Philadelphia History Museum
Your Gateway Into Philadelphia's Past
Editor's Note: As of March 5, 2019, the home page of this website says, "Public visiting hours are suspended. Please follow our website for updates. Thank you."
Description: The Philadelphia History Museum engages Philadelphians and regional visitors with its extraordinary collections that reflect Philadelphia’s rich history and the diversity of its people and their neighborhoods through exhibitions, educational programs and technology which explore the past to better understand the present.
Founded in 1938 and opened to the public in 1941, the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent is the city history museum of Philadelphia. The Museum is housed in an elegant Greek-Revival structure, which served as the home of the Franklin Institute from 1826 to 1933. It was designed by John Haviland, one of the country’s foremost architects (his work in Philadelphia includes the University of the Arts' Hamilton Hall at Broad and Pine streets and the imposing Eastern State Penitentiary in the city’s Fairmount section).
The Atwater Kent Museum was formally dedicated on April 19, 1941. Renamed the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent in 2010, the museum holds a collection of Philadelphia history composed of over 100,000 objects.
Note: The above descriptive information came from the museum's About the Philadelphia History Museum page and its Museum History page.
Info
- Event Calendar: Upcoming Events
In The News
- How to Tell Philadelphia's Stories, Philadelphia Citizen, June 20, 2019.
- Philly History Museum’s future may lie with Drexel, WHYY, February 28, 2019.
- Plan proposed for the future of Atwater Kent Museum, Philadelphia Business Journal, February 27, 2019.
- Tell The Whole Story With Next Chapter Of The Philadelphia History Museum, Hidden City Philadelphia, July 23, 2018.
- It Aint History-–Yet. We Seek Ideas On How And Why To Save The Philadelphia History Museum, Hidden City Philadelphia, July 18, 2018.