On March 17, 2009, the Barra Foundation approved the application of University of Pennsylvania Press for a Planning Grant for the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project. This grant will allow us to launch the project with a Civic Partnership and Planning Workshop at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania on April 16-17, 2009. The workshop will create a collaborative foundation for the Encyclopedia and seek to identify points of cooperation with other projects and civic organizations. The workshop also will identify information needs and seek advice from the participants about the future form and content of the Encyclopedia. This workshop adds to the Barra Foundation’s arts and culture initiatives, such as the documentary television series with the working title America’s First Great City: Philadelphia (History Making Productions), which will be represented at the event. Additional support for the workshop comes from Southwest Airlines and the Union League of Philadelphia. For further details, see the “Civic Partnership and Planning Workshop” link on this page.
Blog Author: cmires, page 2
Prospectus Update
Our Draft Prospectus has been updated to include the steps taken to launch The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project from January through March 2009. We look forward to applying the advice of the Civic Partnership and Planning Workshop when we create the next evolution of this guiding document for the project.
Read about Bob Skiba in the Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday published a front-page feature story about Bob Skiba, who helped to form our partnership with the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides. Bob is currently president of the Tour Guides and heads the archives at the William Way Community Center in Philadelphia. Read all about it. Congratulations also to the Tour Guides on completion of their recent certification training and examination — as a result, twenty-nine newly certified guides are prepared for the tourist season of 2011.
Register now for the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable
Registration is now open for the final three programs in the “Phrasing Philadelphia” series of the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable. Please join us for these discussions and contribute your suggestions for the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia:
- “City of Firsts” – Thursday, January 19, 6:30-8 p.m., at the Franklin Institute.
- “Philadelphia, the Place That Loves You Back” – Wednesday, February 22, 6:30-8 p.m., at the Independence Visitor Center.
- “City of Neighborhoods, City of Homes” – Wednesday, March 28, 6:30-8 p.m., at the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent.
For information on all programs and to register in advance, please visit https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/events.
We look forward to your participation in this unprecedented exploration of Philadelphia’s history and experience.
Spotlight on Children’s Television
This week our Children’s Television essay is featured by Rutgers Media Relations in a news release by Ed Moorehouse. The article calls attention to the Rutgers-Camden connections of the two authors, Vibiana Bowman Cvetkovic of the Robeson Library and the Ph.D. program in Childhood Studies, and Brandi Scardilli, who earned her M.A. from the Rutgers-Camden Department of History. In the interview, the essay authors also comment on children’s television programming today. Update: Listen to Vibiana Bowman Cvetkovic discuss her research on WHYY-FM, broadcast May 9, 2012.
Summer 2022 Call for Authors
During Summer 2022, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia seeks authors to write essays to finish important subject categories linking the Philadelphia region with the nation and the world. For the list of available topics and further information, link here.
Publication in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia is an opportunity to share expertise with a wide general audience. Our scope of coverage encompasses Philadelphia and the nearby region, including southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and northern Delaware. Prospective authors should have publications or other demonstrated expertise in their subjects, and all submissions will be peer-reviewed. Accepted essays will be published online and considered for inclusion in prospective print volumes, and modest compensation is available.
Author guidelines: link here.
Tacony Adds Tips for Topics
Our latest information session took place on Saturday, February 27, at the branch library in Tacony, “the community that bridges yesterday with tomorrow.” Among the library’s treasures are the minute books of the Keystone Scientific and Literary Association, founded in Tacony in 1876. To stir up interest, the association organized a debate on the topic, “Are athletic sports, as at present conducted, beneficial to the students?” The next debate tackled the question, “Does the reading of novels have a beneficial effect upon the community?” We can only hope some debate occurred on January 23, 1877, when a Rev. Mr. Kidder lectured on the topic, “Dry as dust — the Historian” ! Thanks to our hosts at Tacony and to everyone who suggested topics for the Encyclopedia. These are now posted on-line, and we look forward to receiving more in the suggestion box that will remain at the library for the month of March.
Thank you for supporting our “Backgrounder” proposal in the Knight News Challenge
When we asked our friends and partners to support us in the Knight News Challenge, you responded – thank you! Our online “likes” doubled in just two days, and we concluded the competition period with 194 “likes” and 92 comments on our proposal. While the competition urged us to focus on the quantity of participation, we are especially pleased by the quality of the online discussion, which demonstrated support while also posing good questions and offering additional ideas. The winners of this funding from the Knight Foundation will be announced in June.
Thank You for Supporting us in the News Challenge
We were so grateful and impressed by your expressions of support for our application in the Knight News Challenge. We have learned that our proposal will not be advancing to the next round of the competition — in all, more than 1,100 applications were submitted and all but 51 were eliminated in the first round of screening. Although we are disappointed, we are glad for the positive developments that emerged from our collective effort. We have attracted new, enthusiastic potential partners for the future, and we have more than 200 followers for the @Backgrounders Twitter feed that we started for connecting history with the news. We will continue to use this to serve the public and add value to the Encyclopedia project. To follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Backgrounders. To see the projects advancing to further consideration in the Knight News Challenge, and comments about the selection process, follow this link: http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/20962258701/knight-news-challenge-on-networks-moving-to-the-next.
The Scribe of Camden
Howard Gillette — whose dedication to the Encyclopedia project shaped our vision of a regional information gateway, based in civic engagement — is featured prominently in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer. The column by Kevin Riordan focuses on Gillette’s research on the postindustrial history of the City of Camden in addition to his work to promote inclusive public history projects such as the President’s House site in Philadelphia. Read the article.
We’re Augmenting Reality
What if you could stand in the present and see the past? It might look something like this. Over the last several months, the Encyclopedia team has been involved in an exciting project with the City of Philadelphia Department of Records and Azavea Inc. to develop an augmented reality app for the lastest generation of smartphones. Read all about it on Azavea’s blog, and get your phones ready for the app in the near future!
We’re in the Knight News Challenge – you can help!
We are working on an exciting new project – “Backgrounder,” which will provide journalists with links to historical background information, delivered via Twitter. Working with WHYY, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Temple University Libraries Special Collections Center, we propose to build up news-related content in the Encyclopedia, then provide it to reporters when they need it. We also propose to provide new content related to breaking news, and that will become part of the Encyclopedia as well.
You can help us shape this project and earn funding for it by adding your feedback to the project proposal, which we have just posted in the Knight News Challenge:
http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/18812768763/backgrounder-blasts-from-the-past-for-busy-reporters
You may also follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/Backgrounders
Thank you for your participation in the Encyclopedia project!
We’re In The News
An array of organizations and individuals met April 16-17 at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to begin the work of imagining and planning The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project. Our first Civic Partnership and Planning Workshop made the news in the Inquirer and on WHYY. Thanks to the many people who devoted time, energy, and inquisitive minds to make this event a success.
We’re Inspired, Too
Drawing inspiration from The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, a new encyclopedia effort is underway in Cheshire, Connecticut. We’re pleased that the town historian, Jeanné Chesanow, shares our commitment to building a strong community for history and connections between the past and the present. Read about her project in a Cheshire Patch report, where you can also add comments to encourage this endeavor.
Welcome to Friends of Laurel Hill Cemetery
We are pleased to add the Friends of Laurel Hill Cemetery to our growing Civic Advisory Board, which helps to assure that the Encyclopedia project serves community needs. Gwen Kaminski, Director of Development and Programs for the Friends of Laurel Hill, has helped us plan our “Green Country Town” roundtable, coming up in May at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. The President and CEO of Laurel Hill and West Laurel Hill Cemeteries, Pete Hoskins, will be a panelist for the program. Welcome to these supportive friends of the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project!
Welcome to Our New Friends in Virginia!
This week we noticed a spike in traffic to our essay on yellow fever, by Simon Finger. We were very happy to discover that this interest came from Hines Middle School in Newport News, Virginia. Students in Ms. Christine Mullins’ sixth-grade social studies class used our essay in combination with other sources to build their critical thinking skills and learn about the yellow fever epidemic and life in the late eighteenth century. Welcome to our new friends! We hope you will find other topics of interest on our web site.
Who Do We Think We Are?
Familiar phrases such as “City of Brotherly Love” and “Workshop of the World” have described Philadelphia’s history as well as its aspirations for the present and future. Slogans such as these are frequently used, but what role do the ideas they represent play in our history and civic life? These are the questions that we open for discussion with “Phrasing Philadelphia,” our new series of Greater Philadelphia Roundtable programs. Registration is now open for the first four programs. Don’t miss this opportunity to help us continue to build public participation in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project. For more information and to register, simply click on the events calendar. Teachers, this year we offer the opportunity to earn Act 48 credits by attending these programs.
William Penn Foundation Grant
We are pleased to announce that The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia will enhance its digital platform with a two-year, $81,040 grant awarded by the William Penn Foundation to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers–Camden, the Encyclopedia’s institutional home. The grant will allow us to add photo galleries of material artifacts; place-mapping; new text about Philadelphia’s history; links between history and the news; and more. We look forward to working with our civic partners as well as the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University in developing these new features.
The William Penn Foundation, founded in 1945 by Otto and Phoebe Haas, works to close the achievement gap for low-income children, ensure a sustainable environment, foster creativity that enhances civic life, and advance philanthropy in the Philadelphia region. With assets of nearly $2 billion, the Foundation distributes approximately $80 million in grants annually. Learn more about the Foundation at www.williampennfoundation.org.
Your chance to see new exhibits at the Philadelphia History Museum!
Our next program in the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable series, “City of Neighborhoods, City of Homes,” will take place at the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent – a great chance to see the new exhibits there prior to the program. Make sure to register in advance for the program at https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/events. Here’s a preview of the museum’s new offerings:
The Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent recently reopened, in part, as a preview to the museum’s full reopening this summer. A three-year renovation has upgraded the pre-Civil War structure (the original home of the Franklin Institute) adding new galleries and two currently opened exhibitions with more to come this summer.
Start in the orientation gallery where City Stories: An Introduction to Philadelphia welcomes visitors in a multi-layered exhibition featuring almost 30 artifacts that help illustrate Philadelphia’s transition from the “greene country towne” founded by William Penn to the place where the Declaration of Independence was signed to the Workshop of the World and the World Champion Phillies. City Stories features an original media presentation with contemporary Philadelphians sharing their feelings on the city of neighborhoods.
Philadelphia Voices: The Community History Gallery serves as a preview space for the five additional galleries to be unveiled this summer. Celebrated artifacts displayed here, including Joe Frazier’s boxing gloves, George Washington’s pocket watch, and a Passmore Williamson family portrait, provide a further glimpse into the Museum’s extensive collection.
The Philadelphia History Museum: 15 South 7th Street
http://www.philadelphiahistory.org
Free and open to the public Wednesday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.