Happy Birthday, Abe!

Appropriately launched on the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, the Rosenbach Museum & Library's 21st century Abe project is now live!  Check out the site of this HPP-funded project for the blog, artists' projects, poster design, and other (traditional and not-so) Lincolniana.  

From the HPP Library: Hipster Historian Rocks the Boat

I can’t help but love Sarah Vowell. She’s the nerdy girl who grew up to be cool and kept her geekiness intact. In fact, she makes a good living out of it. She’s the hipster Doris Kearns Goodwin. And best of all she makes the history go down with a spoonful of sugar. Vowell is now one of the country’s best-known public historians – a contributing editor of NPR’s This American Life, and author of many passionate personal tales of her relationship to American history including The Partly Cloudy Patriot and Assassination Vacation. Her newest book, The Wordy Shipmates, is her most thoroughly researched and fact-filled. This isn’t to say that it lacks her usual cynical wit tamed by a truly sincere attachment to the American story and all of its complexities.

Shipmates is a rambling and colorful description of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and its legacy, warts and all. I can honestly (and a little embarrassingly) say that I learned a tremendous amount about America’s chaotic beginnings while reading it. Who knew that John Winthrop, founding governor of Massachusetts and first Puritan, kept a detailed journal of those wacky first years? Who knew that Anne Hutchinson, loudmouth gadfly (the Ann Coulter of her day?), was killed by Indians in the Bronx after she was chased out of Boston.  Vowell details the political and theological ups and downs of the Puritan tribe, rife with rich gossip and gory violence – one poor guy gets his ears lopped off for disagreeing with Winthrop. But the discourse, with all of its charm, can seem long and dragged out at times. And at only 250 pages! The bottom line is that Vowell gets so caught up in her passions that she assumes that we are all willing to trudge along for the ride – right down to every last nasty detail of the Pequot War.

But Shipmates is worth slogging through, for its fistful of facts and its poignant insights. Vowell never misses an opportunity to point out how contemporary America does and does not live up to its founders’ ideals.  In the end Vowell offers us another slice of her considerable talents – a history buff who just can’t help it and can’t stop talking about it.  Good for her. 

Bill Adair is the Director of Heritage Philadelphia Program and has a not-so-secret and surprising crush on Sarah Vowell.

Historian/Superhero: An Inevitable Combination

Author Sarah Vowell also played the voice of Violet in Pixar's "The Incredibles."  Here, she tells us about her double life as historian and superhero.

'Save Our History' Grant Available

We thought you would be interested to know about this granting opportunity from AASLH:

AASLH is thrilled to announce the 2009-2010 Save Our History Grants! The Save Our History Grant Program, available to AASLH members and the field at large, provides funding to history organizations that partner with schools on a local community preservation project.

Since launching the Save Our History Grant Program in 2004, AASLH and History (formerly The History Channel) has awarded over $1 million in grants.

During the 2009-2010 school year, History will again award grants of up to $10,000 to historical organizations to fund hands-on, experiential educational projects that teach students about their local history and actively engage them 

For guidelines and criteria, important dates, and to apply, please visit http://www.saveourhistory.com, and click on grants. 

Applications are due Friday, June 6, 2009.  

Congratulations to PA's 'Save America's Treasures' Recipients

Valley Forge National Historical Park: Documents, King of Prussia
The Valley Forge National Historical Park’s holdings include 1,000 documents and manuscripts from the American Revolution. These documents detail various aspects of the American Revolution, and for the most part relate directly to the Valley Forge Encampment of 1777-1778. Of special note are two orderly books that provide a closer look at the day-to-day lives of officers and soldiers during our fight for independence. With this SAT grant, these documents will be stabilized and digitized, ensuring their preservation and making them more accessible to researchers.($61,299)

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg Journal Collection, Philadelphia
Known as the father of American Lutheranism, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg’s journals record descriptions of his travels and work that offer an unparalleled glimpse into 18^th- century colonial America. Many of the journals are in poor condition and some can no longer be handled. The grant funds will be used to repair and rebind the texts, and digitize them to allow for increased access to their invaluable information. ($93,191)

Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia
Eastern State Penitentiary, a National Historic Landmark, brought about a revolution in the design and management of prisons when it was opened in 1829. The roofs of two of its original cellblocks have severely deteriorated, threatening their survival as well as the safety of visitors. The grants will restore roofs, which will allow the cellblocks to be interpreted and added to the penitentiary tour. ($523,563)

USS Becuna, Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia
Submarine USS Becuna, commissioned in 1944, is the only remaining World War II fleet submarine of its class in existence with 90 percent of her historic fabric still intact. The stability of this National Historic Landmark, part of the Independence Seaport Museum, is threatened by the corrosion of her hull. Funds will be used to repair her ballast tanks, moorings, and fendering to prevent a breach. ($125,000)

Historic Germantown: What’s Happening in Freedom’s Backyard

Historic Germantown, the consortium of fourteen historic sites, museums and an arboretum in Germantown, recently completed a project designed to enhance collaboration in order to sustain these historic places. The outcomes of this project position Historic Germantown to implement significant change in how the sites operate and interpret their history and in turn what role they play in the community.

The central vision underpinning this project is that Historic Germantown is uniquely placed to tell a story that connects with all Americans. Recent highly successful efforts in Germantown, including the national award-winning History Hunters educational program, a theme tour project called “Story Tours,” the innovative Youth Writers humanities project undertaken by two sites, and an annual community-focused special event called the Revolutionary Germantown Festival (highlighting the 1777 Battle of Germantown), have all pointed the way toward enhanced collaboration.

The Historic Germantown project has enabled the sites to develop an integrated interpretive framework for the group, conduct audience research, expand outreach into the community, and create a marketing strategy. It has also led to the creation of a new logo and in June 2008 the fourteen attractions came together under a unifying message, proclaiming Historic Germantown as Freedom’s Backyard. Through this HPP-funded project, Historic Germantown has created a positive vision of how historic sites can thrive in today’s challenging environment.

Archiving the ‘City of Neighborhoods’

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP), working in collaboration with the City of Philadelphia Department of Records and the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, is developing PhilaPlace: A Neighborhood History and Culture Project. PhilaPlace is a multidimensional project that features an interactive Web resource as well as neighborhood programming.

Launching in Summer 2009, the Web site will chronicle the history, cultures, and architecture of two of Philadelphia's oldest immigrant and African American neighborhoods, South Philadelphia and Northern Liberties/Kensington. Drawing on residents’ memories, historical documents, images of historical and contemporary life, and digital models, the project will create one-of-a-kind resources showing how Philadelphia, the “city of neighborhoods,” has changed over three centuries. While most history and culture is researched and delivered by scholars, teachers, and guides, PhilaPlace asks residents to share their stories with the public, making constructing and sharing Philadelphia’s past a collaborative, grass-roots initiative. By bridging disciplines, media, and audiences, PhilaPlace will create a new model, with potential to expand citywide, for connecting the public with rich archival repositories and for using place as an essential touchstone for memory, history, and culture.

In addition to the Heritage Philadelphia Program, PhilaPlace has been made possible by a joint initiative of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, the Federal-State Partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Samuel S. Fels Fund; Southwest Airlines; and the Walter J. Miller Foundation.

For more information, visit PhilaPlace online.

(Photo courtesy of HSP.)

Museum of American History Re-Opens!

The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History re-opened on November 21 after two years and $85 million worth of renovations. Get a behind-the-scenes peek at their Star-Spangled Banner Gallery here:

Ancient Skies and Waterways adorn APS

Five artist-residency projects that interpret historical themes and objects were on exhibit at the American Philosophical Society (APS) Museum. The UNEXPECTED programs, which support UNDAUNTED: Five American Explorers, 1760-2006, an HPP-funded project, included three projects by Philadelphia artist Winifred Lutz. Lutz’s two outdoor installations embraced both celestial and terrestrial themes.

Lutz's Celestial Garden/Invisible Sky, installed in the APS Jefferson Garden from November 2007 through March 2008, pulled Philadelphia's night sky down to earth. Hovering just above the ground were glowing "stars"—LED-lit glass orbs—that reconnected visitors with constellations essential to navigation for centuries but no longer visible because of light pollution. More than 1,700 people visited Lutz's work, including audiences who came to programs on celestial navigation led by Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer at The Franklin Institute.

Drawing Dock Creek, inspired by scientist-explorer Ruth Patrick's study of American waterways (as featured in the exhibition), was on view until the end of September in Independence National Historical Park between Walnut and Chestnut, from 3^rd to 5^th Streets. Whitewash and lime markings trace the meandering path of doomed Dock Creek, a once beautiful tidal stream that became so polluted by Philadelphia's colonial industries it was turned into an underground sewer. Celebrating Dock Creek, a month-long series of programs on the history and ecology of Philadelphia's waterways, took place in September. Highlights included TANN, HORNS, & DEAD DOGS: Tales of Civic Effluvia, a performance piece by Brett Keyser.

(Photo by Lisa Godfrey)

Who We Are