On Sept. 21, 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette came to Bethlehem. Unlike the thousands of tourists who flock to the city annually for Musikfest, Christkindlmarkt, and other events, Lafayette and his fellow wounded Revolutionary soldiers and officers came to the Christmas City for medical help after the Battle of Brandywine.

Many wounded soldiers received accommodations at the Single Brethren’s House (99 West Church St.) or the Sun Inn (564 Main St.), but General George Washington requested special treatment for the Frenchman fighting for American liberty. As Washington had asked the Moravian community to care for Lafayette – who had been shot in the leg by the British – “as if he were my son,” Lafayette found himself in the private home of George Frederick Beckel and his wife Barbara. According to Moravian Church archives, Beckel was superintendent of the farms in the Bethlehem community.

Liesel, the Beckers’ daughter, joined Barbara in caring for the 19-year-old Lafayette on the second floor of the family home – since torn down – at 534 Main St.. He stayed there less than a month, leaving Bethlehem Oct. 18 and apparently forgetting it; when he toured the United States in 1824, he told a Philadelphia reporter he had been treated for his Brandywine injuries in Reading, not Bethlehem.

Despite Lafayette’s later memory lapse, he wrote in 1777 of a swift return to health that amazed local doctors caring for him. The doctors, he noted, “are astonished at the rapidity with which it heals.”

An exhibit at Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites (HBMS) opening this summer and continuing through the spring of 2027 allows visitors to get a better understanding of medicine 250 years ago. “Moravian Care and Cure: Bethlehem Medicine During the Revolution,” opened June 26. According to HBMS, medical care in the young Moravian community was something special even before they played host to wounded Revolutionaries.

“In an era when trained physicians were scarce, treatments were often harsh or experimental, and hospitals were barely more than crowded rooms full of suffering men,” HBMS explains. “The Moravian [...] doctors, nurses, and an exceptionally well-stocked apothecary developed an organized system of healing that blended clinical expertise, spiritual care, and careful attention to the rhythms of daily life, producing a medical culture that was unusually clean, disciplined, and humane for its time.” Visitors to the exhibit will hear diary excerpts and apothecary records, as well as seeing surgical instruments from the Revolutionary era.

“Moravian Care and Cure: Bethlehem Medicine During the Revolution” runs June 26, 2026, through April 25, 2027, at Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites. Ticket information is available online (historicbethlehem.org/visit-us/experience/moravian-care-and-cure-bethlehem-medicine-during-the-revolution/).

More information about the Sun Inn is available online (suninnbethlehem.org/).