Today we visited the American Philosophical Society which is a scholarly organization of over 900 members who own three buildings. The society was founded by Benjamin Franklin, and holds many of his personal items. They also have a “mammoth” library collection encompassing American history and physical and natural history. Just the lobby area of the building is impressive with priceless pieces encased. The very blurry picture is a letter of support and funding for the Lewis and Clark Expeditions. The society also displays two of the 19 (or so) journals kept by Lewis and Clark. This document is the only known item to be signed by the first four U.S. Presidents – Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison. When we got the coveted “behind-the-scenes” presentation we saw a letter written by G. Washington to Franklin regarding Thomas Paine, and one from Paine to Washington. We also saw the first air-mail letter – one sent to Franklin’s grandson by hot air balloon across the English Channel. We got to go across the street to their museum where they were displaying the works and artifacts of great explorer members of their society. The tour guide here was a hoot (even if not always historically accurate).
The afternoon was spent at the Atwater Kent Museum whose focus is the history of Philadelphia. The docent gave an artifact centered lecture on abolition/anti-slavery history in Philadelphia. One of the really great items we viewed was a child’s dress made of “free” cotton – cotton grown and manufactured without slave labor (I never even knew there was such a movement). Another was an ornate silver bowl which accompanied a slave child to Philadelphia along with a Moses-like story. We saw shackles and John Brown’s rifle. Really cool stuff!
During the evening a group of us finally made it for a gander around Reading Market and then dinner at the Hard Rock (cheesy, yet necessary).
Classroom Application:
The classroom application for today is a little bit harder. It did give me very good background on Benjamin Franklin, which will increase my students’ understanding of the man.
I teach the Underground Railroad in the context of our reading basal, so the information I learned about that today will prove very useful. Again, it will be beneficial to share the photos of the artifacts with the students.
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