With love and kitsch: Historical Society remembers Pope Francis’ visit to Philly

In 2015, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania acquired as many souvenirs as it could find of Pope Francis’ historic visit, to save in perpetuity.

Posters sold during Pope Francis' 2015 visit to Philadelphia were acquired for the collection at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by Lee Arnold, former chief operating officer. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

With love and kitsch: Historical Society remembers Pope Francis’ visit to Philly

In 2015, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania acquired as many souvenirs as it could find of Pope Francis’ historic visit, to save in perpetuity.

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Ten years before his death Monday, Pope Francis shut down Philadelphia with a historic visit to the Parkway, where hundreds of thousands flocked and freeways were closed in all directions.

That is when Lee Arnold, then the director of the Historic Society of Pennsylvania, armed with a company credit card, bought as many tchotchkes as he could find from street vendors.

“Everybody wanted a token to remember this visit, whether they were Catholic or not,” said Programs Coordinator Selena Austin.“This was a massive deal that he came to our city. The theme of the World Meeting of Families that year centered around love. So how fitting was it for it to be in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love.”

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Selena Austin holds a sign reading Tour de Francis
Selena Austin of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania looks through posters collected during Pope Francis' 2015 visit to Philadelphia. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

Here are some things HSP has archived for perpetuity: 3D photos of the Pope giving a thumbs-up, complete with its original red and blue 3D cellophane glasses; cheap sunglasses with “I [heart] the Pope” on the lenses, the heart drawn in rainbow colors to reflect the pontiff’s outreach to the LGBTQ+ community; a book of paper dolls with costumes spanning the Pope’s life from a young chemist with a white lab coat to the head of the Catholic faith in his papal robes.

The trip down kitsch lane gets a little scary when it comes to the life-size cutout figure of the Pope, appropriate for selfies.

“He’s stationed in this room positioned in a way that when you enter, you first see him and believe him to be real,” Austin said. “So, yeah, he’s frightened a couple of people.”

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Philly was sincerely reverent in 2015, too. In the collection brought out from the HSP vault, Austin included devotional cards, jewelry that paired Pope Francis’ message of love with a Liberty Bell charm and every local magazine and newspaper that put his image on the cover.

HSP acquired an entire set of posters of the Pope visit designed in a midcentury pop cartoon style, putting the pope in a hot rod limousine, for example, or a mock surf rock vinyl cover showing the Pope getting barreled and proclaiming the album was recorded in “monotheistic sound.”

random pope mementos, including sunglasses
Mementos from Pope Francis' 2015 visit to Philadelphia have been preserved at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

The posters were designed by the Norwegian artist Fred Lammers exclusively for the Philadelphia graphic art retailer The Grand Revue, run by Todd Kimmel.

“Neither of us are Catholic, but I was struck by this then-new Pope’s ability to throw a love bomb before he entered a room,” Kimmel said in an email. “Genuine, clearly understood love, mixed with an unprecedented sense of humor, disarmed people everywhere he appeared. THAT moved me.”

Kimmel said his poster of a cartoon Pope Francis with bare feet relaxing in a lawn chair was hung in the St. Charles Borromeo seminary, where the pope stayed during his visit. It has since closed.

a cutout of Pope Francis and other posters
A life-size cardboard cutout of Pope Francis appears to bless the collection of ephemera acquired by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania during the pope's 2015 visit to Philadelphia. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

It is unknown if Pope Francis saw the posters or any souvenirs that were created in his image, nor what he thought of their sometimes cheeky portrayal. Austin believes the late pontiff would have had a chuckle.

“I don’t think the Pope would have minded that they were playful. I think he was playful himself,” she said. “He really embraced the city just as much as we embraced him.”

The collection of memorabilia of Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to Philadelphia is not currently on public view. The Historic Society keeps it in its archive until it is requested. Austin said nobody has requested to access it in 10 years, likely because the pope’s visit is still fresh in living memory.

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