Keeper of the Culture

COLD OPEN

JAMIE: When I was growing up in the 70s, we had a radio in every room.

[MUSIC]

We lived in this little house, painted tan, with a backyard and a dog always running around. Inside it was a series of little rooms. And music was always playing. Because we always had our windows open, sometimes I’d catch my neighbors singing along. We had this huge honking console that sat on the floor in the living room. And then in the dining room, we had a clock radio. And then my grandmother had her own handheld transistor radio with an antenna that you had to extend and then push it back down when you were finished listening. She would sit out on the back patio and listen to the Phillies games. It was taboo to interrupt her while she sat with that radio next to her. Nobody else was allowed to be out there. And she would just listen to the Phillies.

The radio woke the whole house up every morning. We would listen to WDAS playing music from the Sound of Philadelphia, like “Wake Up Everybody” by the Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes.

[MUSIC]

“Wake up everybody no more sleeping in bed! No more backward thinking, time for thinking ahead.” Music was not only entertaining for us. It was the soundtrack for righteous thinking and living!

And there was this one song. This is how powerful music and radios were in my home. There was a song that when it came on the radio, everyone in my house stopped and we sang along.

No matter what you were doing, if you were in the middle of something you dropped it, if a pot was on the stove, you turned off the burner. That song was called Misty Blue by Dorothy Moore.

[MUSIC]

I can still hear the lyrics in my head.

“Oh, it’s been such a long, long time. Looked like I’d get you off my mind, but I can’t. Just the thought of you, Just the thought of you turns my whole world misty blue.”

Everybody would go around and turn on every radio in the house, and Dorothy Moore would blast through every room. That kind of family connection, where that song coming out of that radio meant something different to each one of us, and yet it meant the same thing to all of us. That’s what home sounds like to me.

I grew up outside of Philadelphia, in a small town called Morton. The same town where my mother grew up and my grandmother, great-grandmother. Most of the town was related! We knew everyone.

But now – decades later – everyone’s spread out. So I’m the culture keeper for my family. It’s my responsibility, which I’ve appointed myself, to keep hold of our history and make it accessible to the kids and the grandkids and so on. Part of that is holding onto these antique radios, and the memories that they invoke….

[MUSIC]

Like the sound of a single song, drifting out of all these different radios all over the house. I hadn’t thought about that in years. Until..

STACEY: You can see, we have quite a few of our radios (Yay!) out right now.

I visited the Atwater Kent collection of Drexel University, stored at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and talked to its director — Stacey Swigart

JAMIE: So we’re here at the Hamilton Building looking at the stored collection and in particular // these amazing radios. // And Stacey, you’re going to have to help me describe them [fade under].

The Atwater Kent collection is a collection of objects from Philadelphia’s history, going back almost 400 years. It was started by radio manufacturer A. Atwater Kent, Sr. in 1938. He wanted to preserve the material history of the city, its importance as a hub of culture, innovation and manufacturing. There’s a desktop telephone from 1890, an ashtray commemorating the 1976 bicentennial, a set of handcuffs believed to be worn by John Brown and of course, radios. There’s a lot of old radios from the Atwater Kent Manufacturing Works.

JAMIE: They // these ornate fronts, that remind me of stained glass church windows. To be honest with you
STACEY: That’s interesting because they are called cathedral style, with the wood casing and the art deco sort of wood trim…

Stacey is showing me around shelves and shelves of radios and speakers — radios in beautiful wood casings, tall and narrow like Philly rowhomes, round speakers that look like fans, big cone shaped speakers like an old Victrola

JAMIE: Ok here’s the big question though. Do any of them work?
STACEY: I’ve never tried. (Wow.) I’ve never tried that.
JAMIE: Wow. Wow.

JAMIE: I can just imagine turning them all on and just letting the sound permeate through the whole place.
STACEY: That would be pretty awesome. If we could make it happen.
JAMIE: And if we could agree on the music.
STACEY: That’s true. Right, right.

[MUSIC]

JAMIE: You’re listening to Philadelphia Revealed

I’m your host, Jamie J, executive director of First Person Arts, a nonprofit organization that believes everyone has a story to tell.

Across 10 episodes you’re going to get a tour of the Atwater Kent collection, sometimes called Philadelphia’s attic.

It’s a collection that’s grown over the decades, acquiring Philly’s material culture from individuals, families, institutions and shuttered businesses. And sometimes literally from the trash.

It’s this repository for Philadelphia’s history, big and small. There are over 130,000 different objects in the collection and they range from the historically significant — like a hat worn by Abraham Lincoln — to everyday objects that any Philadelphian can relate to — like those radios that brought back memories of my childhood home.

In every episode of this podcast, you’ll learn about an object in the Atwater Kent collection and hear a story inspired by it from a First Person Arts storyteller. We think every Philadelphian will be able to see themselves in this collection, and that learning about Philadelphia’s many histories can help us understand its present — and future.

This is Episode One: CULTURE KEEPER

WALKING IN STACKS AMBI

JAMIE: I want to tell you that I am the culture keeper for the family // So these radios are bringing back all this nostalgia and sense of family history. // In coming here and realizing that radio had a big part of Philadelphia’s history, it makes sense now that in every room we had a radio or we had a stereo
STACEY: So connected to the evolution of radio in the U.S., started here in Philly.
JAMIE: Wow Now I understand.

[MUSIC]

ATWATER KENT SHOW ARC: Every day and night on the air, literally millions of dollars worth of entertainment is set before you. When you own a new Atwater Kent radio, you get it all, exactly as it is broadcast and free.

In the 1920s, Atwater Kent was a major radio manufacturer — at one point the factory was building a million radios a year. These were literally the gold standard — on some models, the brand name was plated with gold .

ATWATER KENT SHOW ARC: Nothing that money can buy returns you so much value for a comparatively small sum.

In fact, Philly was at the center of the radio revolution, leading the country in manufacturing. Philco was also based here. And RCA radios were produced across the river in New Jersey.

Together these companies employed thousands of people in the region, and their new technology was transforming people’s lives

ATWATER KENT SHOW ARC: Atwater Kent has made tremendous advancements in radio very recently. And you need this modern radio for your modern homes in this modern age.

To promote the sale of radios, manufacturers like Atwater Kent actually produced their own radio programs.

ATWATER KENT SHOW ARC: Around the World program, which we trust, will entertain you thoroughly, and remind you of a treasure house of enjoyable hours, which you may have with an Atwater Kent World Wave Radio in your home…

[MUSIC]

A. Atwater Kent Sr. was an inventor, who first made a name for himself through automobile ignition systems. Soon after, he began to manufacture radio components

JAMIE: Now, I heard that Atwater Kent was originally from Massachusetts, I think it was // And he came to Philadelphia. Because Philadelphia was at that time known to be a progressive city and a city of ideas and new technology which back in those days were, was radio. Is that true?

STACEY: Yes. And it started actually for Philadelphia and gaining that reputation in the 19th century. And there’s this whole term of “workshop of the world” because so much technology and you think of technology, you think of like computers and whatever, but it was industry and business and all different kinds of manufacturing and whether that be in furniture, whether that be in technology of radio and television and so forth. but just about every single business that you could think of had some sort of, uh, finger in the business of Philadelphia.

Atwater Kent’s factory shut down in 1936. Demand had dropped due to the Depression — no one could afford those gold nameplates. There was new competition locally and abroad… changing technologies… And increasing demands from organized labor. Employees tried to unionize the factory. Atwater Kent closed the shop.

Two years later, he purchased the former Franklin Institute building and donated it to the City of Philadelphia to become the city’s history museum. So, long after the company’s end, the collection that he started lives on.

I asked Stacey — what was in the museum at the start?

STACEY: A lot of the stuff, I think he was more interested in the idea of bringing Philadelphia history together in one place. // He really wanted to see a place where // people could come and see and learn about.

The foundation of the museum was actually very ship and maritime oriented. // So for example, uh, Cramp’s shipyard, uh, which was huge in the whole shipping industry in Philadelphia.

And so they gave a whole variety of drawings and half hull models and stuff that became part of the shipping exhibit that the museum first opened with. And then there was a whole other variety of different businesses and industries who loaned a number of materials in different sort of sectors of manufacturing and so forth

STACEY: I think it’s also important to realize that the Atwater Kent sort of then became a collection of collections. So businesses or other organizations that had collections that went out of business, closed down, it came to the Atwater Kent. So there’s this phrase that does get bandied about sometimes that it’s Philadelphia’s attic. Because you can imagine it’s just full of stuff that you might find at your grandmom’s house in her attic.

But // then there’s some more special pieces, like trophies and things made out of silver by famous silversmiths. Every kind of texture that you could want, from clothing to shoes to Scarves and linen and draperies. And then you have furniture, but then there’s also weapons and, uh, swords and sabers and muskets and different kinds of, uh, military equipment that would have been used throughout Philadelphia’s history

You also find things associated with children and toys. // as well as fine arts and paintings and miniatures and jewelry and, uh, socks and underwear, you name it.

The oldest items in the collection date back to the 1600s — including a wampum belt, made of shell beads, and presented to William Penn by Lenape leaders to mark their historic treaty.

The newest objects are from just a few years ago.

STACEY: The newest // I believe that would be, uh, a protest sign from 2017 after the inauguration of Donald Trump as president. Some of the former staff members went and saved some of the signage that people were using at the protest down on the Parkway.

Famously, the collection includes a large desk used by George Washington. Some of its first acquisitions were artworks created during the Depression by artists from the Works Progress Administration. Like a scale model of Elfreth’s Alley – the oldest continuously inhabited residential street in America… and other scenes from Philadelphia life.

JAMIE: So Stacey // what value do you think there is to having all of these objects from Philadelphia gathered in one place?

STACEY: I look back to that early history where the museum was opening, and it was depicting these scenes, and it was starting the process of storytelling through objects. And it was important, I think, to see these things to help students, kids coming in, adults not even knowing their background and, what city they were living in. How important it is to see these things to inspire what goes on for the future. So, you’re looking at history, but it’s important to know what’s gone on before you as you step ahead.

JAMIE: I love that.

[MUSIC]

FIELD TAPE WALKING AROUND THE STACKS

STACEY: Lots of sculpture and art, television sets, furniture, models…

This huge collection was once based at the Philadelphia History Museum on 7th Street in Center City, formerly the Atwater Kent Museum.

But in 2018, the museum closed. All of these objects sat in limbo. Until the fall of 2021, when Drexel University became the new steward of this collection. Now in 2024 Drexel will be working with a host of Philly institutions to make the collection accessible again.

STACEY: So everything in this half of the space is named after Pennsylvania native plants. Everything on the other side is Pennsylvania native birds.

For now, the objects in the collection are stored at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts — in rows and rows of shelves and boxes. Stacey and her team are trying to make sense of it all

STACEY: And then there’s some mobile wheelie shelves that are named after, uh, Philadelphia born writers. But they have to be dead. Dead writers.

The collection is finally returning to public view. Thanks to an exhibition planned for the summer and fall of 2024 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It’s called Philadelphia Revealed: Unpacking the Attic.

JAMIE: How many items are actually in the full collection, and then how many will be exhibited?

STACEY: There’s over 130,000 items, and that It ranges from books to, to archival materials, pieces of paper, trade cards, photographs, as well as three dimensional objects. And then, um, on exhibit, we’ll have over 650 items that you’ll be able to see.

I asked Stacey to tell me about some of the objects she finds most interesting

STACEY: I’ll mention some of the things that we have sort of related to incarceration. When Some of the prisons were being closed in the 70s and 80s, there’s pieces that were confiscated by the wardens.

So like a crack pipe made out of a pen and an old bottle, that was confiscated by a prisoner and that came into the collection as well as a homemade kind of grappling hook made out of bed sheets where someone was going to attempt to make an escape and didn’t and then it was confiscated

JAMIE: So it really sounds like this collection, It’s not sentimental. You know, it is bold and it includes objects from many, many eras of Philadelphia’s history, good and bad. So sometimes you might encounter an object that brings you great joy and then another object that might bring you sorrow.

STACEY: There’s some hard stuff. As well as the fun stuff, and the playful, and the general, and the generic. So it’s, it’s life,

JAMIE: I think it’s important for a collection and an exhibit to be comprehensive and not to be just sentimental // It seems to me that each and every one of these artifacts and objects has a story to tell. And we have, as visitors, a story to find within the collection.

Because, I don’t know about you, but when I go into an exhibit, Sometimes I’m walking and I see something and it just stops me. And I may not know why. It may take some deep reflection. It may take a few seconds to say, Oh, that reminds me of my grandmother. Or, Oh, that reminds me of that.

And this collection seems to be an invitation for people to come and find their Philadelphia story within the artifacts. And in doing so, Adding to Philadelphia’s history.

STACEY: Absolutely. And what’s interesting about the collection and what I’ve been learning as I’ve been digging into it, there’s a lot of gaps that we have where there’s things that we’d love to collect that we don’t have represented in the collection.

There are contemporary items from major moments in Philly’s history that are not yet in the collection — like memorabilia from the Live Aid concert held here in the 1980s, or souvenirs from the Eagle’s Superbowl win in 2018. The curators want this to be a collection that really represents all of us here in the city. That we can all see ourselves reflected in.

JAMIE: Hi come on in everybody

NEIL: This is maybe the coolest room I’ve ever been in.

So for this podcast, we’re bringing storytellers from First Person Arts into the collection , into the vault, and seeing what kinds of Philly stories these objects spark.

VOICES OVERLAPPING EACH OTHER…
DARALYSE: I’m Daralyse Lyons, [and I’ve been told to say I’m a storyteller]

ANJOLI: I’m Anjali Santiago. // Philly is always here to lift me up. So I have Nothing but love for this place.

YAHYA: My name is Yahya. // I was born and raised in North Philadelphia. An artifact that spoke to me was the John Brown handcuffs. // I couldn’t even look at the other stuff.

Over the next 9 episodes, you’ll hear from a different storyteller connecting their own life to an object from the collection and learn about its history, and what that history can tell us about our city.

 You see, because we are Philadelphia and we are living and making history right now. Our stories are part of the continuum of this great city.

JAMIE: The radios kind of sparked that in me. As soon as I looked at them, that one reminded me of my grandmother’s transistor. And that one reminded me of the console that my uncle was so proud of that was in the living room. And the clock radio that was the alarm for us. So each of these items had a story.

Or brought out a story in me, a memory in me that I hadn’t thought about for so long, and it is my deepest deepest hope that people coming into this collection // will have the same reaction to an artifact or an object that I did, which is seeing the history, remembering good times, and, and What it really means to be from here because there’s nothing like it. And I hope that everyone will feel comfortable coming in here and everyone will find a story in an object because Philly is here. Philly is in here.

CREDITS

The Philadelphia Revealed Podcast is a production of WHYY in partnership with Rowhome Productions and First Person Arts. Our executive producers are Tom Grahsler, Alex Lewis, John Myers and me, Jamie J Brunson.

This episode of Philadelphia Revealed was written and produced by Jen Kinney.

Our lead producer is Jen Kinney. Final mixing and mastering by John Myers and Justin Berger.

Story editing from Padmini Raghunath.

Our engineers are Al Banks, Diana Martinez, and Charlie Kaier.

Special thanks to the Atwater Kent Collection at Drexel University curatorial team: Page Talbott, Stacey Swigart, Melissa Clemmer, and Michael Shepherd.

Special thanks also to Dr. Neil Bardhan, Jean Burke-Spraker and Michaela Prell at First Person Arts.

Thank you to Michaela Winberg, Hannah Cornish, and Savannah Collins.

Our theme music is by Paul Giess and Matt Jernigan. Thanks to Ms. Cramer and the Frankford High School Drumline. Additional music by Paul Giess and Blue Dot Sessions.

Philadelphia Revealed is a project of Drexel University, in collaboration with WHYY and First Person Arts. The Philadelphia Revealed Podcast and additional programming has been supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Philadelphia Revealed is part of the NPR podcast network.

I’m Jamie J. Thanks for listening.

JAMIE: What does Philadelphia sound like to me? // Music that was made from here, about here // the sound of Philadelphia coming through the radios…

STACEY: The KYW ticker tape sound is one of my favorites // And then things like the action news theme song

JAMIE: Yeah. How about the L? I think that the sound of the L is, is something… Now I’m going to leave here and I’m going to start to be conscious about what are Philly sounds….