Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)

Posted on 27 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul

The beautiful and historic Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, the head church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia (raised to the rank of an archdiocese in 1875), was built from 1846-1864. The cathedral was the site of two papal Masses

The grand Palladian facade

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this cathedral:

The cathedral is the largest Catholic church in Pennsylvania
It is the largest brownstone structure and one of the most architecturally notable structures in the city of Philadelphia.
Presented in a Roman–Corinthian style of architecture, the cathedral was modeled after the Lombard Church of St. Charles (San Carlo al Corso) in Rome.
It is 250 ft. long, 136 ft. wide and approximately 156 ft. high from the floor to the top of the dome (209 ft. from the floor to the top of the 11-foot gold cross atop the dome and 314 ft. from the pavement).
It was designed by Napoleon LeBrun (a native Philadelphian born to French-Catholic parents) from original plans by the Rev. Mariano Muller and the Rev. John B. Tornatore.
The brownstone facing, now atmosphere and weather-worn and pinkish in color, originally came from quarries in Connecticut and northern New Jersey.
The cathedral’s pipe organ, one of the largest in Philadelphia, has 75 ranks of pipes, 90 stops and 4,648 pipes on 4 manuals and pedals.
According to local lore and the parish’s history, the Philadelphia Nativist Riots, which represented the height of Anti-Catholicism and Know-Nothingism in Philadelphia, greatly influenced the design of the building. The light-colored, tinted clerestory windows were built very high to inhibit vandalism from possible future riots (Legend has it that the architect and construction workers would throw stones into the air to determine the height of where the windows would be placed).

Here’s the historical timeline of the cathedral:

On September 6, 1846, it, the cornerstone of the cathedral, a gift of Mr. James McClarnan, was laid in the presence of some 8,000 persons.
From 1846 to 1851, LeBrun supervised the project
In 1851, by John Notman (noted for his Philadelphia ecclesiastical architecture) took over the supervision of the project
In 1857, LeBrun’s again supervised its construction.
On November 20, 1864, the cathedral was dedicated and solemnly blessed, with Bishop James Wood officiating.
On July 6, 1877, the altars, dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart, were blessed.
On June 30, 1890, it was solemnly consecrated.
From 1914-1915, Arch. Henry D. Dagit completely renovated the cathedral interior under the direction of Archbishop Edmond F. Prendergast, adding the apse behind the High Altar, while D’Ascenzo Studios executed the apse’s stained glass windows and mosaic murals.
During the 1955-1957 renovation and expansion, semicircular apse was built to extend the sanctuary to its present depth of 54 ft.; lower stained glass windows were added to the new sanctuary apse (added with a stained glass window, from Conmick of Boston, depicting the Baptism of Jesus by St. John the Baptist and Sts. Peter and Paul baptizing prisoners in the Mamertine prison in Rome with water from a miraculous spring) and baptistery; and cast bronze doors (leading from the main façade into the narthex, or vestibule) and bronze handrails (along with the doors of the Race Street entrance to the cathedral) were installed.
On June 24, 1971, the cathedral was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
On October 3, 1979, Pope John Paul II celebrated a Papal Mass here.
On September 26, 2015, Pope Francis celebrated a Papal Mass here.

The cathedral’s aqua oxidized-copper vaulted dome, rising 156 ft. above the floor, and grand Palladian facade, designed by Notman in the Italian Renaissance manner, were added after 1850.

Commemorative Plaque of Pope John Paul II Visit

The old chapel on the north side of the basilica that was built in 1856 was replaced the Chapel of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament which was dedicated on October 11, 1955, the Feast of the Maternity of Our Lady.

The cathedral’s doors

The building’s main façade, graced by four massive, 60 ft. high (6 ft. in diameter) Corinthian columns, has niches with bronze statues of the Sacred Heart (to whom the diocese was consecrated by Bishop Wood on October 15, 1873); Mary, the Immaculate Conception (proclaimed patroness of the United States at the First Council of Baltimore in 1846, it was sculpted at the Joseph Sibbel Studios and installed in 1918); and Saints Peter and Paul, (the patrons of the Cathedral Basilica) both sculpted in the Gorham Studios.

The spacious interior

The spacious interior, largely decorated by Constantino Brumidi (a Greek/Italian-American painter best known for his murals in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.), features an oversized apse of stained glass and red antique marble in proportions reminiscent of Roman churches. The two large paintings, The Ascension of our Lord and the Adoration of the Kings from the East, decorate the ends of the transept.

Painting of “Adoration of the Kings from the East”

The 50 ft. wide and 192 ft. long great nave, lighted by bronze chandeliers weighing a half ton each, has a vaulted ceiling rising 80 ft. above the floor. The nave and transept are separated from the side aisles by massive pillars (which give way to arched recesses for altars and the baptistery) while a white marble altar rail, with three bronze gates, separate them from the sanctuary.

Painting of “The Ascension of Our Lord”

The Assumption of the Virgin into Heaven (1868), the striking oil on canvas ceiling mural in the dome, the pendentives and the portraits of St. Matthew (Angel), St. Mark (Lion), St. Luke (Winged Ox) and St. John (Eagle) in the medallions on the spandrels at the base of the dome, were painted by Brumidi. At the dome’s next level are panel paintings entitled Angels of The Passion (with each group of angels is an emblem of the Passion).

The dome

The ornate main altar, built with Botticino marble with Mandorlato rose marble trim, and the three altars, on each of the side aisles, point to an Italian Renaissance flavor. The front of the main altar is decorated by 3 gilded bronze discs, the central one bearing the HIS, the Greek inscription of Jesus Christ.

The High Altar

The 38 ft. high baldachin (or canopy) over the altar, of antique Italian marble, is surmounted by a semicircular bronze dome, the underside of which is a marble mosaic whose central figure is a dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit.

The baldachin

The mosaic carries in Latin an inscription which translates: “In every place there is offered and sacrificed in My Name a clean oblation.” White, 10 ft. high, Italian marble angels, its decorative rosettes of Botticino marble, stand at the corners of the baldachin.

Two side altars are dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel

The shrines dedicated to St. Katharine Drexel and St. John Neumann have 7-ft. high sculpted marble statues of these recent saints.

St. John Neumann Altar & Shrine

St. Katharine’s shrine retains the original altar donated in the 19th century by St. Katharine herself, along with her sisters, Elizabeth and Louise, as a memorial to their deceased parents, Francis and Emma Drexel.

Memorial altar to Archbishop Ryan

The memorial altar to Archbishop Patrick John Ryan, to the right of the altar dedicated to St. Katharine Drexel, was designed with the ancient Celtic Cross, to the left of which is the statue of St. Patrick while to the right is the statue of St. John the Evangelist.

Altar dedicated to the Holy Souls

The altar on the south side, between the Shrine to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and the baptistery, is dedicated to the Holy Souls and was modeled after the Blessed Sacrament altar in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The Shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe, installed in December 2009, was the thought of Cardinal Justin Francis Rigali.

Shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe

The choir stalls and the Cardinal’s chair, both of American black walnut, have wooden screens inspired by the famous metal rejería found in many cathedrals in Spain. The octagonal pulpit, opposite the Cardinal’s chair, has a carved walnut canopy and was constructed with marble matching the altar.

Mural of Blessed Mary’s Assumption

The baptistery, enclosed by a bronze screen inspired by a similar one in the Cathedral of Toledo in Spain, has the coat-of-arms of Cardinal John Francis O’Hara (carrying his motto in Latin “If you follow her you shall not go astray”) set into the top center of the screen.

The choir loft

The altar dedicated to the Holy Souls, to the left of the baptistery, is modeled after the Blessed Sacrament Altar in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The main sanctuary and eight side chapels can comfortably seat approximately 1,240 worshippers (1,500 with added temporary chairs) in pews of walnut wood. The confessionals, their privacy secured by red velvet curtains, have a walnut finish while the floor is of white and black marble tiles.

The pipe organ

The choir loft, at the rear of the cathedral, has a richly ornamental organ screen (or casing) designed by Otto R. Eggers (who also designed the Jefferson Memorial, the Mellon Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Art, all in Washington, D.C.) and built with carved walnut. The casing which encloses the pipes is one of the most outstanding in the country. High above the screen is a majestic stained glass window of the Crucifixion. The case enclosing the organ was most likely built by Edwin Forrest Durang, one of the cathedral architects and builders.

A mural (north), designed by Leandro Velasco, depicts people and events in the Church’s involvement with Pennsylvania history. At the top are the coats of arms of Pope Paul VI and John Cardinal Krol, and the bottom is the symbol of the 41st Eucharistic Congress, Philadelphia, 1976. The historic scenes are of George Washington and members of the Continental Congress at Old St. Mary’s Church; St. Katharine Drexel, Sisters of St. Joseph caring for the wounded on the Gettysburg battlefield; and Commodore Barry, founder of the United States Navy.

The statues of St. Peter (south side/rear) and St. Paul (north side/rear), the patrons of the cathedral, were moved from the now closed Church of the Most Blessed Sacrament and installed inside the cathedral in August 2009.

Another mural (south) by Leandro Velasco

In the bowels of the building, under the main altar of the cathedral, is the compact “Crypt of the Bishops” with the remains of most of the bishops and archbishops, as well as several other clergymen, of Philadelphia. The crypt, reached by stairs behind the main altar, is the final resting place of:

Michael Francis Egan, O.S.F. – the first Bishop of Philadelphia, he was consecrated on October 28, 1810 and died in 1814.
Henry Conwell – second Bishop of Philadelphia, he was consecrated 1820. He died on April 22, 1842.
Francis Patrick Kenrick – the third Bishop of Philadelphia, he was elevated to Archbishop of Baltimore in 1851. He died in 1863.
James Frederick Wood – the fifth Bishop, he became the first Archbishop of Philadelphia in 1875. He died on June 20, 1882.
Patrick John Ryan the sixth Bishop, he was the second Archbishop of Philadelphia. He died on February 3, 1911.
Edmond Prendergast – the seventh Bishop, he was the third Archbishop of Philadelphia. He died on February 26, 1918.
Dennis Joseph Dougherty – the eighth Bishop, he was the fourth Archbishop of Philadelphia and the first to be elevated to Cardinal. He died on May 31, 1951.
John Krol– the tenth Bishop, he was the sixth Archbishop of Philadelphia and the third to be elevated to Cardinal. He died on March 3, 1996.
Anthony Joseph Bevilacqua – the eleventh Bishop, he was the seventh Archbishop of Philadelphia and the fourth to be elevated to Cardinal. He died on January 31, 2012.
Ames J. Carroll – bishop who died in 1913.
Francis I. Clark – bishop who died in 1918.
Cletus Benjamin – bishop who died on May 15, 1961.
Gerald P. O’Hara – bishop who died on July 16, 1963
Gerald V. McDevitt – bishop who died on September 29, 1980.
Francis Patrick O’Neill – pastor of St. James, Philadelphia, 1843–1882, died 1882.
Maurice Walsh – pastor of St. Paul’s Philadelphia (1832–1888) who died in 1888.
James Corcoran – professor at Saint Charles Seminary who died in 1889.
Francis Brennan – Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments,he was the first American to receive an appointment to the Roman Curia. He died on July 2, 1968.
John Patrick Foley – President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, he was the seventh Philadelphia priest to be elevated to Cardinal. He died on December 11, 2011.

Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul: 18th St. & Benjamin Franklin Parkway, (opposite Logan Square) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. Tel: (215) 561-1313. Open daily, Mondays to Fridays, 7:30 AM to 5 PM; Saturdays, 9 AM to 5:15 PM; Sundays, 8 AM to 5 PM.

The Moshulu (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)

Posted on 27 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 1 Comment ↓

Moshulu

After our visit to the Independence Seaport Museum and the museum ships USS Olympia and USS Becuna, Jandy and I, our curiosity piqued, hopped over to the adjacent Moshulu which was also docked at Penn’s Landing. We discovered it was a floating restaurant and, as it wasn’t officially opened yet (it opens at 5 PM), asked permission if we could explore this four-masted steel barque, a first for both of us.

Check out “Independence Seaport Museum,” “Independence Seaport Museum – USS Olympia” and “Independence Seaport Museum – USS Becuna“

We weren’t here to try out its food but the Moshulu’s dining rooms and outdoor decks do take full advantage of the unparalleled views of the city skyline and waterfront.

The author at the upper deck of the Moshulu

Jandy

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this ship:

The Moshulu is the largest remaining original windjammer in the world. Whilst windjammers exist and sail the seas to this day, the last windjammer carrying cargo was the Peruvian Omega (ex Drumcliff) which was in use until her loss in 1958.
She was built by William Hamilton and Company, on the River Clyde in Scotland and, along with her sister ship Hans, was one of the last four-masted steel barques to be built on the river (Archibald Russell was launched in 1905).
Moshulu is the world’s oldest and largest square rigged sailing vessel still afloat.
She is the only restaurant venue on a tall ship in the world.
The Moshulu was originally named Kurtafter Dr. Kurt Siemers, director-general and president of H. J. Siemers & Co, a Hamburg shipping company.
She was built at a cost of £36,000.
The Moshulu was built for G. H. J. Siemers & Co. and originally used in the nitrate trade.
Moshulu was made famous by the books of famous travel writer Eric Newby who, at the age of 18, was apprenticed aboard the Moshulu, joining the ship in Belfast in 1938. The journey was documented in Newby’s books The Last Grain Race (1956, refers to the last grain race before the outbreak of World War II) and Learning the Ropes: An Apprentice in the Last of the Windjammers (1999, contains more than 150 of the photographs Newby took while aboard).
Moshulu’s route to Australia took her around Cape Horn a remarkable 54 times without incident.
On June 10, 1939, Moshulu wins the very last race of square-rigged sailing ships between Australia and Europe while carrying 59,000 bags of grain, weighing 4875 tons with a record speed of 16 knots in 91 days (15,000 miles) from Australia to Queenstown Cobh Ireland, a faster passage than that of any of the other sailing ships making similar passages that year.
Its restaurant has gained recognition as an award winning, AAA 4 Diamond rated Restaurant, Bar and Deck.

The Moshulu had the following general characteristics:

Length: 121 m. (396 ft., overall), 109 m. (359 ft., on deck), 102.2 m. (33.5.3 ft., between perpendiculars)
Beam: 14.3 m. (46.9 ft.)
Height: 65 m. (212 ft., keel to masthead truck), 56 m. (185 ft., main deck to masthead truck)
Draft: 7.4 m. (24.3 ft.) at 5,300 tons
Depth: 8.5 m. (28 ft., depth molded)
Depth of Hold: 8.1 m. (26.6 ft.)
Displacement: 7,000 ts (1,700 ts ship + 5,300 ts cargo)
Sail Plan: 180 m²; 34 sails: 18 square sails, 3 spankers, 13 staysails
Depths: 2 continuous steel decks, poop, midship bridge and forecastle decks
Installed Power: no auxiliary propulsion; donkey enginefor sail winches, steam rudder
Propulsion: wind
Highest Recorded Speed: 17 knots(31 kms./hr.)
Complement: 35 crew (maximum)
Crew: 33 (captain, 1st & 2nd mate, 1 steward, 29 able seamen)^[
Boats & landing craft carried: 4 lifeboats

Here’s a timeline of the ship’s history:

On April 18, 1904, the Kurt was launched with Captain Christian Schütt as her first master.
Between 1904 and 1914, under German ownership, Kurt shipped coal from Wales to South America, nitrate from Chile to Germany, coal from Australia to Chile, and coke and patent fuel from Germany to Santa Rosalía, Mexico.
In 1908, under the command of Captain Wolfgang H. G. Tönissen, she made a fast voyage from Newcastle, Australia, to Valparaíso with a cargo of coal in 31 days.
In 1914, upon the outbreak of World War I, Kurt was sailed to Oregon, under the command of Captain Tönissen, then laid up in Astoria.
In 1917, when the United States entered the war, she was seized as prize booty, kept in commission and temporarily renamed the Dreadnought (“one who fears nothing”) but, as there was already a sailing ship of that name registered in the US, she was renamed the Moshulu (which had the same meaning in the Seneca language) by Edith Wilson, the First Lady of the United States and wife of President Woodrow Wilson (who was of Indian extraction herself).
Between 1917 and 1920, Moshulu was owned by the U.S. Shipping Board and carried wool and chrome between North America, Manila and Australia.
From 1920 to 1922, it was owned by the Moshulu Navigation Co. (Charles Nelson & Co., a lumber firm) of San Francisco
In 1922, Moshulu was sold to James Tyson of San Francisco and, that same year, was repurchased by Charles Nelson.
From 1920 to 1928, the big four-masted barque ran in the timber trade along the U.S. west coast to Australia and South Africa.
In 1928, after her last timber run to Melbourne and Geelong, Australia, Moshulu was laid up in Los Angeles.
Later on, she was kept in places in or near Seattle, Washington: Lake Union, Winslow on (Puget Sound), and Esquimaltin British Columbia, Canada 190 kms. (100 nautical miles) northwest of Seattle.
In 1935, the Moshulu was bought for $12,000 by Gustaf Erikson of Finland, a successful ship owner of 25 vessels, 11 four-masted barque windjammers, who had found profits in bringing grain from Australia.
On March 14, 1935, when the contract was signed, Captain Gunnar Boman took over the ship and sailed Moshulu to Port Victoria. Gustaf Erikson had her operate in the grain trade from Australia to Europe. During the period of Erikson ownership the working language of the ship was Swedish, even though it sailed under the Finnish flag. The ship’s home port at the time, Mariehamn, is in the Swedish-speaking Åland Islandsof Finland.
At the end of 1938, the ship left Belfast, under the command of Captain Mikael Sjögren, sailing to Port Lincoln, in South Australia, with a load of ballast stone, arriving there in 82 days, a good passage for a windjammer. In Port Victoria, Moshulu took 4,875 tons of bagged grain on board and began her return voyage to Ireland. She had a crew of 33, which included two Americans, J. Ferrell Colton of Molokai, Hawaii (publisher of “Windjammer Significant”) and John W. Albright of Long Beach, California (who would become a square rigged ship captain himself).
On June 10, 1939, Moshulu arrives in Queenstown (Cobh, Ireland) winning the very last race of square-rigged sailing ships between Australia and Europe.
In November 1942, when she returned to Kristiansand, Norway, again under the command of Captain Mikael Sjögren and with a cargo of wheat from Buenos Aires, the ship was seized by the Germans and, step-by-step, stripped of her mast and spars.
in 1947, after breaking her mooring and capsizing in a storm close to shore at a beach in Østervik near Narvik, she was demasted by a salvaging company
On July 1948, she was re-erected, stabilized and towed to Bergen. The ship’s hull was sold to Trygve Sommerfeldt of Oslo.
A few months later, the ship was transferred to Sweden
From 1948 to 1952, she was used as a grain store in Stockholm.
She was then sold to the German ship owner Heinz Schliewen, who wanted to put her back to use under the name Oplagas, a merchant marine training ship carrying cargo. Schliewen already used the four-masted steel barques Pamir and Passat (both former Flying P-Liners) for that purpose, but before Moshulu was re-rigged, Schliewen went into bankruptcy.
In 1953 Moshulu was sold to the Swedish Farmers’ State Union (Svenska Lantmännens Riksförbund) of Stockholm
Beginning on November 16, 1953, she was used as a floating warehouse.
In 1961, the FinnishState Granary bought the ship for 3,200 tons of Russian rye. She was towed to a small and picturesque bay in Naantali, a town near Turku, and she continued to be used as a grain warehouse.
In 1970, the ship was bought by David Tallichet of the American Specialty Restaurants Corporation, who rigged her out in Scheveningen, Netherlands with machine (not hand) welded masts, yards, standing rigging and lines, of lighter materials. Other sources have it that The Walt Disney Company bought the ship but soon transferred it to the American “Specialty Restaurants Corporation.”
In 1974, she was towed to South Street Seaport, New York City.
In 1975, the Moshulu was opened as a restaurant
In 1989, the she closed after being damaged by a four-alarm fire.
In 1994, the Moshulu was purchased by HMS Ventures, Inc. and, under Mrs. Dodo Hamilton of the Campbell’s Soup family, was painstakingly restored in Camden to her original glory
In 1996, it was docked at Pier 34 on Philadelphia’s waterfront and opened as a restaurant on the Delaware River.
In 2002, the Moshulu was relocated to its current location under restaurateur Martin Grims.
On May 2003, its current owners, SCC Restaurants LLC, reopened the restaurant.

Reception

The Moshulu was featured in the following movies:

Rocky (during one of Rocky’s workout sessions along the waterfront)
The Godfather Part II (seen as the young Vito Corleone Andolini) arrives in New York in 1901, two years before it was built)
The end scene of the movie Blow Out.

Moshulu: Penn’s Landing, 401 S. Columbus Blvd., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106 (Click here for map). Tel: 215.923.2500. Fax: 215.829.1604. E-mail: info@moshulu.com. Website: www.moshulu.com. Open Mondays– Thursdays, 5 to 9 PM; Fridays & Saturdays, 5 to 10PM; Sundays 10AM to 2:30PM and 5 to 9PM.

Rodin Museum (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

Posted on 27 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Rodin Museum

The Rodin Museum, an art museum containing one of the largest collections of sculptor Auguste Rodin‘s works outside Paris, is administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Our entrance ticket to the Philadelphia Museum of Art also included entry to this museum but it just so happened to be closed, it being a Tuesday. However, the Dorrance H. Hamilton Garden, just outside the Museum displays eight of Rodin’s works.

Check out “Philadelphia Museum of Art”

The author in front of the Meudon Gate

The only dedicated Rodin Museum outside France, it houses a distinguished collection of nearly 150 objects containing bronzes, marbles, and plasters by Auguste Rodin, representing every phase of his career.

The elegant Beaux-Arts–style building and garden, nestled between the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s main building the Free Library of Philadelphia (opened its central Logan Square location in 1927), was the gift of founder, entrepreneur and philanthropist Jules E. Mastbaum (1872–1926) to the city of Philadelphia.

This movie-theater magnate began collecting works by Rodin in 1923 with the intent of founding a museum to enrich the lives of his fellow citizens. Within just three years, he had assembled the largest collection of Rodin’s works outside Paris, including bronze castings, plaster studies, drawings, prints, letters and books.

In 1926, Mastbaum commissioned French architect Paul Cret (1876–1945) and French landscape designer Jacques Gréber (1882–1962) to design the unique ensemble of Beaux-Arts building and formal French gardens. The murals inside the museum were executed by the painter Franklin C. Watkins.

Dorrance H. Hamilton Garden

However, Mastbaum did not live to see his dream realized, but Etta Wedell Mastbaum, his widow, honored his commitment to the city, and the Museum opened on November 29, 1929. It was immediately embraced and celebrated and, in its first year, drew over 390,000 visitors, including poet and dramatist Paul Claudel, the French Ambassador to the U.S..

Adam, a bronze cast of an 1880-81 statue made by Rodin

In 2012, the museum re-opened after a three-year, US$9 million renovation that brought the museum back to its original vision of displaying Rodin’s works. Today, the Rodin Museum is one of the defining icons of Philadelphia.

The Gates of Hell, standing at 6 m. high, 4 m. wide and 1 m. deep (19.7×13.1×3.3 ft.), contains 180 figures, several of which were also cast as independent free-standing statues, and depicts a scene from the Inferno, the first section of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy.

Visitors once entered through The Gates of Hell, a massive 5.5-m-tall bronze doorway (which is no longer used) that was originally created for the Museum of Decorative Arts (which was to have been located in Paris but never came into existence).

The Thinker. Its pose is one of deep thought and contemplation. The statue is often used as an image to represent philosophy.

From 1880 until his death in 1917, Rodin sculpted more than 100 figures for these doors. This casting is one of the three originals; several others have been made since. Several of his most famous works, including The Thinker (1880–1882), the best-known of Rodin’s worksfirst seen as an independent work in 1883, are actually studies for these doors which were later expanded into separate works.

The Three Shades(Les Trois Ombres) are a sculptural group of three identical figures gathered around a central point, produced in plaster in 1886 for his The Gates of Hell, .

For the first time since 1963, recent advances in conservation, undertaken by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, have permitted the return of Adam and The Shade to their original places within the arches of the Meudon Gate.

Meudon Gate, the museum’s portico, with Adam and The Shade located within the arches.

The Age of Bronze (Rodin’s breakthrough sculpture) and Eve has also returned to the niches they once occupied on either side of the museum’s portico overlooking the reflecting pool. A version of the monumental The Three Shades, a generous loan from Iris and B. Gerald Cantor, sits on the building’s west side in a space that was vacant for most of the last eighty years.

The Burghers of Calais (1895). This bronze figure group commemorates six merchants of Calais who offered themselves as hostages to Edward III after he besieged the city for almost a year in 1347.

The museum’s several rooms house many more of the artist’s works, including The Kiss (1886), Eternal Springtime, which Rodin had presented to Robert Louis Stevenson in 1885, The Age of Bronze (1875–76), and The Burghers of Calais, a monument commissioned by the City of Calais in 1884.

NOTE:

In 2019, the Rodin Museum mounted a two-year special exhibition titled Rethinking the Modern Monument. Curated by Alexander Kauffman, it paired 16 works from the Philadelphia Museum of Art with selected Rodin sculptures. The special exhibition featured bronze sculptures by Jean Arp, Barbara Hepworth, Jacques Lipchitz, Marino Marini, Chana Orloff, and Alberto Giacometti, among others.

Rodin Museum: 2151 Benjamin Franklin Parkway (at 22nd Street), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Open Wednesdays –Mondays,, 10 AM.–5 PM. Tel: (215) 763-8100. Website:
www.rodinmuseum.org. Coordinates: 39.962°N 75.174°W.

How to Get There: SEPTA bus: 7, 32, 38, 48, 49, Philly PHLASH; Suburban Station.

Independence Seaport Museum – USS Becuna (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)

Posted on 27 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 2 Comments ↓

USS Becuna

After exploring the exhibits of the Independence Seaport Museum, Jandy and I went out to the waterfront and boarded the World War II/Cold War submarine USS Becuna, anchored next to Admiral George Dewey‘s flagship the USS Olympia, to check the innards of the submarine, a first for both of us, and get a glimpse of all aspects of a submariner’s life.

Check out “Independence Seaport Museum – USS Olympia“

National Historic Landmark Plaque

Jandy at the conning tower

Both boats are very good static displays and kept in pretty good condition. The USS Becuna (SS/AGSS-319), a Balao-class diesel-electric submarine of the United States Navy nicknamed “Becky,” was named for the becuna, a pike-like fish of Europe.

Forward Engine Room

Forward Torpedo Room

The author at the crew’s berthing area

Exploring the full length of the sub, from stem to stern, requires going into tight spaces (the small hatches, requiring a degree of flexibility, could be tough to maneuver through) and using ladders and steps, so it not a good attraction for those needing accessibility as well as those who are extremely claustrophobic.

After Engine Room

Control Room

Maneuvering Room

You can rush through the tour in only a few minutes but, if you take the time, you can spend the time looking at all of the pipes wires and valves and really feel what it was like to live and work in the extremely tight quarters on this sub.

Captain’s Stateroom

Chief Petty Officer’s Stateroom

The Captain’s stateroom was tiny. We weren’t able to see the conning tower and periscopes as it’s only included in the highly recommended “Behind the Scenes” tour which we were too late for.

Junior Officer’s Stateroom

Senior Officers Quarters

Officers’ Wardroom

Here’s the timeline of the submarine’s operational history:

On April 10, 1942, the order to build submarine Becuna was issued.
On April 29, 1942, the keel of submarine is laid down
On January 30, 1944, she was launched by Electric Boat Company (Groton, Connecticut) and sponsored by Mrs. George C. Crawford, wife of Cmdr. George C. Crawford.
On May 27, 1944, The USS Becuna (SS-319) was commissioned with Lt.-Cmdr. H. D. Sturr in command.
On July 1, 1944, she departs New London, Connecticut
On July 7, 1944, the USS Becuna detects a hostile submarine in the Atlantic Ocean and fires four torpedoes at the target; all torpedoes missed and contact with the enemy submarine was lost.
On July 27, 1944, she arrives at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii
On August 23, 1944, the USS Becuna departs Pearl Harbor for her first war patrol
On September 1, 1944, she comes across a Japanese soldier in a small boat. After taking the soldier prisoner, she sinks the boat with machine gun fire.
On September 24, 1944, she fires three torpedoes at a Japanese transport in the Luzon Strait south of Taiwan but all torpedoes miss.
On September 25, 1944, the USS Becuna fires three torpedoes at a Japanese destroyer in the Luzon Strait south of Taiwan but all torpedoes miss.
On October 8, 1944, she damages the Japanese tanker Kimikawa Maru in the South China Sea with two of four torpedoes fired.
On October 9, 1944, the USS Becuna attacks a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, claiming two sunk and two damaged; ten torpedoes were expended, seven of them made contact.
On November 16, 1944, she departs Fremantle, Australia for her second war patrol.
On November 17, 1944, the USS Becuna damages four Japanese ships – the tanker San Luis Maru, tanker Tokuwa Maru, a transport and cargo ship.
On January 2, 1945, she sinks two small vessels between Malaya and Borneo in two separate engagements with her deck gun.
On February 22, 1945, the USS Becuna fires ten torpedoes at a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, with one torpedo making contact and sinking the Japanese tanker Nichiyoko Maru.
On May 22, 1945, she departs for her fourth war patrol, on lifeguard station for carrier air crews.
On June 21, 1945, USS Becuna departs for her fifth war patrol.
On July 15, 1945, she attacks a Japanese Otori-class torpedo boat without effect.
On July 27, 1945, the submarine arrives at Subic Bay, Luzon
On September 22, 1945, she arrives at San Diego, California and is assigned to the Submarine Force of the US Navy Pacific Fleet.
On May 6, 1947, the USS Becuna enters Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, United States, for a scheduled overhaul.
On September 22, 1947, she completes her scheduled overhaul.
On April 1949, she is ordered to Submarine Force, Atlantic Fleet, as a unit of Submarine Squadron 8.
Between May 1949 and May 1950, she conducts refresher training exercises and also assisted in training of student officers and men at New London, Connecticut.
In November 1950, she returned to Electric Boat Co. for a complete modernization overhaul, being refitted as a GUPPY-type submarine, with sophisticated radar and torpedo equipment including nuclear warheads.
On August 1951, the submarine’s overhaul is completed and the Becuna sails to the Caribbean for post-modernization shakedown.
On September 1951, she returns to New London. Becunaoperates with the Atlantic Fleet trailing Soviet submarines with eavesdropping equipment aboard, making two cruises with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean and one to Scotland. Other than these extended cruises, the majority of Becuna‘s service was at New London as a training submarine.
In 1969, she is reclassified as an Auxiliary Submarine, AGSS-319.
On November 7, 1969, the Becunais decommissioned and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
In 1971, she reverts to SS-319
On August 15, 1973, she was struck from the Naval Register
On June 21, 1976, the Becuna was placed on permanent display adjacent to the cruiser USS Olympia (C-6) at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia.
On August 29, 1986, she was designated a National Historic Landmark for her service in World War II for which she received four battle stars.
On January 1, 1996, she becomes a museum ship at the Historic Ship Zone of the Independence Seaport Museum.
In 2001, Becuna receives the Historical Welded Structure Award of the American Welding Society.

Crew’s Mess

Crew’s Washroom

Main Galley

Here are some specifications of this ship:

Displacement: 1,500 long tons (1,500 t) surfaced, 2,080 long tons (2,110 t) submerged
Length: 95.02 m. (311 t., 9 in.)
Beam: 8.31 m. (27 ft., 3 in.)
Draft: 5.13 m. (16 ft., 10 in.) maximum
Propulsion: 4 × General MotorsModel 16-278A V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators, 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries, 4 × high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears, two propellers, 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced, 2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged.
Speed: 38 kms./hour (20.25 knots) surfaced, 16 kms./hour (8.75 knots) submerged
Range: 20,000 kms. (11,000 nautical miles) surfaced at 19 kms./hour (10 knots)
Endurance: 48 hours at 3.7 kms./hour (2 knots) submerged, 75 days on patrol
Test depth: 120 m. (400 ft.)
Complement: 8 commissioned officers, 5 chief petty officers, 67 enlisted men
Armament: 24 torpedoes, 10 × 533 mm. (21 in.) torpedo tubes (6 forward, 4 aft), 1 × 127 mm. (5 in.)/ 25 caliber deck gun, Bofors 40 mm. and Oerlikon 20 mm. cannon.

Yeoman’s Shack

Pump Room

Radio Room

Independence Seaport Museum: 211 S. Columbus Blvd., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106, U.S.A. Tel: +1 215-413-8655. Website: www.phillyseaport.org. Open daily, 10 AM – 5 PM. Closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day but open on New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Day (January 15) and President’s Day (February 19). Admission: US$16 (adults), US$12 (seniors, 65 & over), US$12 (children, 3–12 years old), free for college students, military (active & retired) and children 2 years old & under. Seafarin’ Saturday and Citizen Science Lab programming are included with regular admission. Group visits are available at reduced rates for a minimum of ten people. Reservations must be made in advance.

Independence Seaport Museum – USS Olympia (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)

Posted on 27 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 3 Comments ↓

USS Olympia

After exploring the USS Becuna, Jandy and I now went out and boarded the USS Olympia (C-6/CA-15/CL-15/IX-40), a protected cruiser famous, during the Spanish–American War, as the flagship of Commodore George Dewey at the May 1, 1898 Battle of Manila Bay. There was a semi-permanent exhibit opened last June 16, 2017, featuring the Olympia, entitled “World War I USS Olympia.” to commemorate the World War I centennial. The World War I USS Olympia exhibit highlights the Ship’s humanitarian and peace-keeping role in World War I Europe. The exhibit also explores the everyday life of sailors aboard the ship, as well as, the Olympia’s final mission of transporting the remains of the Unknown Soldier from France to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC.

The author at the upper deck

Turret of two 8 in. (203 mm.) 35 cal. Mark 4 guns

The design of the interior of the USS Olympia was not that far off from the old sailing ships of the line, with an enormous amount of deeply polished wood at the sumptuous officer’s quarters (called the “Officers’ Country). The beautifully paneled staterooms of the officers contrasts with the tiny hammocks of the enlisted men.

Beautifully paneled Officers Berth Deck (Officer’s Country)

Hammocks of the enlisted men

Before the USS Olympia retired in 1922, most of its original guns were removed in refits but, amazingly, one of the original guns survives today, a 6-pounder forward on the port side.The captain’s cabin also mounted a gun.

Stateroom and cabin of Commodore George Dewey. At left can be seen the muzzle of a 5-inch gun

The Commodore’s bathroom

Voice pipes lead from the bridge to various stations, including the emergency steering – a triple-wheel made of wood, out on deck towards the stern.

Jandy manning the ship’s emergency steering

Ammunition hoists, sitting close by coal chutes and ash hoists, look like china cabinets. It’s an amazing step back into history. All throughout, great signs describe life on the ship and its history. We weren’t able to see the engine room (to see the big old steam engines, the giant crankshaft and connecting rods and the cramped boiler room) as it’s only included in the highly recommended “Behind the Scenes” tour which the we were too late for.

Officer’s Quarters

Junior Officers’ Mess

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this ship:

She saw service in the United States Navy from her commissioning in 1895 until 1922.
She was twice decommissioned and recommissioned.
For several months after her commissioning, she was the largest ship ever built on the western coast of the US, until surpassed by the battleship Oregon.
Admiral George Dewey and Olympia became famous as the first victors of the Spanish-American War.
She is the sole floating survivor of the US Navy’s Spanish–American War fleet.
Olympiais the oldest steel US warship still afloat in the world.
She is the sole survivor of the U.S naval shipbuilding program from the 1880s and 1890s and the only surviving pre-dreadnaught protected cruiser in the world.
It is one of only four warships representative of the time period that exist worldwide.

Officers Dining Room

Here is the timeline of the ship’s history:

In 1889, the newly formed Board on the Design of Ships began the design process for Cruiser Number 6
On April 8, 1890, the navy solicited bids but found only one bidder, the Union Iron Worksin San Francisco, California.
On July 10, 1890, the contract was signed
On June 17, 1891, the ship’s keel was laid
On November 5, 1892, the ship was launched.
On November 3, 1893, Union Iron Works conducted the first round of trials.
On December 1893, she was dispatched from San Francisco to Santa Barbara
On December 15, 1893, Olympia sailed into the Santa Barbara Channel and began an official four-hour speed trial time.
On February 5, 1895, the new cruiser was ultimately commissioned.
Upon commissioning, Olympia departed the Union Iron Works yard in San Francisco and steamed inland to the U.S. Navy’s Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, where outfitting was completed and Captain John J. Read was placed in command.
In April 1895, the ship steamed south, to Santa Barbara, to participate in a festival. That same month, the ship’s crew also conducted landing drills in Sausalito and Santa Cruz.
On April 20, 1895, the ship conducted its first gunnery practice, during which one of the ship’s gunners, Coxswain John Johnson, was killed in an accident with one of the 5-inch guns
On July 27, 1895, the ship starts its last shakedown cruise
On August 25, 1895, the ship departed the United States for Chinese waters.
A week later, the ship arrived in Hawaii, where she remained until October 23 due to an outbreak of cholera. The ship then sailed for Yokohama, Japan
On November 9, 1895, the ship arrives in Yokohama.
On November 15, 1895, the Baltimore arrives in Yokohama, from Shanghai, China, to transfer command of the Asiatic Squadron to Olympia. She was designated as the flagship.
On December 18, 1895, Rear Admiral F.V. McNair arrives to take command of the squadron.
The following two years, the ship joined training exercises with the other members of the Asiatic Squadron as well as goodwill visits to various ports in Asia, notably Hongkong and Kobe and Nagasaki in Japan.
On January 3, 1898, Commodore George Dewey raised his flag on Olympia and assumed command of the squadron.
On April 25, 1898, the Spanish-American War began and Dewey moved his ships to Mirs Bay, China.
On April 27, 1898, the Navy Department ordered the Squadron to Manila in the Philippines, where a significant Spanish naval force protected the harbor. Dewey was ordered to sink or capture the Spanish warships, opening the way for a subsequent conquest by US forces.
On the morning of May 1, 1898, Commodore Dewey, with his flag aboard Olympia, steamed his ships into Manila Bay to confront the Spanish flotilla commanded by Rear Admiral Patricio Montojo y Pasarón. At approximately 05:40, Dewey instructed Olympia‘s captain, “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley.” Newly assigned Capt. Charles Vernon Gridley ordered the forward 8-inch gun turret, commanded by Gunners Mate Adolph Nilsson, to open fire, which opened the battle and prompted the other American warships to begin firing. By early afternoon, Dewey had completed the destruction of Montojo’s squadron and the shore batteries, while his own ships were largely undamaged. Dewey anchored his ships off Manila and accepted the surrender of the city. Olympia remained in the area and supported the American expeditionary force by shelling Spanish forces on land.
On May 20, 1898, the ship returned to the Chinese coast, remaining there until the following month, when she departed for the US, via the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea.
On October 10, 1898, the ship arrived in Boston. Following Olympia‘s return to the US, her officers and crew were feted and she was herself repainted and adorned with a gilded bow ornament.
On November 9, 1898, Olympia was decommissioned and placed in reserve.
On January 2, 1902, the Olympia was recommissioned into the fleet and assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron. Her first duty was to serve as the flagship of the Caribbean Division.
Over the following four years, the ship patrolled the Atlantic and Mediterranean, her voyages including a visit to Turkey.
In March through April 1903, she and four other U.S. Navy warships were involved in an intervention in Honduras.
Starting on April 2, 1906, she became a training ship for midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy. In this role, she conducted three summer training cruises – May 15 – August 26, 1907, June 1 – September 1, 1908 and May 14 – August 28, 1909. Between the cruises, the ship was placed in reserve, first in Norfolk, Virginia and later at Annapolis, Maryland.
On March 6, 1912, Olympia arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, serving as a barracks ship until 1916.
In late 1916, when it became increasingly clear that the US would eventually enter World War I, the ship was recommissioned into the fleet.
After the U.S. entered the First World War by declaring war on Germany in April 1917, Olympia was mobilized as the flagship of the U.S. Patrol Force. She was tasked with patrolling the eastern seaboard of the US for German warships. She also escorted transport ships in the North Atlantic.
On June 15, 1917, she ran aground in Long Island Sound, and put in for repairs at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which, along with the replacement of her 8-inch and 5″/40-caliber guns with 5″/51-caliber guns, took eight months.
On April 28, 1918, Olympiadeparted Charleston, carrying an expeditionary force bound for Russia which had previously been a member of the Allied Powers but was in the midst of civil war and had signed a separate peace with Germany.
On June 9, 1918, Olympia arrived in Murmansk, Russia, and deployed the peace-keeping force. She subsequently assisted in the occupation of Archangel.
After World War I, participated in the 1919 Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and conducted cruises in the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas to promote peace in the unstable Balkan countries.
After the end of the war, Olympia sailed to the Mediterranean via Portsmouth, England.
On December 1918, the ship became the flagship for American naval forces stationed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. While on this assignment, she continued in her old role of showing the flag and conducting goodwill visits in various Mediterranean ports. This included a period of policing duty in the Adriatic Sea from January 21 to October 25, 1919 (the Dalmatian coast was in a state of turmoil following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the war).
On August 18, 1918, she steamed to the Black Sea to aid the return of refugees from the Balkans who had fled during the war.
By September 19, 1918, she was back in the Adriatic and four days later had to deploy a landing party to prevent an incident between Italian and Yugoslav forces.
On November 24, 1919, Olympia briefly returned to Charleston.
In 1920, she was reclassified as CA-15.
On February 14, 1920, she departed New York for another tour of duty in the Adriatic,
On May 25, 1921, the ship returned to Charleston.
On June 1921, she was made the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet’s training unit.
In July, 1921, she then participated in joint Army-Navy experiments, during which the ex-German warships Ostfriesland and Frankfurt were sunk off the Virginia Capes. She was again reclassified as CL-15 that year.
On October 3, 1921, Olympia departed Philadelphia for Le Havre, France, to bring the remains of the Unknown Soldier home for interment in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C..
On October 25, 1921, the cruiser departed France, escorted by a group of French destroyers for part of the voyage.
On November 9, 1921, at the mouth of the Potomac River, the battleship North Dakotaand the destroyer Bernadou joined Olympia as she sailed to the Washington Navy Yard. After transferring the remains ashore, the cruiser fired her guns in salute.
In the summer of 1922, she conducted a last training cruise for midshipmen.
On December 9, 1922, she was decommissioned for the last time in Philadelphia and placed in reserve.
On June 30, 1931, the ship was reclassified IX-40 to be preserved as a relic.
On September 11, 1957, she was released to the Cruiser Olympia Association, restored to her 1898 configuration and became a museum ship under their auspices. The main 8-inch guns and turrets, scrapped before World War I, were replaced with sheet metal fabrications.
In 1966, Olympia was designated a National Historic Landmark.
In January 1996, when faced with mounting debt and tremendous deferred maintenance, the Cruiser Olympia Society merged with the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia.

Battle Memorial

Today, Olympia is a museum ship at the Independence Seaport Museum in Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia. Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps Midshipmen from Villanova University and the University of Pennsylvania regularly work on Olympia, functioning as maintenance crew. Olympia’s stern plate and bow ornaments are on display at Dahlgren Hall at the United States Naval Academy.

National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark plaque

National Historic Maritime Landmark plaque

Here are some specifications of this ship:

Overall length: 104.88 m. (344 ft. 1 in.)
Beam: 16 m. (53 ft.)
Draft: 6.55 m. (21 ft. 6 in.)
Design displacement: 5,865 long tons (5,959 t)
Full combat load: 6,558 long tons (6,663 t)
Propulsion: 2 x vertical triple expansion engines, 6 × boilers (4 × double-ended, 2 × single-ended), 2 × screws. Her engines were rated at 13,500 ihp (10,100 kW)
Armament (as built): 4 × 8 in (203 mm)/35 cal Mark 4 guns (2×2), 10 × 5 in (127 mm)/40 cal Mark 2 guns (10×1), 14 × 6-pounder 57 mm (2.24 in) Driggs-Schroeder RF guns, 6 × 1-pounder 37 mm (1.46 in) guns, 4 × Gatling guns, 6 × 17.7 in (450 mm) above-surface torpedo tubes, firing Whitehead Mark 1 torpedoes.
Armament (1917): 10 × 5 in (127 mm)/51 cal Mark 8 guns (10×1)
Deck Armor: 12.1 cm. (4.75 in.) on slopes, 5.1 cm. (2 in.) flat, 7.6 cm. (3 in.) ends.
Barbettes Armor: 11 cm. (4.5 in.)
Turrets Armor: 8.9 cm. (3.5 in.); 10 cm. (4 in.) (shields to 5-inch guns).
Speed: 21.7 knots (40.2 km/h; 25.0 mph)
Range: 6,000 nmi (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Capacity: 1,169 short tons (1,060 t) coal (maximum)
Complement: 33 officers and 395 enlisted
Coal bunker capacity: 1,085.6 tons
Normal coal supply: 400 tons
Endurance at 10 knots: 6,105 nautical miles
Cost: US$1,796,000

5 inch gun

Driggs-Schroeder 6-pounder gun

Independence Seaport Museum (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)

Posted on 27 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 1 Comment ↓

Independence Seaport Museum

The Independence Seaport Museum, formerly the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, is located in the Penn’s Landing complex along the Delaware River. Founded in 1961 by maritime collector J. Welles Henderson, the collections at the Independence Seaport Museum document maritime history and culture along the Delaware River. Along the waterfront of the museum are two National Historic Landmark ships – the cruiser USS Olympia (C-6), a Spanish-American warship that played a vital role in the Battle of Manila Bay, and the World War II and Cold War era submarine USS Becuna.

Check out “Independence Seaport Museum – USS Olympia” and “Independence Seaport Museum – USS Becuna“

Cruiser USS Olympia and submarine USS Becuna

The J. Welles Henderson Archives and Library, at the second floor of the museum, has a collection that focuses on maritime history and culture along the Delaware River and in the Port of Philadelphia, from early America to the present. The Archive includes personal and business records, rare books, reference materials, mechanical drawings, ship models, maps, art, architectural drawings, charts, recordings, photographs, cultural artifacts, and ephemera.

Petroleum Barge

Notable items in the collection include the John Barry-Hayes collection, Reed & Ford business papers, Captain John Greene Collection, the Philadelphia Maritime Exchange records, and the collection of 16th–18th century geographical maps and charts. The Archive also maintains the cruiser Olympia and submarine Becuna collections. In August 2016 the Archive launched its first online catalog, which lists inventories of its archival collections.

Workshop on the Water

The museum’s current exhibits are:

The unique Patriots & Pirates, a exhibition developed by Chief Curator Craig Bruns and opened in April 2016, focuses on Philadelphia and the founding of the United States Navy. The permanent exhibition, highlighting the little-told story of America’s conflict with pirates features curated objects never, or rarely, seen by the public. It features a full-size, a stationary 102-ft. waterline model of the schooner Diligence of 1797 at the center. A vessel with masts soaring above a 62-ft. deck, it was constructed by staff and volunteers from Workshop on the Water, a traditional boat shop located inside the museum. Some notable artifacts in the exhibit include a rare letter written by American citizens held hostage in Algiers to the American Congress requesting for their return home (December 29, 1793), tools from the excavation of I-95 at Old City (Philadelphia) in 1974, Captain John Barry‘s octant, a painting of Philadelphia merchant ship Pigou being pursued by the French privateer L’Adventure and a model of the Federal St. Navy Yard, recreating Joshua Humphreys‘ shipyard in the 1790s where he built the frigate United States.

Schooner Diligence

Tides of Freedom: African Presence on the Delaware River, an exhibit curated by Tukufu Zuberi, (University of Pennsylvania professor of Sociology and Africana Studies) and opened in May 2013, explores African-American history along the Delaware River and focuses on the slave trade, emancipation and the abolitionist movement in Philadelphia, and Philadelphia’s connection to the underground railroad. The exhibit continues into the modern era, focusing on Jim Crow and Civil Rights in Philadelphia. On display at the exhibit are recently uncovered artifacts from the museum’s collection – slave shackles and an 18th-century account book that documents the sale of slaves in Philadelphia. Gripping first-person accounts and interactive elements provide visitors with opportunities for discovery and communication. Using four key moments in Philadelphia’s history, representing the themes of Enslavement, Emancipation, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights, urges visitors both to bear witness to a story central to Philadelphia and American history, and to think about the meaning of “freedom” both historically and in today’s world.

Tides of Freedom

Rescues on the River tells the story of maritime disasters along the Delaware River, exploring how tragedy shaped modern maritime safety regulations and led to the formation of the Coast Guard. The exhibit begins with a late 18th-century Revolutionary War-era explosion of a British ship and ends with the 1975 oil tanker collision and resulting fire. Explore the disasters that unfolded as the Delaware developed into a watery highway for trade and commerce while experiencing the misfortunes, the miracles and the lessons learned. It will also introduce historical prints and newspaper headlines that were used to broadcast and memorize these terrible marine catastrophes. Visitors to the exhibition can also take home a free 20-page tabloid keepsake, produced in partnership with the Philadelphia Weekly, which includes illustrations and more details about some of the events featured in the exhibition.

The Guppy, a two-person submersible

Bound for Philadelphia, signaled by boat horns and whistles, makes visitors chart a course for Penn’s Landing. Learn the hazards of navigation as you travel beneath a three-story replica of the Ben Franklin Bridge and make your way along a carpeted Delaware River. View the charts and navigational instruments that helped guide early Delaware River travelers.
The Navigation Exhibit, spotlighting navigation science, documents the critical role of navigation technology to maritime history. On display are collection of navigational tools from the early American colonial period to the present – sextants, compasses, maps, etc.. See how these objects made it easier to traverse the often difficult Delaware River.

Joshua Humphreys’ 18th century shipyard

Other past exhibits include:

Titanic Philadelphiansopened in 2012, commemorated the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The exhibit focused on the approximately 40 Philadelphian passengers of the Titanic, their first-hand accounts, and how their lives were forever altered by the tragedy. On display is a rare first class passenger list which was salvaged by Marian Longstreth Thayer who unknowingly had the list in her pocket as she boarded a lifeboat and whose husband died in the disaster.
Coming to America spotlighted the experiences of immigrants who left their homeland for the United States and passed through Philadelphia’s Washington Avenue Immigration Station. On display are artifacts and oral histories of both wealthy first-class passengers and economically disadvantaged passengers traveling in steerage.
Philadelphia and the China Trade chronicles the history of trade between the two nations (in the 18th century Philadelphia became one of the first American cities to begin trading with China) and explores the lasting impact it had on Philadelphia’s culture and economy.

The bark James A. Wright

Philadelphia Museum of Art (Pennsylvania, USA)

Posted on 27 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 1 Comment ↓

Philadelphia Museum of Art

This art museum, originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, has impressive collections containing over 240,000 objects in over 200 galleries spanning 2,000 years. It includes major holdings of European, American and Asian origin, showing the creative achievements of the Western world since the first century BC and those of Asia since the third millennium AD.

The various classes of artwork include sculpture; paintings; prints; drawings; photographs;, arms and armor; and decorative arts.

The author

Standouts include a great Rogier van der Weyden altarpiece, the large The Bathers by Paul Cezanne, a room devoted to Philadelphia’s own realist painter Thomas Eakins, and the notorious mixed-media Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors (most often called The Large Glass), exactly as the Dada master Marcel Duchamp installed it.

Prometheus Strangling the Vulture (Bronze, Jacques Lipchitz, cast 1952-53)

Upstairs are over 80 period rooms, from a Medieval cloister to an Indian temple. In recent years, the museum has helped to organize shows, from Paul Cezanne and Edgar Degas to Constantin Brancusi and Barnett Newman.

Jandy in front of a choir screen from the chapel of the chateau of Pagny

The main museum building, on Fairmount, a rocky hill topped by the city’s main reservoir located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway (formerly Fairmount Parkway) at Eakins Oval, was completed in 1928.

Entrance Lobby

The museum administers several annexes including the Rodin Museum, also located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building (opened in 2007), which is located across the street just north of the main building.

Check out “Rodin Museum” and “Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building“

Botanist Take a Core Sample of a 350 year old Redwood Tree, Redwood National Park, California (2008)

Bright Angel Point, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona (2008)

The main museum building and its annexes, owned by the City of Philadelphia, are administered by a registered nonprofit corporation.

Allegory of the Schuykill River – Water Nymph and Bittern (William Rush)

La Premiere Pose (Howard Roberts)

The Philadelphia Museum of Art also administers the historic colonial-era houses of Mount Pleasant and Cedar Grove, both located in Fairmount Park.

Dying Centaur (Bronze, William Rimmer, 1967)

Mother and Child II (Bronze, Jacques Lipchitz, 1941)

Every year, several special exhibitions are held in the museum including touring exhibitions arranged with other museums in the United States and abroad.

The Birth of Venus (Nicolas Poussin)

Head of a Woman and Flowers (Oil on canvas, Gustave Courbet, 1871)

The final design of the main building, in the form of three linked Greek temples, is mostly credited to two architects in the architectural firms of Horace Trumbauer and Zantzinger, Borie and Medary – Howell Lewis Shay for the building’s plan and massing, and chief designer Julian Abele for the detail work and perspective drawings.

Virgin and Child in a Landscape (Oil on panel, 1500)

Still Life with a Tortoise (Oil on canvas, possibly by Thomas Black, 1743)

Abele, the first African-American student to graduate (in 1902) from the University of Pennsylvania‘s Department of Architecture (now known as Penn’s School of Design) adapted Classical Greek temple columns for the design of the museum entrances, and was responsible for the colors of both the building stone and the figures added to one of the pediments.

Western Civilization (1933, Paul Jennewein, colored by Leon V. Solon)

In 1919, construction of the main building began when Mayor Thomas B. Smith laid the cornerstone in a Masonic ceremony. The building was constructed with dolomite quarried in Minnesota. Because of shortages caused by World War I and other delays, the new building was not completed until 1928.

Interior. At the top of the stairs is a statue of Diana (Gilded copper sheets, Augustus Saint Gaudens, 1892-93)

To help assure the continued funding for the completion of the design, the wings were intentionally built first and, once the building’s exterior was completed, 20 second-floor galleries containing English and American art opened to the public on March 26, 1928, though a large amount of interior work was incomplete. The building is also adorned by a collection of bronze griffins, which were adopted as the symbol of the museum in the 1970s.

Apollo (Terra cotta model cast in bronze after 1715, Francois Girardon)

Statue of Summer as Ceres (Jacques-Augustin Pajou)

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this museum:

In 2016, 775,043 people visited the museum, ranking it among the top one hundred most-visited art museums in the world.
Based on gallery space, the museum is also one of the largest art museums in the world.
It is the third-largest art museum in the country.
The building’s eight pediments were intended to be adorned with sculpture groups but one, “Western Civilization” (1933) by Paul Jennewein, and colored by Leon V. Solon, has been completed. This sculpture group, awarded the Medal of Honor of the Architectural League of New York, features polychrome sculptures of painted terra-cotta figures, depicting Greek deities and mythological figures.
Due to a partnership, enacted early in the museum’s history, between the museum and the University of Pennsylvania, the museum does not have any galleries devoted to Egyptian, Roman, or Pre-Columbian art. The university loaned the museum its collection of Chinese porcelain, and the museum loaned a majority of its Roman, Pre-Columbian, and Egyptian pieces to the university. However, the museum still retains a few important pieces for special exhibitions.
In recent decades, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has become known due to the role it played in the Rocky films—Rocky (1976) and five of its six sequels, II, III, V, Rocky Balboa and Creed. Rocky Balboa‘s (portrayed by Sylvester Stallone) famous run up the 72 steps of the east entrance stairs (informally nicknamed the Rocky Steps) is often mimicked by visitors to the museum. The museum’s stairs has been named by Screen Junkies as the second most famous movie location behind only Grand Central Station in New York.
For the filming of Rocky III, a 2.6 m. (8.5 ft.) tall bronze statue of the Rocky Balboa character, created in 1980, was placed at the top of the museum’s front stairs in 1982 (and again for the film Rocky V). After filming was complete, Stallone donated the statue to the city of Philadelphia. In 2006, the statue was relocated, from the now-defunct Spectrum sports arena, to a new display area on the north side of the base of the stairs.

Jandy and the author in front of the bronze statue of the Rock Balboa character

Here’s a historical timeline of the museum’s collections:

Its permanent collection began with objects from the 1876 Centennial Exposition (America’s first World’s Fair) and gifts from the public impressed with the exhibition’s ideals of good design and craftsmanship.
After the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art was opened on May 10, 1877, European and Japanese fine and decorative art objects and books for the museum’s library were among the first donations.
Starting in 1882, Clara Jessup Moore donated a remarkable collection of antique furniture, enamels, carved ivory, jewelry, metalwork, glass, ceramics, books, textiles and paintings.
In 1893 Anna H. Wilstach bequeathed a large painting collection, including many American paintings, and an endowment of US$500 million for additional purchases.
Within a few years, works by James Abbott McNeill Whistler and George Inness were purchased
In 1894, the Countess de Brazza’s lace collection was acquired, forming the nucleus of the lace collection.
In 1899,Henry Ossawa Tanner‘s The Annunciation was bought.
In 1942, E. Gallatin accepted an offer from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to provide a home for his collection. Within a few months 175 works from his collection were moved to Philadelphia.
In 1945, the estate of George Grey Barnard sold his second collection to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
On December 27, 1950, after protracted discussions and many visits from Director Fiske Kimball and his wife Marie, Louise and Walter Arensberg presented their collection of over 1000 objects to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Shortly after her 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco, Philadelphian Grace Kelly donated her wedding dress to the museum.
Extensive renovation of the building lasted from the 1960s through 1976. Major acquisitions included the Carroll S. Tyson, Jr. and Samuel S. White III and Vera White collections, 71 objects from designer Elsa Schiaparelli, and Marcel Duchamp‘s Étant donnés.
In 1980, the museum acquired After the Bath by Edgar Degas.
In 1986, the art collection of John D. McIlhenny was bequeathed to museum. It includes masterpieces such as Ingres’s ”Comtesse de Tournon,” Delacroix’s 1844 version of ”The Death of Sardanapalus,” Degas’s ”Interior” of 1888-89,” Mary Cassatt at the Louvre” and ”Woman Drying Herself,” Cezanne’s portrait of his wife, van Gogh’s ”Rain,” Seurat’s ”Trombone Player: Study for ‘La Parade,” Toulouse-Lautrec’s ”At the Moulin Rouge” and Matisse’s ”Still Life on Table – The Pineapple” (1925)
In 1989, the museum acquired Fifty Days at Iliam by Cy Twombly.

Death of Sardanapalus (Oil on canvas, Eugene Delacroix, 1844)

Making a Train (Oil on canvas, Seymour Joseph Guy, 1867)

The Asian collection is highlighted by paintings and sculpture from China, Japan and India; furniture and decorative arts (including major collections of Chinese, Japanese and Korean ceramics); a large and distinguished group of Persian and Turkish carpets; and rare and authentic architectural assemblages such as a Chinese palace hall, a Japanese teahouse, and a 16th-century Indian temple hall.

The Bride of Lammermoor (Oil on panel, Sir Edwin Landseer, 1830)

Basket of Fruit (Oil on canvas, Edouard Manet, 1864)

Dating from the medieval era to the present, the European collection encompasses Italian and Flemish early-Renaissance masterworks; strong representations of later European paintings (including French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism); sculpture (with a special concentration in the works of Auguste Rodin); decorative arts; tapestries; furniture; and period rooms and architectural settings ranging from the facade of a medieval church in Burgundy to a superbly decorated English drawing room by Robert Adam.

Arms and Armor. At center is the Portrait of a Nobleman with Duelling Gauntlet (1562)

The comprehensive arms and armor collection, the second-largest collection in the United States, was acquired from celebrated collector Carl Otto Kretzschmar von Kienbusch in 1976, the Bicentennial Anniversary of the American Revolution. Spanning several centuries, it includes European and Southwest Asian arms and armor.

Check out “Von Kienbusch Galleries of Arms and Armor“

The Angel of Purity – Maria Mitchell Memorial (Marble, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1902)

Diana (marble, 1826, Joseph Gott)

The American collection, among the finest in the United States, surveys more than three centuries of painting, sculpture, and decorative arts, with outstanding strengths in 18th- and 19th-century Philadelphia furniture and silver, Pennsylvania German art, rural Pennsylvania furniture and ceramics, and the paintings of Thomas Eakins (the museum houses the most important Eakins collection in the world).

Sketches of Thomas Eakins

Portrait of Hayes Agnew – Agnew Clinic (Oil on canvas, Thomas Eakins, 1889)

Modern artwork includes works by American Modernists as well as those of Pablo Picasso, Jean Metzinger, Antonio Rotta, Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dalí and Constantin Brâncuși. The expanding collection of contemporary art includes major works by Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, and Sol LeWitt, among many others.

The Seesaw (Oil on canvas, Francisco Goya, 1791-92)

Venus and Adonis (Oil on canvas, Charles-Joseph Natoire, 1740)

The museum also houses an encyclopedic holding of costume and textiles, as well as prints, drawings, and photographs. For reasons of preservation, they are displayed in rotation.

Equestrian statue of George Washington on Eakins Oval

In the square in front of the museum is an equestrian statue of George Washington erected by the German sculptor Rudolf Siemering.

The Lion Fighter (1858, Carl Conrad Albert Wolff)

The grandiose flight of steps behind him are flanked on the left The Lion Fighter, by Carl Conrad Albert Wolff, and on the right is The Amazon Attacked by a Panther by August Kiss, both casts from the Rauch School.

Mounted Amazon Attacked by a Panther (August Kiss, 1839, cast 1929)

The one-acre, terraced Anne d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden, dedicated to the museum’s late director Anne d’Harnoncourt (1943–2008) and designed by OLIN landscape architects working with Atkin Olshin Schade Architects, extends the Museum’s vast galleries to the outdoors while strengthening its connections to the city of Philadelphia and Fairmount Park.

Social Consciousness (Jacob Epstein)

The garden is divided into five sections: the Upper Terrace, the Lower Terrace, two graveled galleries and a paved plaza. Works here include the iconic Giant Three-Way Plug (Cube Tap) of Claes Oldenburg which was presented to the museum by Geraldine and David N. Pincus; Flukes, the large-scale sculpture of a whale’s tail by Gordon Gund; Steps (Philadelphia) and Pyramid (Philadelphia), two concrete block sculptures by Sol LeWitt; a granite bench and table as well as a marble chair by Scott Burton; Steel Woman II by Thomas Schütte; and Curve I, a remarkable work, from 1973, made of weathering steel by Ellsworth Kelly.

Giant 3-Way Plug – Cube Tap (Claes Oldenburg)

Philadelphia Museum of Art: 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19130, USA. Tel: (215) 763-8100 Website: www.philamuseum.org. Open Tuesdays- Sundays, 10 AM – 5 PM. Admission: US$20/adult, children below 12 years old is free.

Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration (New Jersey, U.S.A)

Posted on 26 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration

Aside from the Statue of Liberty National Monument on Liberty Island, the Statue Cruises round trip ferry transportation tickets we bought at Battery Park also included Ellis Island National Immigration Museum on Ellis Island in Upper New York Bay.

Ellis Island

After our tour of Liberty Island and its iconic Statue of Liberty, we all returned to the pier and queued up to board another Statue Cruise ferry for the short 10-min. (2.1 mile) trip to nearby, much smaller Ellis Island. Since 1808, the island has been owned and administered by the federal government of the United States and, since 1965, operated by the National Park Service.

Check out “Statue of Liberty National Monument“

Then and now. Crowds such as these were a common sight

Here are some interesting trivia regarding the island:

From 1892 to 1954, Ellis Island was the United State’s largest and most active immigration station.
The original Ellis Island was the site of Fort Gibson (initially called Crown Fort, it was renamed after Col. James Gibson of the 4th Regiment of Riflemen, killed in the Siege of Fort Erieduring the War of 1812) and, later, a naval magazine.
The gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the U.S. processed by the S. Bureau of Immigration, it was the United States’ busiest immigrant inspection station for over 60 years (1892 – 1954).
Opened January 1, 1892, the island was, between 1892 and 1934, greatly expanded with land reclamation with the help of excess earth from the construction of New York City’s subway (and other projects). Today, the island has a land area of 11.1 hectares (27.5 acres), most of which is part of New Jersey. It was long considered part of New York, but a 1998 United States Supreme Court decision found that most of the island is in New Jersey. A contiguous area of 1.3 hectares (3.3 acres) is part of New York.
During and immediately following World War II, was designated as a permanent holding facility and was used to hold German merchant mariners and “enemy aliens” (Axis nationals detained for fear of spying, sabotage, and other fifth column activity). In December 1941, Ellis Island held 279 Japanese, 248 Germans, and 81 Italians removed from the East Coast. A total of 7,000 Germans, Italians and Japanese would be ultimately detained at Ellis Island. It was also a processing center for returning sick or wounded U.S. soldiers, and a Coast Guard training base.
Its U.S. Marine Hospital Number 43, more widely known as the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, was the nation’s largest marine hospital. This extensive medical service at the immigrant station was operated here, from early 1902 to 1930, by United States Public Health Service to support the activities of the United States Bureau of Immigration.
Over 100 million Americans, about one-third to 40% of the population of the United States, are descendants of those immigrants who arrived in America at Ellis Island before dispersing to points all over the country.
Many reasons these immigrants came to the United States included escaping political and economic oppression, as well as persecution, destitution, and violence.
Ellis Island has been a source of inspiration or used as a subject in popular culture. Its imagery or representation has been employed in literature (including novels, short stories and poetry), in song, musical composition, dance, theatre, including vaudeville, burlesque, musical comedy, revue, legitimate theatre, motion pictures (silent and sound), newsreels, and in radio and television.
- The station was featured in many early films, including those from the silent era. They include Traffic in Souls (1913), How The Jews Care for Their Poor (educational film, 1914), The Yellow Passport (1916), My Boy (1921), Frank Capra‘s The Strong Man (1926), We Americans (1928), The Mating Call (1928), This is Heaven (1929), Paddy O’Day (1935), Ellis Island (1936), Gateway (1938), Exile Express (1939), I, Jane Doe (1948), Gambling House (1951) and in popular films such as Cafe Metropole (1937) and With a Song in My Heart (1952). In The Godfather Part II (1974), Vito Corleone immigrates via Ellis Island as a boy. The opening scene of the sc-fi film The Brother From Another Planet (1984) is also set there. The island is also visited by the characters in Hitch, a 2005 romantic comedy, and is the setting for the climactic battle in X-Men (2000).
- Films that focused on the immigrant experience include the 1984 TV miniseries Ellis Island. The IMAX 3D movie Across the Sea of Time(1995) incorporates both modern footage and historical photographs of Ellis Island. The Golden Door, a 2006 Italian movie directed by Emanuele Crialese, takes place largely on Ellis Island. Forgotten Ellis Island, a film and book, focuses on the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital. The Immigrant is a 2013 American drama film directed by James Gray, starring Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jeremy Renner. Ellis, a short film, premiered in November 2015.
- Over the decades, Ellis Island was also widely referenced or remarked on in books. These include Mrs ‘Arris Goes to New York (1960) by Paul Gallico
- The song “The New Ground – Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears,” on the 2010 album Songs from the Heart by the group Celtic Woman, is about Annie Moore and Ellis Island.
- Ellis Island: The Dream of Americais a work for actors and orchestra with projected images by Peter Boyer, composed in 2001-02.
- The USPS issued a 32¢ stamp on February 3, 1998 as part of the Celebrate the Century stamp sheet series.
- Ellis Island as a port of entry is described in detail in Mottel the Cantor’s Son by Sholom Aleichem.

The Grand Hall

The first station, a three-story-tall wooden structure built of Georgia Pine, opened with fanfare on January 1, 1892 but, on June 15, 1897, a fire of unknown origin, possibly caused by faulty wiring, reduced it to ashes. No one was killed but most of the immigration records, dating back to 1855, of about 1.5 million immigrants that had been processed at the first building during its five years of use were destroyed.

The station’s new Main Building, one of the most symbolically important structures in American history, now houses the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration. It was designed by Architects Edward Lippincott Tilton and William Alciphron Boring (who both received a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition for the building’s design) and the building was built at a cost of US$1.5 million.

Opened on December 17, 1900, the immigration station closed on November 12, 1954 and the buildings fell into disrepair and were abandoned. Attempts at redeveloping the site were unsuccessful until, on October 15, 1965, Ellis Island was proclaimed a part of Statue of Liberty National Monument and, exactly one year later, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The design for the significant restoration and adaptive use of the Beaux-Arts Main Building to its 1918 – 1924 appearance was undertaken by the Boston-based architectural firm Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc, together with the New York architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle. Built with a construction budget of US$150 million (raised by a campaign organized by the political fundraiser Wyatt A. Stewart), the building reopened on September 10, 1990.

Statue of Annie Moore, a 15 year old, rosy-cheeked Irish girl who was one of the 148 steerage passengers landed from the Guion steamship Nevada. She is now distinguished by being the first registered in the book of the new landing bureau

On May 20, 2015, coinciding with the opening of the new Peopling of America galleries, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum was officially renamed the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration.

Face of an immigrant

This French Renaissance Revival-style museum, built of red brick with limestone trim, tells the moving tales of the immigrants who entered America through the golden door of Ellis Island.

The Baggage Room

The newly completed Peopling of America Center was architectural designed by Highland Associates, with construction executed by Phelps Construction Group.

As part of the National Park Service’s Centennial Initiative, the entire south side of the island, called by some the “sad side” of the island, is closed to the general public.

Some of the 28 unrestored buildings

It is the object of restoration efforts spearheaded by Save Ellis Island to restore the 28 buildings (including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital) that have not yet been rehabilitated. The New Ferry Building, built in the Art Deco style to replace an earlier one, was renovated in 2008 but remains only partially accessible to the general public.

Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital

In 2008, the museum’s library was officially named the Bob Hope Memorial Library in honor of the late comedian Bob Hope, one the station’s most famous immigrants. The Ellis Island Medal of Honor is awarded annually at ceremonies on the island.

The author and son Jandy at the Grand Hall

The museum’s self-guided exhibits tell the entire story of American immigration, including before and after the Ellis Island era, and chronicles Ellis Island’s role in immigration history. It includes artifacts, photographs, prints, videos, interactive displays, oral histories and temporary exhibits:

The World Migration Globe features a radiant sphere which illustrates migration patterns around the world throughout human history.
Journeys: The Peopling of America – 1550s – 1890, located in the historic Railroad Ticket Office, is an exhibit, designed by ESI Design and fabricated by Hadley Exhibits, Inc., dedicated to exploring the earliest arrivals pre-dating the Ellis Island Era (1550-1890). It bookends the Ellis Island era by chronicling immigration to America before the processing station opened in 1892 and after it closed in 1954, right up to the present. Here, visitors can move through the various galleries displaying each stage of the immigrant journey.
The Journey: New Eras of Immigration Exhibit, focusing on immigration from 1954 to present times, uses dynamic media and interactive elements to display the post-war immigration movement and changing demographic trends over the decades.
The American Family Immigration History Center is an exciting interactive area where you can access the passenger records of the ships that landed almost 65 million immigrants, crew members and other travelers at the Port of New York and Ellis Island from 1820 to 1957.
The American Immigrant Wall of Honor, outside of the main building, is the only place in the United States where an individual can honor his or her family heritage at a National Monument. This permanent exhibit of individual or family names celebrating the immigrant experience contains a partial list of immigrants processed on the island. Inclusion on the list is made possible by a donation to support the facility.. It overlooks the Statue of Liberty behind a beautiful view of the New York skyline.
The American Flag of Faces, at the museum’s main entrance hall, is an interactive, animated display populated with images uploaded by individuals and families, which creates a montage of the American flag.

A lady park ranger delivering a 5-min. talk before showing of “Island of Hope, Island of Tears” at Theater 2

There are also three theaters used for film and live performances. At Theater 2 (with a maximum limit of 140 people per showing), we watched the 30-min., award-winning film documentary “Island of Hope, Island of Tears,” directed by Charles Guggenheim, which reveals how and why millions of immigrants journeyed across the world to Ellis Island, hoping for a better life for themselves and their descendants.

L-R: Grace, Kyle and Cheska

Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration: Ellis Island, New York City 10004, New York, U.S.A. Tel: +1 646 356 2150. Open daily (except December 25), 8:30 AM – 7 PM.

Old Philadelphia City Hall (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

Posted on 26 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

The two-storey Old Philadelphia City Hall, located within the Independence Hall complex of Independence National Historical Park, next to Independence Hall, in Center City, was built with red bricks in the Georgian and Federal style from 1790 to 1791 by master carpenter David Evans, Jr.

Old Philadelphia City Hall

During the 1790s, Philadelphia was the nation’s temporary capital and, although originally intended as Philadelphia’s City Hall (its second), the building was lent to the federal judiciary, serving as the home of the U.S. Supreme Court from the completion of its construction, from August 1791 until February 1800, when the national capital was moved to Washington, D.C. The City Council met on the second floor while court convened below.

Here, the U.S. Supreme Court made its first decisions. Three chief justices, John Rutledge (Rutledge Court), John Jay (Jay Court), and Oliver Ellsworth (Ellsworth Court), officiated the Supreme Court from this location. The portraits of the latter two (Rutledge did not attend any session in Philadelphia), as well as those of associate justices William Cushing, Bushrod Washington (nephew of George Washington) and Samuel Chase, can be seen in the Second Bank portrait gallery.

The ground floor area where the Supreme Court met

Also in the Second Bank is a very large painting of Philadelphia’s first City Hall (the one that used to stand on 2nd Street). Naturalization ceremonies for new citizens also took place in this courtroom and the building was the volunteer headquarters in the battle against the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793.

Afterward, the building continued to serve as Philadelphia’s City Hall until 1901 when the new city hall at Penn Square was completed. A contributing property to Independence National Historical Park, the building is owned by the City of Philadelphia which leases it to the National Park Service. The building was added to National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

Old Philadelphia City Hall: 501 Chestnut Street at 5th Street, Philadelphia 19106, Pennsylvania. Open daily, 9 AM – 5 PM. Admission is free but entrance is on a first-come, first-served basis. Capacity is nine visitors at a time. Coordinates: 39°56′52″N 75°8′53″W.

Arch Street Friends Meeting House (Philadelphia, U.S.A.)

Posted on 26 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

The Arch Street Friends Meeting House, within the Old City neighborhood, is a Meeting House of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Built in the Georgian architectural style to reflect the Friends’ testimonies of simplicity and equality, this building has, after more than two centuries of continuous use, changed little. Its grounds was the first burial ground for Quakers in Philadelphia.

Arch Street Friends Meeting House

The oldest Friends Meeting House still in use in Philadelphia, it is also the largest in the world. Originally designed by the Quaker carpenter Owen Biddle Jr. (best known as the author of a builder’s handbook, The Young Carpenter’s Assistant, published in 1805), architects Walter Ferris Price and Morris & Erskine also contributed to the design and construction of the building.

The two-storey meeting house has two separate entrances at the front of the building, a large first floor meeting space with benches, and an interior second-storey gallery. Since worship involves silent contemplation without clergy or ritual, there is no need for an altar, pulpit, steeples, stained glass windows and other religious symbols.

Here is the historical timeline of the building:

In 1701, Pennsylvania founder and Quaker William Penn deeded land to the Society of Friends to be used as a burial ground.
Between 1803 and 1805, the east wing and center of the meeting house was built according to a design by the Quaker carpenter Owen Biddle Jr.
From 1810–11, the building was enlarged with the addition of the west wing.
In 1896, an external restroom facility with toilets was added behind the West Room.
In 1902 and 1908, a kitchen was constructed
From 1968–69, the 1896, 1902, 1908 additions were removed and the well-known architecture firm Cope & Lippincott renovated the interior of the east wing and designed the two-storey addition (with a smaller room for meetings and worship and second floor conference rooms) behind the center building.
In 1971, the meeting house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2011, as a consequence of the building being the only surviving documented work by Owen Biddle, it was declared as a National Historic Landmark and the Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust was formed.

Today, the Meeting House continues to be a center for worship and the activities of the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia, conducted since the 19th century, and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends living in Philadelphia, the southern half of New Jersey, Delaware and parts of Maryland is held here every spring.

Notable members of the Religious Society of Friends who worshiped at this meeting house include Sarah and Angelina Grimke, both abolitionists and woman rights advocates. Noted painter Edward Hicks, the cousin of Elias Hicks, also attended meetings here.

The Meeting House has an entrance hall and three distinct sections. The West Wing, added in 1811 to accommodate the women’s Monthly Meeting, is now the room used for worship. Here, two staircases lead to the balcony. The middle section serves as the site of Monthly Meetings and special events.

The East Wing houses dioramas depicting the main events in the life of illustrious Quaker William Penn – Penn the Peacemaker laying down his sword (1668); Penn the Defender of Liberties in prison (1670); Penn the Builder of Democracy writing his “Frame of Government” (1682); Penn the Friend of the Indians completing a treaty with a tribe (1682); Penn the City Planner with his surveyor Thomas Holme, studying Holme’s map (1683); and Penn the Founder of Schools (1699). Also on display is a dollhouse representing the home of noted Quaker journal-keeper Elizabeth Drinker and her husband Henry. Special shows are also held in the East Wing.

Since as early as 1683 (when Mary Lloyd was buried here), burials had been taking place at the ground upon which the meetinghouse was built. Around 20,000 are buried here including many victims of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. In 1880, burials here were officially ended. Samuel Carpenter (1649–1714), a Deputy Governor under William Penn and the “First Treasurer” of Pennsylvania, and most of his family and his brother Abraham Carpenter (a non-member who married a Quaker) were buried here. At dawn of November 10, Marines mark the grave of Samuel Nicholas (1744–1790), the founder and first commandant of the United States Marine Corps (curious considering the pacific stance of Friends), with a wreath.

Other notable interments here include:

Owen Biddle Jr.
Charles Brockden Brown (1771–1810) – the first American novelist (Wieland)
Lydia Darrah (1728–1789) – Revolutionary War spy
James Logan (1674–1751) – secretary to William Penn who, along with Penn and Benjamin Franklin, is one of the three most important men in Philadelphia’s Colonial period. He lies here in an unmarked grave.
Robert Waln (1765–1836) – U.S. Congressman
Thomas Wynne (1627–1691) – one of the original settlers of Philadelphia, this Wales-born personal physician of William Penn accompanied Penn on his original journey to America on the ship Welcome.
Caspar Wistar (1761–1818) – American physician, professor of anatomy and vice president of the American Philosophical Society who mentored Meriwether Lewis before Lewis joined William Clark on the expedition to cross the western part of the continent.
Thomas Stretch (1697-1765) – American clockmaker

Arch Street Friends Meeting House: 320 Arch Street cor. 4th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Our Open Tuesdays – Saturdays, 9 AM – 5 PM (Grounds), Fridays – Saturdays, 10 AM – 4 PM (Building). Admission: US$5 (general) and US$2 (children, seniors, veterans and students). Website: www.historicasmh.org. Coordinates: 39°57′7.2″N 75°8′50.17″W.

This travel blog, a diary of the author’s local and international travels, aims to provide the reader with news and information on people, places and events that would interest the avid traveler and tourist. But, it also aims to be much more, providing insights on the wonders of this beautiful country, as well as the world, beyond the strict confines of the city. Have a BLAST seeing old churches, exotic temples, educational museums as well as palm-fringed islands; white sand beaches; thundering waterfalls; placid lakes; fiery sunsets; turquoise seas; cathedral-like caves; swirling rivers; majestic mountains; stupendous, amphitheater-like rice terraces; awesome volcanoes and the like. Get to know the movers and shakers in the tourism industry; find out where to titillate the palate; rejuvenate your body; feed your adrenalin, unwind and relax; satisfy your craving for history and culture; and find out what's being celebrated and where.

BENJAMIN “BENJIE” LAYUG, an architect by profession (he finished his B. S. Architecture degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1982), is also a copy editor for two publishing houses; travel writer; blogger; architectural historian; author; concert. movie and musical reviewer (for www.pep.ph); and a motivational speaker.

As a free-lance travel writer, he has, in the past, contributed articles to Travel Update, Philippine Daily Inquirer, COLORS, TODAY, 7107 Islands Magazine, Business Day and Bluprint. He currently writes for Artplus Magazine and the Business Mirror.

He is also the author of the following travel books:

A Philippine Odyssey (New Day Publishers, 2005)
Pathfinder’s Travel Guide: Boracay (Great Books Trading, 2006)
A Tourist Guide to Notable Philippine Churches (New Day Publishers, 2007)
A Tourist to Notable Philippine Historical Landmarks, Monuments and Shrines (New Day Publishers, 2010)
A Tourist Guide to Notable Philippine Museums (New Day Publishers, 2012)

Some of his books now appear in the local library shelves of the National Library of the Philippines, De La Salle University, Ateneo de Manila University, University of Sto. Tomas, U.P. Diliman, Centro Escolar University, San Sebastian College, Miriam College, Silliman University, to name a few, as well as internationally at the National Library of Australia and the University of California Berkeley Library.

Now a senior citizen, he is probably one of the oldest, if not the oldest, active travel blogger in the country today. He also has a lifestyle blog called F.Y.I.:Firing Your Imagination (www.firingyourimagination.blogspot.com). Benjie has traveled to two-thirds (53) of the country’s 81 provinces and over 20 countries in 4 continents.

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