‘Philadelphia Revealed’ exhibit uncovers the city’s history in things that survived

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A stadium turnstile and crushed copper kettles.

Quaker-made lacework and murals from Gimbel’s.

A Miss Flora McFlimsey with hair done in rings …

These are a few of Philly’s favorite things — at least that’s what Drexel University hopes.

About 650 objects selected from the Philadelphia historical archive are now on display at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

“Philadelphia Revealed: Unpacking the Attic” is the first major showcase of the city’s archive of objects since the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia closed and Drexel University assumed stewardship of the approximately 35,000-piece collection dating back the 17th century.

A smaller show of selected images had been quickly put on display last year after Drexel assumed management of the archive. “Philadelphia Revealed” is a much larger and more encyclopedic display of Philadelphia history.

Both sprawling and dense, the exhibition is packed with treasures and oddities, feeling like stroll through an immersive cabinet of curiosities: a wooden block that was part of the city’s original street pavers, a police mugshot book from 1907, a life-size cutout of a British redcoat soldier used as a party prop for the Meschianza and an elaborate celebration in 1778 for British loyalists based in Philadelphia.

Missing from the exhibition are some objects that are considered the heavy-hitters of the Atwater Kent collection, like the presidential desk used by George Washington or the Lenni Lenape beaded wampum belt believed to have been given to William Penn.

Instead, co-curator Stacey Swigart opted for objects that might have been in the hands of average Philadelphians over the course of the city’s 341-year history.

“I don’t want to call it mundane, but the normal stuff that are part of our everyday lives are just as important as those things like George Washington’s desk,” she said. “How about Young’s Candies and the stuff they acquired to build their business? They’re still used today by Shane’s Confectionery downtown. You can have little pickle candies, and there’s the mold on display.”

The exhibition is organized by subject with sections about things like city infrastructure, manufacturing, retail department stores, toys and sports.

Instead of including Joe Frazier’s boxing gloves, which are in the collection, the sports section highlights things Philly sports fans would have actually touched: a turnstile from the old Veterans Stadium and a seat from its predecessor, Connie Mack.

Ten objects on display have been selected by 10 Philadelphia storytellers as talismans that spark their own personal stories. Each is the basis of an episode in a 10-part podcast series produced by WHYY and First Person Arts, also called “Philadelphia Revealed.”

The toy section includes a few dolls of note. Eliza Otto is a cloth doll with yarn hair that was a plaything for the daughters of Dr. Thomas Kirkbride, a 19th century father of American psychiatry who ran the Pennsylvania Hospital in West Philadelphia. At the time the institute was considered the gold standard of humane treatment for mental illness.

Near Eliza is Miss Flora McFlimsey, a doll that was sold during Philadelphia’s 1864 Sanitary Fair, an event to raise money to supply the Union army during the Civil War. The doll is named after the main character in a farcical 1857 poem by William Allen Butler, “Nothing to Wear.” The doll character later appeared in a series of 20th century children’s books about a forgotten doll in an attic, as a kind of precursor to the film “Toy Story.”

“This is one of my favorite items,” said co-curator Page Talbot, beckoning a reporter to a crushed metal kettle that was found at bottom of the Delaware River by the Army Corp of Engineers, likely a relic from a shipwreck.

“Don’t you just love this dented and squished teapot that was dredged out of the Delaware?” Talbot asked. “That is not a precious object, but it tells a wonderful story.”

The crushed pot is in a section of treasures that were considered trash. It includes a once-discarded political pin for Willa Moss, believed to be the first Black woman to campaign for state representative, circa 1930. She lost, but was nevertheless an important figure in the Philadelphia Black community at the time.

The button from a forgotten political campaign is next to a scrapbook of an unknown Black soldier who, as evidenced in the photographs, fought in France during World War II. Later pictures appear to be taken in West Philadelphia. The scrapbook appears to be made by hand out of brown paper grocery bags and was reclaimed after it was set out on the sidewalk with the trash.

Talbot knows nothing about the origin of the scrapbook, nor who is depicted in the photos.

“We’re really hoping somebody is going to come and visit the exhibition and see this and say, ‘I know who that is!’” she said. “I mean, wouldn’t that be exciting?”

“Philadelphia Revealed” will be on view at PAFA until Dec. 1.