 53 Renaissance and Baroque paintings and sculptures from Samuel H. Kress. The older wing is a neo-Roman temple with Corinthian columns, built as the First Presbyterian Church in 1902. Visit www.allentownartmuseum.org.  [Top]

Mack Trucks Historical Museum. The Mack Trucks Museum in Allentown presents Mack’s history through exhibits and photographs. See one of the original sightseeing buses built by Jack and Augustus Mack in the first decade of the century, a 1911 Mack Jr. that shared the streets with horse-drawn wagons, and the historic 1918 AC model, one of 4,100 built for World War I that dodged bullets and trudged through France. Many of museum's real treasures are made of paper and celluloid. There are 80,000 photos in the collection, many dating back to 1905, and truck records. If you were to come across an old AB truck in a barn, there was a record made when it was built. The company's been doing it for every chassis manufactured since 1905, and they are filed here. Visit www.macktrucks.com/default.aspx?pageid=40.  [Top]

National Museum of Industrial History. Located in Bethlehem, PA, the “Steel Museum” tells the story of America’s industrial achievements, and preserves the record of the industry’s development and advancements from the mid-1800s until present. With the Smithsonian Institution, the NMIH preserves the industrial architecture and collections of America’s industrial heritage. The Museums’ Great Iron and Steel Showcase weaves a dramatic storyline on the history of iron and steel making as you circulate through the museum’s chambers by moving cranes, elevated tressle-rail rides and bridge-walks. Visit www.nmih.org  [Top]