Difference between revisions of "Philadelphia History Museum"

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*Event Calendar: [http://www.philadelphiahistory.org/upcomingevents Upcoming Events]<br><br><br>
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*Event Calendar: [http://www.philadelphiahistory.org/events/ Upcoming Events]<br><br><br>
  
 
[[Category:Is-Tourist_Attraction]][[Category:Issue-History]][[Category:About-Philadelphia]][[Category:Is-Nonprofit_Organization]] [[Category:Does-Event_Calendar]] [[Category:Is-Museum]]
 
[[Category:Is-Tourist_Attraction]][[Category:Issue-History]][[Category:About-Philadelphia]][[Category:Is-Nonprofit_Organization]] [[Category:Does-Event_Calendar]] [[Category:Is-Museum]]

Revision as of 16:45, 10 October 2017

philadelphiahistory.org

The Philadelphia History Museum, formerly known as the Atwater Kent Museum, gives the following 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.

It adds the following:

The Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent is your gateway to the history of Philadelphia. In a city well known for historic events and places, the Philadelphia History Museum is the only cultural institution solely dedicated to Philadelphia history, from the founding of the city in 1680 to the present today.

History

The Museum tells its story thusly:

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 (see below). 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).

Haviland’s largely unchanged façade was loosely based upon drawings of an ancient Greek monument. It features marble stairs flanked by faux-grained cast iron lamps approaching an inviting main entrance set in a marble surround. The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

With the building unused after the Franklin Institute moved to its present-day home on the Ben Franklin Parkway, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission considered demolishing the structure to make way for a parking lot. Henry Ford, the automobile manufacturer, offered to move the façade to his museum, Greenfield Village, near Detroit, Michigan.

Hoping to save the historic building, newly elected Mayor S. Davis Wilson and Frances Wistar, president of the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks, reached out to inventor and radio pioneer A. Atwater Kent. In 1938, Kent purchased the site and gave it to the city with the stipulation that it house a museum named after him dedicated to the history of Philadelphia.

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.

The museum closed between 2009 and 2012 for major rennovations and fully reopened in September 2012. It hosts high-quality exhibits, with a renewed focus on presenting contemporarily relevant, must-see displays related to the history of Philadelphia.

Info