History
Submitted by rickwfink on February 26, 2009 - 4:05pm.
Wondering how you can affordably and easily incorporate “green” practices into your everday life? Join us at Cliveden, a National Trust Historic Site, on Friday April 3rd and Satruday April 4th for Going Green: Environmental Stewardship for Preservation and Profit.
Located in our historic Carriage House, visitors will hear a variety of perspectives on local “green” issues from renowned scholars and environmental leaders. Topics will include an assortment of subjects including: “green” lawn care, protection of local wildlife, historical environmental issues and the true characteristics of eco-living.
The Going Green forum will begin on Friday evening, April 3rd, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm with a wine and cheese conversation about Cliveden’s climate control project. Learn about the special challenges historic sites face when balancing sustainability and historic accuracy. A presentation and panel discussion with local museum leaders will be followed by a behind-the-scenes architectural tour of the historic Chew House.
On Saturday April 4th, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, a full-day of scholarly speakers will address a variety of local environmental issues. Mike McGrath, host of WHYY’s You Bet Your Garden show, will bring his nationally syndicated radio antics to Cliveden. His keynote speech, Get Your Lawn and Landscape off Drugs, will reveal money-and-time saving tips that will help to achieve a lush, green lawn free of chemicals.
Dr. Andrew Isenberg, Chair of Temple University’s History Department, will begin Saturday’s program with a discussion of historical environmental issues. His talk Environment and History: The Historical Context of Environmental Challenges, will focus on how past cultures have attempted to confront environmental problems.
Defenders of Wildlife Outreach representative Richard Whiteford will follow with a discussion about Climate Change: Things Each of Us Can Do About It. An environmental activist, lobbyist and winner of the Sierra Club’s 2006 Environmental Hero Award, Whiteford will provide tips on how to protect natural habitats in the Greater Philadelphia region.
Exploring myths about “going green” will be Barton Partners Architects Planners’ Director of Planning and Urban Design, Seth Shapiro. Mr. Shapiro will question the myths about green design and focus on the chracteristics of what makes homes and neighborhoods truly “green.”
During the lunch break on Saturday April 4th, visitors will be treated to a natural history tour of Cliveden. Phillyist.com Green Scene Columnist Lori Litchman will explain what Cliveden’s 6 acre property would have looked like in 1777 as well as the variety of plant and wildlife at the site.
Farmers from Weavers Way, a food cooperative in Northwest Philadelphia, will provide eco-friendly appetizers for lunchtime and discuss the economic and health benefits of eating locally and organically.
Concluding the Going Green forum will be a brief local field trip to Weavers Way farms at Awbury Arboretum and Martin Luther King High School. Hop on the yellow bus to see a food co-op’s urban gardens and nutrition programs in action.
Admission to both days of the program, April 3rd and April 4th, is $30. Price of admission includes speakers, demonstrations, eco-friendly appetizers, local bus trip as well as a reusable Cliveden coffee mug and shopping bag. A reduced rate is available for one-day admissions and members of Cliveden.
For further information about this program and to RSVP, please contact by email at: rfink@cliveden.org or by calling 215-848-1777. A detailed program for this event can be found at www.cliveden.org.
Submitted by rickwfink on June 6, 2008 - 2:03pm.
As part of Cliveden’s Building Bridges: Linking Lives and Communities exhibition, programming will continue this summer in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Philadelphia’s Walnut Lane Bridge. Highlighting a newly discovered collection of lantern slides, the exhibition runs until December 31st and features original blueprints, contemporary newspaper accounts, rare photographs and modern works of art showcasing the bridge’s enduring beauty.
In an effort to highlight one of the project’s community partners, a visual account of the bridge’s recent history will take place at the Woodmere Art Museum on June 19 at 7PM. Join Woodmere Curator and Building Bridges advisor Douglas Paschall for the “Lantern Slide Salon,” where he will take you on a journey in bridge and park history from the early 19th century to present day. Based on historical “magic lantern” presentations, the Lantern Slide Salon will offer a visual story of the bridge, its natural surroundings and a history of the lantern slide, which is a Philadelphia invention. Cost of admission to the event is $5 and is free for Bridge Club Members.
Programming for the Walnut Lane Bridge’s 100th anniversary has also been developed for children. From July 14 – July 18, Cliveden will be hosting the Building Bridges Summer Camp, a day camp for children of 8 to 12 years who are interested in nature, architecture and wildlife. The camp runs from 9:30AM to 3:30PM daily and cost for the week long camp is $100. Campers will travel to Adventure Aquarium, Awbury Arboretum, Historic RittenhouseTown, Walnut Lane Bridge and the Wissahickon Environmental Center for hands-on activities such as: bridge building, nature studies, self reflection and other outdoor lessons.
Please visit www.walnutlanebridge.org for more information about these events or call 215-848-1777 to learn more. Limited space available for each event, RSVP preferred. Exhibition is free to the public and is open daily from 12PM – 4PM.
Submitted by rickwfink on May 2, 2008 - 3:18pm.
Building Bridges Program to Feature Wissahickon History at Cliveden
May 8, 2008. 7PM
Philadelphia, PA – Cliveden of the National Trust presents “Journey in the Wissahickon,” a presentation given by Dr. David Contosta and Dr. Carol L. Franklin. The talk is part of an ongoing series of monthly programs being held in conjunction with Cliveden’s Building Bridges: Linking Lives and Communities exhibit, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Walnut Lane Bridge.
The presentation will take place on May 8, at 7PM in Cliveden’s Carriage House. The program is open to the general public at a cost of $5.00 per ticket. Members of the Walnut Lane Bridge Club receive free admission to the talk.
The illustrated presentation will focus on the bridges of the Wissahickon, improvements made in Fairmount Park during the 20th century, and the role of the park in the lives of community members. For Contosta and Franklin, the discussion will be a preview of a book they co-authored coming out this fall which details the history of the Wissahickon.
Dr. Contosta is a Professor of History at Chestnut Hill College. He is the preeminent historian for Wissahickon history and is the author of 15 books and over 100 articles, reviews, and scholarly papers. Dr. Franklin is a nationally recognized expert in sustainable design and has been a professor of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania for over 30 years.
For further exhibition information, visit the Walnut Lane Bridge Blog at www.waluntlanebridge.org or call Cliveden at 215-848-1777. Cliveden is located at 6401 Germantown Avenue and is open for tours April to December, Thursday – Sunday, 12PM – 4PM. Regular tour admission rates apply for Cliveden house tours.
Submitted by JHFlash on April 20, 2008 - 12:02pm.
On Saturday, April 29, 2008, Barak Obama traveled with Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey Jr. by train from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. Along the historic Main Line just west of Philadelphia, Obama spoke first to an estimated crowd of 6000 listeners at the Wynnewood train station, shown here.
Obama's 4-car train stopped subsequently in Paoli, Downingtown and Lancaster.
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works
John Hansen-Flaschen, 2008.
www.jflashphoto.com
Submitted by willkari on March 6, 2008 - 10:37am.
As most of us know adornment has been around since Neanderthal man. Bits of bone, rock, shell, even flowers and leaves made up accessories for both man and woman. Glass came into existence at a much later time. Some where around 2340-2180 B.C. These excavations took place in Mesopotamia, and in the Caucasus region, known today as Russia. A vast number of glass beads were found, artistically crafted and a number of manufacturing methods used.
It was Egypt, however that manufactured such an enormous variety of beads in so many different materials that virtually everyone wore them. They were used not only for jewelry but for adornment from sandals to aprons. Most of these beads and finery was made for funerals, however. Of course the most prized stones and tiffany jewelry were made for the wealthy.
Actually glass beads are known by the Seventh and Eighth Dynasties. The Egyptians were first to manufacture for large commercial market about 1400 B.C. The New Kingdom of the Eighteenth Dynasty is considered the world’s first glassmaking epoch. Glassbeads took the place of precious and semiprecious stones. During this time tiffany rings of designs and styles of glass beads came into being.
A decline in glass making skills occurred in Egypt after the Nineteenth Dynasty ended. Glass virtually disappeared after the fall of the New Kingdom about 1085 B. C. It was revived in Ptolemaic times, when Alexander the Great founded Alexandria. Glass produced during this time is reported to include some of the most beautiful and complex beads ever made.
Submitted by Karl on August 16, 2007 - 8:02am.
Benjamin Franklin's letter to Benjamin Vaughan:
Phila July 31, 1786 (To Benjamin Vaughan)
Dear Friend,
I recollect that when I had the great Pleasure of seeing you at Southampton, now a 12 month since, we had some Conversation on the bad Effects of Lead taken inwardly; and that at your Request I promis'd to send you in writing a particular Account of several Facts I then mention'd to you, of which you thought some good Use might be made. I now sit down to fulfil that Promise.
The first Thing I remember of this kind, was a general discourse in Boston when I was a Boy, of a Complaint from North Carolina against New England Rum, that it poison'd their People, giving them the Dry Bellyach, with a Loss of the Use of their Limbs. The Distilleries being examin'd on the Occasion, it was found that several of them used leaden Still-heads and Worms, and the Physicians were of the Opinion that the Mischief was occasion'd by that Use of Lead. The Legislature of the Massachusetts thereupon pass'd an Act prohibiting under severe Penalties the Use of such Still-heads & Worms thereafter. Inclos'd I send you a Copy of the Act, taken from my printed Law book.
Submitted by Albert on August 12, 2007 - 5:02pm.
I had the pleasure of climbing up to the 55th floor of the not yet finished Comcast Center on Tuesday August 7, 2007. I went on a tour with Liberty Property Trust and I had my camera and all my goodies in tote for the journey. We were about 900' up at the highest point and as low as the concourse which will eventually join up with Suburban Station.
The 55th floor is right above the cutout when looking at the southern face of the Comcast Center. Windows have yet to be installed on that floor giving photographers [me!] an unobstructed view of the city as never seen before. It was surprisingly calm up there. I was expecting it to be breezy, but the air was almost as calm and dead as it was at ground level on that 95°F day.
Above is a 180° panorama from the 55th floor facing south. You can see the two I-beams at either end of the photo covered with fireproofing (I'm pretty sure that's what it is). From left to right, you can see the Delaware River, City Hall, Liberty Towers, Mellon Bank Center, IBX building and the Schuylkill River. My photos from the tour start here. Enjoy!
Submitted by Canary Promo on July 12, 2007 - 5:20pm.
“Philadelphia Stories: The Building of a Great American City”
PHILADELPHIA – The Art Institute of Philadelphia and PhillyHistory.org are proud to announce the opening of “Philadelphia Stories: The Building of a Great American City,” a new exhibit of more than 80 remarkable historic photographs pulled from the vast City Archives, managed by the City of Philadelphia Department of Records. The exhibit will run from August 3 – 31, 2007 in the 1622 Chestnut Street Gallery of The Art Institute of Philadelphia in Center City.
From the building of City Hall, to the oldest church in Pennsylvania, to American’s most historic penitentiary, the City of Philadelphia Department of Records holds one of the country’s largest municipal archives of historic photographs, totaling an estimated 2 million images. Through the website PhillyHistory.org, the Department of Records has made over 34,000 images available to the public, with approximately 2,000 more images being added each month.
In partnership with The Art Institute of Philadelphia (AIPH), PhillyHistory.org’s online collection, which dates from the late 1800s, will come to life with over 80 stunning prints – some, never seen before by the public. From images of trade, commerce, education, municipal services, arts and entertainment to photos of men actually building the city, and the blueprint of City Hall before its construction, the exhibit reflects the vitality, vibrancy, growth, and the development of Philadelphia over the past 150 years.
Professionally printed by AIPH’s Robert H. Crites, Academic Director of the Photography and Digital Filmmaking and Video Production departments, the images paint a fascinating portrait of the city, its people and icons.
AIPH faculty member and Philadelphia native Maria DiElsi-Connolly is curator of the show. “These photos really bring the past to life, from the busy neighborhoods and the markets and the city streets to the construction of city icons like City Hall,” she says. “You can see the faces of the men who built the massive infrastructure of a modern American city – the bridges, the railways, the water system. It is a remarkable record, not only historically fascinating, but visually breathtaking.”
Records Commissioner Joan Decker says, “The photographs really track the development of the city through its height as a great center of industry. We’re thrilled to partner with The Art Institute of Philadelphia to showcase the collection in a gallery setting. Exhibit visitors will also have the opportunity to delve even deeper into our city’s rich history through our innovative online service PhillyHistory.org.”
In addition to the City Archives’ photographs, several current-day photographs will be exhibited alongside their historic counterparts to fully display the city’s development over time. Modern photographs have been provided by Philadelphia Inquirer Senior Photographer Clem Murray and AIPH’s Robert H. Crites.
Framed images from the show will be available for purchase, and all proceeds from sales will benefit the protection and preservation of the municipal photo archives.
A public opening reception with refreshments will be held from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, August 3rd. Internet access to PhillyHistory.org will be provided at the reception for the public to browse the complete digitized archives and order prints.
Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. – 7 p.m., Friday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. The exhibit, running August 3 – 31, is free and open to the public.
“Philadelphia Stories: The Building of a Great American City” was made possible thanks to the support of The City of Philadelphia Department of Records, The Art Institute of Philadelphia and its students, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Private opening sponsor: Barefoot Wine.
About PhillyHistory.org
With nearly 95,000 unique visitors to-date, PhillyHistory.org has attracted the attention of historians, geographers, genealogists, researchers and history buffs in Philadelphia and around the world. The unique search features of PhillyHistory.org allow users to search the online archive of over 27,000 images, making them available to a worldwide audience for the first time. Drawing from the archive of an estimated 2 millions images which date from the late 1800s, nearly 2,000 negatives are scanned every month at the City Archives.
The Department of Records partnered with Avencia, Inc, a Philadelphia-based geographic analysis and software firm, to create an online application which allows the public to search for photographs within a certain neighborhood, by address, intersection, a place name, year or other keywords. Images are also linked to street maps detailing their exact locations. PhillyHistory.org also features a blog detailing the history behind many of the images, written by history graduate students who catalog and scan the photographs and research some the city’s most fascinating stories, as well as historian guest bloggers. To view photographs and read about Philadelphia history, visit www.PhillyHistory.org.
About The Art Institute of Philadelphia
The Art Institute of Philadelphia (www.artinstitutes.edu/philadelphia) is a private, four-year college with student enrollment reaching 3,600 in the fall of 2006. Located in Center City Philadelphia, the college offers Bachelor of Science degrees in Culinary Management, Digital Filmmaking & Video Production, Fashion Design, Fashion Marketing, Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Interior Design, Media Arts & Animation, Photography, and Visual Effects & Motion Graphics. Students may also earn Associate of Science degrees in Culinary Arts, Digital Filmmaking & Video Production, Fashion Design, Fashion Marketing, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Photography, and Visual Merchandising. Diploma programs are offered in Baking & Pastry, Culinary Arts, and Digital Print Production.
Founded by artist Philip Trachtman in 1971, the college was acquired by Education Management Corporation in 1979. The Art Institute of Philadelphia occupies 1622 Chestnut Street, a building originally designed in 1928 as the CBS flagship radio station affiliate. Designated a historical site by the Philadelphia Historical Commission, the Art Deco building became home to the college in 1982. Today, The Art Institute has additional academic facilities at 1610 and 1510 Chestnut Street and 2300 Market Street. New facilities housing the interior design department and additional dormitory space will open at 1530 Chestnut in the fall of 2007.
The Art Institute of Philadelphia is one of The Art Institutes (www.artinstitutes.edu) with 36 educational institutions located throughout North America, provides an important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary arts professionals.
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To request interviews, high-resolution photographs, and more information, please contact:
Megan Wendell, Canary Promotion, (215) 242-6393, megan @ canarypromo.com
Submitted by Albert on July 12, 2007 - 1:46am.
 That's the famous Cab Calloway's grandson "CB" Calloway Brooks. I watched him and the Cab Jivers play a set up in Chestnut Hill last night and afterwards, I had the pleasure of driving him to the train station. He's got a wonderful voice and has a lot of the charisma his granddad had.
 I don't recall ever seeing Cab with an instrument in his hands, just that baton, but CB strums away at the guitar very well.
 He wasn't rocking his granddad's zoot suit, but he was rocking an old school looong watch chain. He pulled out the time piece during an encore of "Minnie the Moocher" while holding a loooong note playing with his drummer...
Submitted by SaveArdmoreCoalition on May 27, 2007 - 9:58am.
Bonnie Cook brings us today a poignant and seriously touching article about women that time and history have all but forgotten. Thanks to Bonnie, that all might change. Memorial Day is a time for remembrance....as we have taken the time in recent past to acknowledge the brave women who were battlefield nurses in such conflicts at Vietnam, let us also remember the women who were true mavericks and were battlefield nurses during the Cival War....Read the article....
Nurses who served the Union
Between 1862 and 1865, women volunteered to tend to wounded and dying men far from home.
By Bonnie L. Cook
Inquirer Staff Writer
Contact staff writer Bonnie L. Cook at 610-313-8232 or bcook@phillynews.com
No one sent them. They volunteered to go.
Leaving behind more quiet lives, a handful of Montgomery County women answered the call for civilians to nurse Union Army wounded during the U.S. Civil War.
Between 1862 and 1865, they trekked in plain dress, with hair pulled back, to battlefields in Pennsylvania, Maryland and the South. They had scant training or supplies, yet managed to care for the hurt and comfort the dying.
"The Brigade Surgeon has assured me more than once, that far more lives of the wounded soldiers have been spared thro' the tender nursing of our ladies than by the skill of all the surgeons," the husband of a nurse wrote in 1862.
Tomorrow, for what is believed to be the first time, one will be honored.
Michelle Harris, executive director of the Historical Society of Montgomery County, will lay flowers on the headstone of Elizabeth J. Brower, a civilian nurse who died in 1919 and lies buried among the buttercups in Montgomery Cemetery in Norristown.
During an 11 a.m. Memorial Day ceremony, Harris plans to "say a few words about [Brower's] service to the wounded men, and how her nursing of them typifies the sacrifice of many Montgomery County civilian nurses."
Plans are also afoot to obtain a headstone for Sarah Priest of Bridgeport, a civilian nurse who lies in an unmarked grave at Christ (Old Swedes) Church in Upper Merion. The grave was found using burial records.
Starting after the Battle of Antietam in 1862, Brower, of Norristown, spent two years caring for the wounded in Sharpsburg, Md. She was helped by Priest, who stayed 10 months.
The pair gave out the bandages, linens and food that had been collected and sent by the Norristown Ladies' Aid Society.
"They were reliable, valuable, effective women," Anna Morris Holstein, who was there, wrote in her 1867 book, Three years in field hospitals of the Army of the Potomac.
Both the original manuscript and Holstein's letters sent home are in the archives of the Historical Society on DeKalb Pike in Norristown. The public can view them, but because they are crumbling, they must be handled with cotton gloves....She vividly describes nursing and cooking "in primitive conditions" near the battlefield....Before going to war, Holstein wrote, she "instinctively shrank" from the thought of seeing soldiers in such conditions.
But when her husband, an Army major, returned home saying "that men were actually dying for want of food, home comforts and home care . . . I hesitated no longer," she wrote.
Brower, known to friends as "Miss Lizzie," came to assist Holstein with washing the men, feeding them, dressing their wounds, and writing letters home to their loved ones.
"Among the wounded at Antietam, Gettysburg and in Virginia, her kind ministrations will be long remembered," Holstein wrote.
It is not known why, but Brower didn't fare well after leaving the war in November 1864, according to federal pension records. "She has been of unsound mind ever since, and is now confined in an insane hospital in Harrisburg, Pa.," the pension records show.
Brower remained there for 31 years and died at age 89. It's not known why she was committed in Harrisburg, rather than Norristown State Hospital closer to home. It's thought that she kept a diary, but it's missing.
Newspapers disagree about Priest's death. One reports that she died at 63 in the Montgomery County almshouse of paralysis, apparently destitute. Another says she died at home in Norristown, and was honored at a funeral by many who "covered her casket with floral tributes." There's no way to know the truth, but the absence of a headstone is telling.
Holstein went on to conduct speaking tours and help returning prisoners of war. Later, she successfully lobbied for George Washington's headquarters at Valley Forge to be set aside as a national memorial.
Holstein died on the last day of 1900 at 75. Her headstone bears her signature.
Submitted by Canary Promo on April 19, 2007 - 2:20pm.
PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia Young Playwrights will launch its 20th Anniversary Celebration on Wednesday, June 6th from 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. at World Café Live (3025 Walnut Street, Philadelphia) with a benefit entitled Everybody is a Star on Opening Night. The event serves as a fundraiser for Young Playwrights’ programs throughout the year, showcases student work, and honors outstanding members of the arts and business communities.
This year’s benefit will feature a student inspired show, directed by Young Playwrights’ resident director Myra Bazell, highlighting 20 years of winning student plays and inspiring stories, as well as an awards presentation, cocktails and musical entertainment by Jojolo. Tickets start at $125 and can be purchased by calling Young Playwrights at (215) 665-9226. For more information, please visit www.phillyyoungplaywrights.org.
Submitted by Canary Promo on April 11, 2007 - 4:44pm.
PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Rosenbach Museum & Library celebrates the work of Maurice Sendak – author of such beloved children’s classics as Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, and Outside Over There – with the 2007 Sendak in Spring Festival on Sunday, April 22nd and Saturday, April 28th. For kids of all ages, the afternoon festival promises an exciting and fun-filled day of activities including children’s workshops, performances of the musical Wild Things Whirligig, a book fair featuring Sendak favorites and other children’s titles, and special tours of the Rosenbach’s Maurice Sendak Gallery. [A full schedule of programs and events follows below.]
The Sendak in Spring Festival is free with museum admission. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, and free for children under 5. Advance reservations for Wild Things Whirligig performances are required and can be made at www.rosenbach.org. The Rosenbach Museum & Library is located at 2008-2010 DeLancey Place and can be contacted at (215) 732-1600.
The festival will present four performances of the popular Wild Things Whirligig, an energetic, interactive children’s musical that weaves together classic characters from Sendak’s works as well as the author’s own inspirational figures, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Created by Karen Saillant, Artistic Director of the International Opera Company, the performance chronicles the characters’ journey to the land of the Wild Things.
Emphasizing the importance of imagination and everyday creativity, the festival will present three thirty-minute workshops, offered twice per day, which explore the art of storytelling through music, illustration, the spoken word, and book making.
In between workshops and performances, children will have the opportunity to visit The Maurice Sendak Gallery and view original drawings from many of Sendak’s books. Inaugurated in 2003, the gallery is dedicated to showcasing the works and personal collections of the author, whose original drawings and drafts of books are on deposit at the museum. The festival will also host a Children’s Book Fair in the Rosenbach shop, which features an excellent selection of children’s books, including the largest collection of Sendak books in the Philadelphia area.
One of the best-loved creators of contemporary children's books, Maurice Sendak has authored and illustrated 84 books in a career spanning nearly seven decades. The themes and illustrations that characterize Sendak's work have challenged the norms of children's literature over time and continue to entrance both children and adults to this day. His innovative techniques and honest portrayal of childhood emotion are celebrated worldwide and have earned him several prestigious honors, including the Caldecott Book Medal (1964), the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal (1970), the National Medal of Arts (1996), a Library of Congress "Living Legend" medal (2000), and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Literature (2003).
About the Rosenbach
The Rosenbach Museum & Library seeks to inspire curiosity, inquiry, and creativity by engaging broad audiences in exhibitions, programs, and research based on its remarkable and expanding collections. The museum was founded by legendary book dealer A.S.W. Rosenbach and his brother and business partner Philip. With an outstanding collection of rare books, manuscripts, furniture, and art, the Rosenbach is a museum and world-renowned research library, set within two historic 1865 townhouses, that reflects an age when great collectors lived among their treasures.
This program has been generously funded by the Independence Foundation and the Ellis. A. Gimbel Trust.
Sendak in Spring Festival: April 22 & April 28, 2007
Daily Schedule & Program Descriptions
12:00 – 12:30 Choose a Workshop
12:30 – 1:00 Visit the Sendak Gallery and Book Fair
1:00 – 1:45 See the Whirligig performance reservations required
1:45 – 2:00 Visit the Sendak Gallery and Book Fair
2:00 – 2:30 Choose a Workshop
2:30 – 3:00 Visit the Sendak Gallery and Book Fair
3:00 – 3:45 See the Whirligig performance reservations required
Performance - Wild Things Whirligig:
Go wild at the Rosenbach with a dynamic, interactive performance inspired by the wonderful works of Maurice Sendak. Created by Karen Saillant, Artistic Director of the International Opera Theater, this production weaves together classic characters and Sendak’s own inspirational figures, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Seating for this popular performance is limited; book tickets online at www.rosenbach.org. Non-refundable pre-payment is required for all Whirligig performances.
Workshops (offered twice each day):
Story Songs: This workshop led by Philadelphia’s favorite storyteller Linda Goss will have kids clapping their hands and stomping their feet in a call-and-response storytelling session, while artist Gretchen Shannon instructs children on how to create their own whirligigs (an object that spins or whirls).
Book Making for Children of All Ages: Renowned book artist Jude Robison will teach children how to make their own books, including an Origami Book, a Castle Book, and a collaborative Wishing Star Book.
Story Invention: Author and illustrator Alexander Stadler – creator of the children’s series Beverly Billingsly – will illustrate a group-driven story, on the spot. As participants fill in the plot, Alex will bring the story to visual life, right before the children’s eyes.
Where: The Rosenbach Museum & Library, 2008-2010 DeLancey Place, Philadelphia
Festival Hours: Sunday, April 22, 12:00 - 4:00 p.m., Saturday, April 28, 12:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Admission: $8 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, free for children under 5
For Information: (215) 732-1600, www.rosenbach.org
PRESS CONTACT:
Megan Wendell, Canary Promotion + Design
215-242-6393, megan@canarypromo.com
Submitted by wednights on April 11, 2007 - 2:32pm.
Wonder if anyone ever muses about what's obscured behind those granite walls on Fairmount Avenue. The folks parked behind them refer to the structure as a stabilized ruin. Leah Stein finds this whole phenomenon intriguing. So much so, she's on a mission to call attention to it in unsuspecting ways, and we're all invited to participate, hard hats and all. The On-Site dance diva was funded by Dance Advance, a program of the PEW Charitable Trusts, administered by The University of the Arts. The National Endowment for the Arts was moved to support her curiosity as well.
Leah calls her piece “GATE.” Her dance troupe, musicians, and even a few voices from the Mendelssohn Club Chorus with audience in tow, will wind through and interact with the exterior spaces and the abandoned cellblocks. Often in Leah's choreography, the dancers appear from the most unlikely places, and I'm sure there are quite a few of these within those 10 acres.
A quote from her press release: “In particular, though, the fact that the prison holds so many stories and personal histories, gives a richness and depth to the site that I hope to be able to tap into and illuminate”. I'm counting on it. More from the release: The performance will lead the audience through the immense space, sometimes as one group, other times divided up into smaller groups with several events occurring at the same time. The performers will interact with the surroundings to animate, meld into, create tension with, and activate the resonant site.
Sounds like a good time to me. Pen it in!
June 8, 9 and 10, and June 15, 16 and 17, 2007.
All performances begin in the early evening (exact time to be announced).
Standard admission $15, Students and Seniors: $10
More information is available on the penitentiary’s website at www.easternstate.org and or by visiting www.leahsteindancecompany.org.
Submitted by Canary Promo on March 26, 2007 - 10:54am.
Bringing together nearly 60 rare and important Hebrew books, scrolls, and objects that date from the 11th to the 18th century, the Rosenbach Museum & Library presents Chosen: Philadelphia’s Great Hebraica from March 29 through August 26, 2007. Never before presented in one exhibition, the artifacts are drawn from seven Philadelphia area institutions and the Rosenbach's own collection. A series of special events such as a gallery talk, house tours, a storytelling workshop, and a musical performance are also scheduled. The Rosenbach Museum & Library is located at 2008-2010 Delancey Place and is open Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, and free for children under 5. For more information, please call (215) 732-1600 or visit www.rosenbach.org.
Chosen tells the stories of human experience, intellectual endeavors, religious tradition, and artistic innovation. Objects, some being exhibited for the first time, were selected for their literary and historic importance and their visual interest. By uniting them in a common space, Chosen reveals the untold stories buried within the objects, as well as those of their producers, owners, and the many different Jewish cultures and other influences that brought them into existence.
Visitors can see highly decorated, illustrated scrolls, observe scribal virtuosity in a selection of miniature books – some as small as a thimble – view writing in a diversity of languages from Chaldean to Yiddish, and learn how the form of Hebrew texts changed with the travels of Jewish populations across geography and time. Exhibition highlights include:
• The first prayer book printed in Hebrew
• Illustrated texts such as the Scroll of Esther – including one miniature scroll never before seen by the public
• What may be the oldest Hebrew Bible in a North American collection
• The first book published in what is now the United States
• The first known illustration depicting a bar mitzvah
• The first Hebrew prayer book written for popular use
• The oldest nearly complete Passover haggadah in existence
• A Torah scroll listing 'the Eleven Commandments'
• The first book written by a Muslim that was translated into Hebrew
• The first depiction of a map of the Exodus from Egypt
• The first scientific illustration of a liquid-in-glass thermometer
The house dining room will be set for a Passover seder, featuring selections from the museum’s collections of silver, pewter, glass, and ceramic, including selections from the Rosenbach family haggadot (Passover prayer books). The library will look at the roles of humbler Hebrew books in the life of a 19th-century Jewish family, showcasing books owned and used by the Rosenbach brothers’ immediate and extended family.
Chosen is curated by Judith Guston, Curator and Director of Collections at the Rosenbach Museum & Library, with consulting curator David Stern, a Ruth Meltzer Professor of Classical Hebrew at the University of Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia is an untapped resource for exceptional and significant Hebraica. Many local religious and educational institutions maintain extraordinary, if little-seen pieces that come from a diverse range of 19th- and 20th-century collectors. Taken as a whole, the objects can be discovered anew as Philadelphia’s collection.
Objects for the exhibition have been loaned by Bryn Mawr College Library; Center for Advanced Judaic Studies Library, University of Pennsylvania; Congregation Mikveh Israel; Congregation Rodeph Shalom; The Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department and Education, Philosophy, and Religion Department; Haverford College Library, Special Collections; Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania; and Temple Judea Museum, Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel.
In conjunction with Chosen, the Rosenbach will also present a series of events including an introduction to Hebrew books for non-Hebrew readers and those interested in learning about book arts and religious and cultural history led by Judith Guston, an afternoon of music with mother and daughter Klezmer team Elaine Hoffman Watts and Susan Watts, poetry readings inspired by the exhibition led by Rosenbach Poet-in-Residence Nathalie Anderson, a storytelling workshop with renowned storyteller Peninnah Schram, and Jewish history house tours.
About the Rosenbach
The Rosenbach Museum & Library seeks to inspire curiosity, inquiry, and creativity by engaging broad audiences in exhibitions, programs, and research based on its remarkable and expanding collections. The museum was founded by legendary book dealer A.S.W. Rosenbach and his brother and business partner Philip. With an outstanding collection of rare books, manuscripts, furniture, and art, the Rosenbach is a museum and world-renowned research library, set within two historic 1865 townhouses, that reflects an age when great collectors lived among their treasures.
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Megan Wendell
Canary Promotion
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