|
AKMP Collection | Special Collections | Online Gallery | Collection Research
| Rights & Reproductions
|
| |
Featured Object
Streetcar to the Centennial, 1876. Edwin S. Haley,
Oil on canvas.
Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia.
Donated by Albert J. Edmunds, 1919.
The Centennial Exhibition, held in Philadelphia in 1876 in celebration of 100 years of American independence, showcased the growth and innovation of the manufacturing industry in America. Planning the event relied on the very advancements in thinking and production that the Exhibition highlighted. On July 4, 1875, a year before the Centennial, an Independence Day party attracting approximately 130,000 people was held in the area of west Fairmount Park designated for the Exhibition. The arrival of such a large number of people ended up demonstrating the deficiency of the city's current transportation lines. The test run alerted planners to the need to improve the frequency and type of service that public transportation provided to the grounds. When the Centennial opened in 1876, local street car lines had increased the number of cars shuttling people to the park, while carriage, steamboat, and rail transportation provided other travel options. Easy access to the Centennial site contributed to the success of the event: the celebration attracted over ten million visitors in a six-month period.
About the painting: Since the advent of horse-drawn streetcars in 1856, Philadelphia had become honeycombed with a streetcar system linking many parts of the city's 142.6 square miles. Sign painter Edwin Haley worked for the Chestnut and Walnut Street Line. By the 1880s, just after the Centennial, horse-drawn trolleys on tracks gave way to electric powered trolleys.
|
 |
[ View Archived Objects ]
Featured Philadelphian
Hermann Schwarzmann, 1876.
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Historical Register of the Centennial Exposition 1876.
From the facsimile published by Paddington Press, Ltd., 1974.
Hermann Schwarzmann, a German immigrant working as an engineer in Philadelphia, changed the face of the upcoming Centennial Exhibition in 1873 when the U.S. Centennial Commission offered him the position of Chief Engineer for the Centennial Exhibition Grounds. His experience directing engineering work in Fairmont Park for five years, along with a trip back to Europe to study the Vienna International Exhibition in 1873, prepared Schwarzmann for engineering one of the largest events in Philadelphia's history.
When Schwarzmann emigrated to America in 1868 at the age of 22, he began his stateside engineering profession as an Assistant Engineer for Fairmount Park. Two years later, promoted to Senior Assistant Engineer, Schwarzmann began directing all engineering work for the western part of the park. In another two years, Schwarzmann would become the Engineer of Design at Fairmont Park. His augmented responsibilities in this position included planning, ornamentation, drainage, and planting in the park.
In 1873, 27-year-old Schwarzmann accepted the mission of engineering the Centennial Exhibition, to be held in 1876 in west Fairmount Park. As a means of preparing for an event of such magnitude, Schwarzmann visited the Vienna International Exhibition in 1873 to study the buildings erected and the layout of the grounds.
Upon his return to Philadelphia, Schwarzmann embarked on transforming west Fairmount Park. Under his supervision, workers moved 500,000 cubic yards of earth, graded and surfaced three miles of avenues and 17 miles of walks, built a railroad with 5.5 miles of double track, erected 16 bridges, and put up three miles of fence with 179 stiles and gates. They constructed seven miles of drains, nine miles of water pipes, and 16 fountains and water works with daily pumping capacity of six million gallons. They laid eight miles of gas pipes and installed three separate telegraph systems with underground cables. They landscaped the grounds by planting 153 acres of lawns and flower beds, and over 20,000 trees and shrubs.
Although trained as an engineer, not an architect, Schwarzmann ended up designing 34 of the 249 large and small structures for the exhibition grounds, including the only two permanent structures: Memorial Hall and Horticultural Hall. Sadly, Horticultural Hall was destroyed by Hurricane Hazel in 1954. Today, however, Memorial Hall stands as the new home of the Please Touch Museum for Children. Designed as an art gallery for the Centennial, Memorial Hall is massive, with a footprint of 1.5 acres. A 150-foot dome sits atop the 365-foot-by-210-foot and 59-foot-high structure. The space provided 75,000 square feet of wall surface for paintings and 20,000 square feet of floor space for sculptures. When the hall opened in 1876, it was the largest hall in the country. The design for Memorial Hall became the prototype for other American museums, including Art Institute of Chicago, Detroit Institute of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum.
|
 |
[ View Archived Philadelphians ]
|
AKMP Collection
Model, Baldwin eight-wheeled locomotive, 1870. Courtesy Matthew Baird.
Established in 1938 as the official history museum of the City of Philadelphia, AKMP has one of the most significant collections of Philadelphia material culture. Numbering 100,000 objects, pieces are dated from the 1680s to the present and document the experiences of the city's diverse citizens. In addition to objects stored at the Museum Building, most of the remaining collection is housed at two off-site storage facilities.
Dictating machine, Model 10, Dictaphone Corporation, New York, New York, c. 1930. Donated by Scholler, Inc., Philadelphia.
Overview
Prints, paintings, photographs and ephemera (approximately 50,000 items). Highlights include prints and engravings by William Birch & Son for Columbia Magazine, 10,000 photographs including the Langenheim panorama of Philadelphia taken from the State House Steeple c. 1850, a panorama of the Centennial Exposition Buildings c. 1876 by Frederick Gutekunst and 1,000 folio advertisements.
Object collection (approximately 43,000 items). Objects include more than 2,000 artifacts relating to the history of Philadelphia industries and crafts, 2,000 toys and dolls, 750 pieces of sheet music, 5,000 trade cards and political memorabilia and 2,700 pieces of clothing and textiles.
Library (approximately 7,000 items). The collection includes books and pamphlets along with archival and manuscript materials.
Special Collections
Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) Collection
"George Washington," by Charles Willson Peale, c. 1810. Gift of Charles S. Ogden, 1892.
10,500 objects and 800 paintings. Stewardship of the Art and Artifact Collection
was transferred to AKMP in 2002 through an agreement that anticipates the
transfer of ownership to AKMP in ten years. The painting collection includes
nationally significant works of art by renowned artists including the Peale
family, Thomas Sully, Gilbert Stuart, Benjamin West, Thomas Birch, Robert
Street and John Neagle. Portraits of national leaders, including William
Penn, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris and Andrew Jackson,
are complemented by images of prominent Philadelphians such as Gen. George
G. Meade, John Wanamaker, Frederick Graff and Edwin Forrest.
Camp knife and fork belonging to George Washington, 1760-80. Gift of the Honorable M. Hampton Todd, 1923.
The artifact collection includes furniture, decorative
arts, textiles, and personal belongings including a watch that Washington
carried as president of the United States, swords presented to and used
by Civil War heroes, a wampum belt reputedly given to William Penn from the
Lenape Indians, tall case clocks made by the Rittenhouse family, chairs
from the President's House in Philadelphia and a significant collection
of domestic and presentation silver made by and for Philadelphians in the
1700s and 1800s.
Friends Historical Association Collection
African American Quaker dolls, c. 1830
Quaker boy's dress, 1840.
1,700 items. With objects from the mid-18th century to about 1925
and including 1,200 textiles, the collection was used
or owned by members of the Religious Society of Friends who lived within
the boundaries of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. In addition to items
of clothing, the collection includes samplers, hand-woven linen sheets and
dolls.
Jane and Richard Loeliger Centennial Collection
600 items. Objects from the exposition in Philadelphia in 1876
commemorating the centennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence include lantern slides and stereograph
images, souvenirs and items brought by participating countries.
Agricultural Hall, Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1876.
Historical Collection of the Broadcast Pioneers
3 linear feet. Established in 1989 in cooperation with the Philadelphia Chapter
of the Broadcast Pioneers of America, the collection focuses upon the history
of broadcasting in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley. Two major donations
comprise the collection: the papers and posters of Gaylord Welker, who organized
the Dempsey/Charpontier and Dempsey/Tunney fights in 1925 and 1926; and
scrapbooks and related material from Stan Lee and Esther Broza, who produced
and starred in the "Children's Hour" on WCAU radio and television.
Miniature silver serving pieces. Photo by Joseph Labolito.
Evelyn Propper Strouse Miniature Collection
500 objects. The centerpieces of the collection are four miniature rooms
commissioned in the 1960s reflecting the styles of William and Mary, Queen
Anne, Chippendale and Federal periods. The rooms provide settings for miniature
utensils and objects of daily life in homes with significant resources in
all media including silver, glass, porcelain, ivory and pewter.
Online Gallery
The AKMP Online Gallery makes available current research taking place in AKMP's Philadelphia City History Collection. Click here to visit the AKMP Online Gallery.
Collection Research
AKMP collection research specialties include: Atwater
Kent radios, Philadelphia manufacturers, Friends Historical Association Collection,
toys, Philadelphia prints and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania Art
and Artifact Collection. AKMP does not have genealogical resources and,
generally, does not have resources to assist with family histories. Access
to the collection is provided by reservation. Some questions may have no
charge; for work that involves research, the rate is $20 per 30 minutes and
includes a limited number of photocopies. E-mail the Philadelphia History Hotline.
Rights & Reproductions
Items from the AKMP collection are available for reproduction
in a variety of media. Certain restrictions apply. For more information
and a schedule of fees, contact Collection Rights & Reproductions at
215.685.4839.
Back to Top
|
