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AKMP Collection | Special Collections | Online Gallery | Collection Research
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Featured Object
Octavius V. Catto Banner,1903, AKMP Collection
The spectacular Catto Banner, 1903, from the Catto Lodge for African American Elks is also on exhibit. In the 19th century, racial and ethnic segregation led communities to form their own benevolent associations, providing people with opportunities for socializing and mutual aid. The African American Elks Lodge in Philadelphia carries the name of Octavius Valentine Catto, a dynamic 19th century community activist, athlete, educator and leader in the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League and in its fight to desegregate streetcars. Rioters trying to keep blacks from the polls murdered Catto on Election Day, 1871. The Catto banner was purchased and conserved by AKMP to add to its collection of memorabilia from the city's benevolent associations. |
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Featured Philadelphian
Stephen Smith, c. 1840-1850. James Stidun (dates are not known)
Oil on canvas
Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, given to the Society by Mrs. Henrietta Clemens Mouserone, special representative of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Stephen Smith was born into slavery in Cecil County, Maryland, sometime around 1797. At the age of 21 he purchased his freedom and soon after moved to Columbia, Pennsylvania. Smith opened a coal and lumberyard and began shipping coal and timber throughout Pennsylvania. His firm, Smith & Whipper, purchased a freighter for moving goods across the Great Lakes to Canada.
In 1842, Smith and his wife, Harriett Lee Smith, moved to Philadelphia. He left his partner William Whipper, a prominent black Philadelphian, in charge of his business in Columbia. After the Civil War, Whipper revealed the two partners' involvement in the Underground Railroad, shipping fugitive slaves from Philadelphia in railroad cars, then ferrying them by freighter across Lake Erie to freedom in Canada.
Smith was active in the economic, political and social life of Philadelphia's African American community. Ordained to preach in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, he gave generously to many charities, including Mother Bethel. He built Smith's Beneficial Hall as a meeting place for black organizations. The hall burned in the riots of August 1842 when many homes of African Americans were also destroyed. Smith also invested in real estate within the city. At the time of his death in 1873, he owned more than 100 houses, lots and buildings. He left the bulk of the estate to found the Stephen Smith Home for the Aged, a residence for older African Americans at 1050 Belmont Avenue. The Smith Home is now West Philadelphia Geriatrics at 44th Street and Girard Avenue.
Virtually nothing is known of the artist John Stidun. The museum's collections contain Stidun's pendant portrait of Smith's wife, Henrietta Lee Smith. The donor of both portraits, Smith's grandniece Henrietta Clemens Mouserone, identifies Stidun as a "prominent Negro artist" in her manuscript life of Smith. The portrait's canvas has the stamp of a Philadelphia store, but there is no listing for Stidun in the Philadelphia directories.
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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.
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