Tag Archives: Philadelphia History

City Parks Association of Philadelphia

December 2, 2015History NewsHistory News, Philadelphia History, Top News, Web ArchivingMargery Sly

The City Parks Association of Philadelphia was chartered on May 23, 1888, to create and maintain open spaces as park areas for the citizens of Philadelphia. Since that time, the association has worked with city government to establish parks such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Park (originally named League Island Park) and Pennypack Park. The association advocated for the city government to pass zoning laws and continues today to work for the improvement and preservation of parks, squares, playgrounds, and waterways in Philadelphia and surrounding areas.

Swimmers at League Island Park, July 1925. City Parks Association of Philadelphia Records, SCRC 86, Special Collections Research Center

The Special Collections Research Center holds the records of the City Parks Association. The collection contains meeting minutes and agendas, annual reports, financial records, correspondence, news clippings, and photographs. There is also information related to various specific parks and the Fairmount Park Commission, as well as correspondence, financial, and property records related to Awbury Arboretum and its historic Francis Cope House in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.

Rose Garden plan for Awbury Arboretum, undated. City Parks Association of Philadelphia Records, SCRC 86, Special Collections Research Center

Also included in the collection are captured websites, a new initiative by the SCRC and the Digital Library Initiatives department. Using the Archive-It service, periodic “captures” of the website are taken, and are available to the public. Captures of the City Parks Association are available from between 2002 to 2015, and will continue to be harvested, preserved, and made available.

The collection’s photographs, with the exception of slides, have been digitized and are available online on the Temple University Digital Collections website.

We celebrate with our Temple Press colleagues the publication of Jim McClelland and Lynn Miller’s City in a Park: A History of Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park System.

–Katy Rawdon, Coordinator of Technical Services, SCRC

National History Day

November 6, 2015History NewsHistory News, National History Day, Philadelphia HistoryMargery Sly

Masterman High School Students doing research at the SCRC

National History Day is a year-long educational program that attracts thousands of middle and high school students, and educators nationwide. Students compete at the local and state levels, which award participants the opportunity to present their work in a national contest held every June at the University of Maryland, College Park.

The competition was established in 1974 by Professor David Van Tassell who was on faculty in the History Department at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Its purpose is to provide invaluable experiences and opportunities for students to conduct historical research and develop critical thinking, writing, and communication skills. Student participants may submit individual or group projects in the form of a documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, or website. The program also offers professional development opportunities for educators through training, and access to varied historical resources that help them to create more robust teaching curricula.

Since 2006, the Special Collection Research Center has participated in NHD programs and has hosted class visits to the archives from Philadelphia area schools including Masterman and Constitution high schools, and LaSalle High School for Boys. Visiting students spend hours combing through the original news clippings and photographs files of Philadelphia Evening Bulletin and Philadelphia Inquirer newspapers for research projects covering a myriad of events such as the integration of Girard College, the 1967 school board riots, the MOVE bombing, and prominent Philadelphia individuals including Father Divine, Frank Rizzo, and Father Paul Washington.

In 2015, students from Masterman placed in local and state competitions: Jenny Chan qualified for the national competition for her documentary entitled “Robert Smalls: Not so Small After All.” This Fall a new group of Masterman 10th graders has been visiting the SCRC to research topics for the 2016 NHD competition theme, “Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History.”

For more information about NHD activities and programs in the Philadelphia area visit the NHD Philly website.

–Brenda Galloway-Wright, Associate Archivist

Cigar Making in Philadelphia

September 18, 2015History NewsHispanic Heritage Month, History News, Philadelphia HistoryMargery Sly

National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed each year from September 15th to October 15th. During this month, the cultures and contribution of Americans whose ancestors come from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America are celebrated. It’s a good opportunity to highlight some materials from the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) that relate to one of the many Hispanic groups that make up the fabric of this country: Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia.

Like many immigrant groups, Puerto Ricans came to the area in search of employment opportunities. Starting slowly in the late 19th century, and accelerating through the 20th century, they immigrated to Philadelphia, a thriving industrial city.

Among the many industries where they found employment was cigar manufacturing. For many years Philadelphia was one of the leading manufacturers of cigars in the United States. Consequently, some of Philadelphia’s Latino communities can trace their origins to enclaves that grew up around cigar factories in North Philadelphia neighborhoods.

T&O Cigar Banding Department, 1900 — T & O Cigar Banding Department, 1900

One such factory, located in the Northern Liberties neighborhood, was owned by the Theobald & Oppenheimer Cigar Company. Founded in 1860, the T & O Cigar Company was one of the largest cigar manufacturers in the city. In 1900, the company opened a new factory at 1147 North 4th Street. To memorialize this opening the company created an album, with over two dozen sepia-toned photographs of the offices, warehouse, factory floor, and workers, who hand-rolled the cigars. (The album was donated to the SCRC in 2012.)

As Puerto Rican immigration to Philadelphia increased throughout the post-war years, organizations such as the Nationalities Service Center (established in 1921) began to respond to the needs of this group, as it had to previous waves of immigrants, by providing information, guidance, and services on such issues as housing, education, and employment. The programs and activities provided by the center were aimed at helping to ease the transition of living and working in a new place. A parallel goal of the center was to promote and conserve the cultural values of immigrant communities for the enrichment of American life. These efforts to aid the Puerto Rican immigrant community, as well as many other ethnic communities, are documented in the Records of the Nationalities Service Center, one of the collection in the SCRC’s Urban Archives.

-Josué Hurtado, Coordinator of Public Services & Outreach

Local Dance History Project Timeline

August 10, 2015History NewsHistory News, Philadelphia Dance History, Philadelphia HistoryMargery Sly

Check out Philadelphia Dance Projects’ dance history timeline representing the work of independent dancers in Philadelphia, circa 1975-94. Their Local Dance History Project presents photos, videos, comments, and more documenting the development of contemporary dance in Philadelphia–a history largely unpreserved at present. Beginning with the work of 11 dance and performance artists: Terry Beck, Michael Biello & Dan Martin, Jac Carley, Jano Cohen, Terry Fox, Tonio Guerra, Wendy Hammarstrom, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Steve Krieckhaus, and Melanie Stewart, the project looks to create a digital collection reflecting their work. These artists were among the first to explore post-modern, improvisation, and performance genres in the city during the late 1970s and early 80s.

The digital collection of this largely undocumented history is being preserved and shared through a partnership of Philadelphia Dance Projects and the Special Collections Research Center at Temple University Libraries. A work in progress, the timeline will grow as additional resources are available and as additional artists add their content.

From the Archives: World War II Love Letters

August 3, 2015History NewsHistory News, Philadelphia History, World War IIMargery Sly

“No, I am not crazy for writing you twice in one day, just head over heels in love with you!” Thus, the ever romantic, Master Sergeant Jesse Lare began his letter to Mildred Patterson of Fishtown, Philadelphia, on September 27, 1944. Jesse and Mildred had not known each other for very long. They met at a mutual friend’s house several months earlier, and their correspondence had begun in June, when Jesse first wrote to Mildred. They maintained a correspondence that lasted almost two years and led to their marriage.

Jesse, who was also from Philadelphia, was stationed in Memphis at Second Army Headquarters, and later, at Camp Shelby in Mississippi. He was serving in the Second Army, a training outfit that readied troops for combat and other army jobs. Mildred lived in Philadelphia, and worked at the Kensington National Bank.
From the start, they were dedicated pen pals, and they wrote with increased frequency as time went on. Through their letter writing, Mildred and Jesse shared in each other’s lives, including their relationship, their work, their friends and families, and their leisure. In his free time, Jesse liked to bowl, play golf, and go to the movies. Mildred liked to go to Wildwood and other towns along the Jersey Shore, and she frequently turned to the Ouija board for her fortune. They
told each other about the daily goings on of life, from progress in the war to activities in Philadelphia and at the army base, the weather, and their feelings. It is clear they were well-suited friends, and the romance that quickly developed was a natural next step.

Western Union Telegram — Mildred accepts Jesse’s proposal, January 13, 1945

Having met in person only a few times, they married in January 1945. As a married couple, they maintained a candid correspondence in which they regularly discussed the ups and downs of their relationship and future together.

The Jesse and Mildred Lare Correspondence, 1944-1945, was donated to the Special Collections Research Center by Jesse and Mildred Lare’s daughter, in early 2015. This great World War II era collection has been processed and is available for research use! To learn more, check out the online finding aid.
– Courtney Smerz, Collection Management Archivist, SCRC

Walter Massey Phillips, Philadelphia Renaissance Man

May 11, 2015History NewsHistory News, Philadelphia History, Top NewsMargery Sly

Tugs list kept by Phillips — Page from a notebook kept by Walter Massey Phillips recording tugboats seen on the Delaware River, 1920s. Walter Massey Phillips Papers, SCRC 136, Special Collections Research Center.

Walter M. Phillips, Sr. (1912-1985) was active in Philadelphia civic affairs for more than thirty years, particularly during the period of the 1940s-1960s, which was known as the “Philadelphia Renaissance.” During this time, political organizers worked for reform of what was seen as an immensely corrupt city government. While Phillips was an enormous political presence behind the scenes, he never held a political office, and by all accounts his reticent personality kept his significant role in the Philadelphia reform movement from wider renown. However, noted architect and city planner Edmund Bacon once called Phillips “the greatest single figure in the renaissance.”

A graduate of Episcopal Academy, Princeton, and Harvard Law School, Phillips was a chief organizer of the City Policy Committee, President of the Citizens’ Council on City Planning, Board Member of the Greater Philadelphia Movement, President of the Philadelphia Housing Association, Executive Secretary with the Delaware River Basin Advisory Committee, Trustee of Lincoln University, Director of the Honey Hollow Watershed Association, and Board Member of the Committee of Seventy. He managed Joseph Clark’s successful race for Mayor of Philadelphia in 1951, served in Clark’s cabinet as City Representative and Director of Commerce through 1955, and was the (unsuccessful) reform candidate against Mayor James Tate in the 1963 Democratic primary election.

Phillips during mayoral race — Walter Massey Phillips during the 1963 mayoral race, May 1963. Walter Massey Phillips Papers, SCRC 136, Special Collections Research Center

After retiring, Phillips initiated an oral history project, and, between 1974 and 1980, interviewed approximately 160 of the local civic and government leaders with whom he had worked. The interviews generally discuss Philadelphia city government and history between the late 1930s and the 1970s.

The Special Collections Research Center holds Phillips’ personal papers as well as cassette tapes, transcripts (many of which are now available online), and background information from his oral history project. His papers document his life, career, and the nature of civic decision making at the policy level in mid-twentieth century Philadelphia. In addition to records from and related to the many Philadelphia organizations and networks in which Phillips was involved, there are also personal items, such as family photos and a diary of Phillips’ 1936 trip to the Yukon.

–Katy Rawdon, Coordinator of Technical Services, SCRC