After graduation from Lafayette College in 1885, Henry Forster Marx continued his education before pursuing a career in journalism and in teaching. From 1893 until 1902 he taught English at Easton High School where he was influential in founding the “Junto,” the school paper that is still published today.

When the Easton Public Library opened in 1902, Marx became the director and served in that position until 1936. Recognizing the importance of preserving the past, he set aside a small room in the new Andrew Carnegie-funded library building to house his collection of pictures, manuscripts and newspapers related to local history. He continued to add materials after his retirement and the Board of Trustees of the library dedicated this collection in his honor in 1950.Today the Marx Room remains a valuable resource for anyone doing research about this area.

Henry Marx might best be known for his work in the field of genealogy as he gathered death and marriage notices from the local papers from 1799 to 1884, indexed more than 30 local church records, and found abstracts of all wills probated in the county from 1752 to 1840.

Marx devoted his later years to the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society, where he served as secretary, president and historian. His main focus was making the Society’s library one of the finest in the state. When he died in 1947, he was the last surviving charter member of the Society.