Octavius V. Catto Banner,1903, AKMP Collection The spectacular Catto Banner, 1903, from the Catto Lodge for African American Elks is also on exhibit. In the 19th century, racial and ethnic segregation led communities to form their own benevolent associations, providing people with opportunities for socializing and mutual aid. The African American Elks Lodge in Philadelphia carries the name of Octavius Valentine Catto, a dynamic 19th century community activist, athlete, educator and leader in the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League and in its fight to desegregate streetcars. Rioters trying to keep blacks from the polls murdered Catto on Election Day, 1871. The Catto banner was purchased and conserved by AKMP to add to its collection of memorabilia from the city's benevolent associations.

George Washington's Presidential Desk, 1789.Made by cabinet maker Thomas Burling; mahogany, pine, mahogany veneer and maple inlay. "This desk belonged to Geo. Washington and was used by him in Phila. While President of USA," is inscribed on a brass plate inside an upper middle drawer of the first presidential desk. The extraordinary desk is 66 ¼ inches high (including finials), 62 ¾ inches wide, and 35 ¼ inches deep. Made for Washington by New York cabinet maker Thomas Burling in 1789, the year of Washington's inauguration as first president of the United States, the desk is mahogany, pine, mahogany veneer and maple inlay.

Chair, 1685-1715. Maker unknown; walnut and cane. Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia. Donated by E. F. Cayo, 1963. The chair was among the pieces of furniture William Penn brought from England probably to furnish Pennsbury, his country manor house. "Six cane Chaires [and]…2 great cane chairs" are mentioned in the Catalogue of Goods left at Pennsbury" after Penn returned to England in 1701.

The chair's tassel-like feet, caned seat and back, curing ram's head arms, and scrolled crest reflected the fashion of the 17th century. The caning is not original.

Norris dish, c. 1685-86. London silversmith An earthquake lasting two minutes destroyed the town of Port Royal, Jamaica on June 7, 1692 killing 1,500 people and sinking all the homes into 40 fathoms of water. It is hard to imagine that this cataclysm set off a chain of events that brought a baby to freedom in a cradle with this dish. The Norris family of Philadelphia passed the story of the dish and the child with it from one generation to the next.

After the quake sailors found a cradle containing this dish and a baby girl of African descent floating in the water near what had been Port Royal. Because the dish featured the Norris family seal and presumably belonged to Thomas Norris who lost his life in the earthquake, it along with the child was shipped to his son Isaac Norris in Philadelphia. Oral tradition holds that the child's father, an enslaved African, feeling the earth beginning to quake, tried to rescue his master Thomas Norris, but grabbed a ship's captain by mistake. When the child's father went back for Norris, both he and Norris were killed. When and how the cradle and its contents were saved is unclear. The rescued child became a free woman who lived in Philadelphia until her death in 1751.

Waywiser, c. 1785
James and Peter Dollond, makers; wood, glass, and metal.
Donated by A Atwater Kent, Jr. 1953 A waywiser measures the length of blocks. As the large wheel rolls along the surface, the dial registers the distance traveled. The wheel usually measures 8.25 feet in circumference, such that two revolutions equals one pole. The larger hand on the dial makes one sweep per mile (320 poles or 8 furlongs). The shorter hand indicates the number of miles traveled. Originating in England in the late 18th century, waywisers were used in the United States into the late 19th century.

Lamp from Philadelphia restaurant owned by Henry Tinchin Loo, c. 1960s. This lamp is from one of Henry Tinchin Loo's Chinese restaurants in Philadelphia is part of the collection from the former Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies now at the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia. It is in the current exhibition Have Your Eaten Yet? The Chinese Restaurant in America, April 5-September 10, 2006.

Henry Tinchin Loo (c.1883-c.1989), whose Chinese name was Loo Dang One, likely arrived in the United States in the early 1900s, probably through the port of New Orleans. By 1913 he made his way to New York City. In the 1960s Loo began living and working in Philadelphia. Although little is known about his life, Loo's experience of working in and later owning several Chinese restaurants was part of a larger national pattern. When Loo emigrated to the United States, he left his wife, son, brother, and sister in China. Although he had some correspondence with them, Loo appears never to have seen them again.

Loo became involved with the restaurant business during his years in New York City, where in 1942 he owned the Little Paris. Just after World War II, Loo seems to have settled in Wildwood, New Jersey, where he owned or managed The Family Restaurant and the Shangri-La in Beverly, New Jersey. By the mid-1960s he had restaurants in both Baltimore and Philadelphia. Loo rented 264 South 11th Street in Philadelphia for his Orient Restaurant. There is no information about how long he owned this restaurant or whether he had other establishments in Philadelphia. He lived alone much of his life, but his photograph collection showed that he had many friends with whom he socialized and celebrated birthdays and holidays.

George Washington's desk The massive desk is 66 ¼ inches high (including finials), 62 ¾ inches wide, and 35 ¼ inches deep. Made for Washington by New York cabinet maker Thomas Burling in 1789, the year of Washington's inauguration as first president of the United States, the desk is mahogany, pine, mahogany veneer and maple inlay. An object in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) Art and Artifact Collection at AKMP, the desk has recently returned from an eight year exhibition at Mt. Vernon.

Industrial sewing machine and table, c. 1911, Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia Collection. (Photographed on display in the AKMP exhibition, The Real Thing and Why It Matters.)

Machines like this were found in large and small sewing and upholstery shops and factories in Philadelphia throughout the 20th century. Although not as much a part of the Philadelphia economy as it once was, commercial and industrial sewing continues to employ many people, especially immigrant women. The Lion Upholstery Furniture Company owned by the donor's Eastern European immigrant parents Samuel and Edith Whitman used this machine in its shop. The company, located at 1252 North 52nd Street from 1933 until 1970, was known for its high quality upholstery.

Infant's wooden coffin, c. 1835, Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, given to the Society by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority.
The excavation of the First African Baptist Church graveyard uncovered more than 140 burials, including this coffin. During the 1820s and through the 1830s the church and graveyard were located at Eight and Vine Streets near one of several of the city's free black neighborhoods. The Board of Health closed this graveyard in 1841 due to overcrowding.

Analysis of the remains revealed the harsh living and working conditions of the members of this congregation. One third of the children buried here died from anemia-related illnesses such as weanling diarrhea. Many children had symptoms of iron deficiency anemia and sickle cell anemia.

The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority discovered the cemetery of the First African Baptist Church in 1980 during archaeological monitoring of a large subsurface cut for the Philadelphia Commuter Rail Tunnel. Research in the historical record revealed that the Church had used this as a graveyard between about 1823 and 1842. Further excavation and analysis began in 1983 along with plans for the ultimate reinternment of the human remains. The human remains were reentered in the Eden Cemetery in Delaware County.
Today the First African Baptist Church is located at Sixteenth and Christian streets.

Reach Guide, 1909, Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, Helen Beitler Collection In 1865, Colonel Thomas Fitzgerald, manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, hired second baseman Al Reach, who became the first baseball player to openly accept a salary. Later Reach started a sporting goods company. In 1881, he went into partnership with Benjamin F. Shibe in the Reach Athletic Company at 23 South Eight Street.

In 1883, Reach founded the Philadelphia Phillies with Colonel John I. Rogers, a politician and lawyer. The team played at Recreation Park at 24th Street and Columbia Avenue. In its first year the team won 17 games and lost 81. In 1887, Reach built the new Philadelphia Base Ball Park at Huntington and Broad. The stadium cost $101,000 and seated 12,500. In 1894 the stadium burned to the ground. The next year, a new Philadelphia Ball Park (later Baker Bowl, home of the team till 1938) opened, seating 18,800, and considered the first modern ballpark built for baseball.

In 1901, when Connie Mack started the new American League's Philadelphia Athletics, he persuaded Ben Shibe to become lead investor by promising that the Reach Company would be the league's official equipment maker. In 1903, Col Rogers and Al Reach sold the Phillies for $170,000. The Reach Company of Philadelphia continued to thrive—as is seen in this 1909 catalogue.

Al Reach died in Atlantic City in 1928.

Hyacinth Vase, Union Glass Works (Attributed) 1828, Friends Historical Association Collection, Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia. In the first quarter of the 19th century, Dutch flower bulbs became more affordable, and "forcing" them indoors was a popular winter pastime. This vase was made to grow hyacinth bulbs. The bulbs rested on the top lip with roots extending into the water below. The vase was probably made at Philadelphia's Union Glass Works and given as a wedding gift when philadelphian Marmaduke Cope married Sarah Wister of the famous New Jersey glass-making family. It is a notable because of its local provenance and delicately-cut patterns. The label on the base reads "Hyacinth Glass, Marmaduke Cope, B. 1804 D. 1887, Married 1828."

Sampler made by Rebecca Jones, Philadelphia, 1750. Silk on linen, Friends Historical Association Collection, Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia. Rebecca Jones (1739-1818) was a Quaker educator and minister who traveled to Quaker Meetings throughout America, England and Ireland during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A life-long philadelphian, Jones was born to Anglican parents but joined the Society of Friends as a young adult. She was a recognized Quaker minister by 1760 and led one of Philadelphia's Quaker schools.

Jones made this sampler during her childhood, probably under the tutelage of Anne Marsh. This piece is significant for its exceptional artistry as well as its alternating carnation and rosebud band, a design linked with Marsh and her mother, Elizabeth, who taught needlework to a generation of young women in Philadelphia.

During the 18th century daughters of the middle-classes were often educated at ‘Dame Schools,' operated by women in their homes. While learning needlework and basic academic skills, girls completed samplers to demonstrate their proficiency. Samplers often feature personal details about their makers such as names, dates of birth and favorite proverbs, making them of both historical and artistic value.

The Friends Historical Association Collection at the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia includes four other pieces by Jones as well as pieces by one of her students and by her mother, Mary Porter Jones.

United Bowman's Bowl, c. 1830, silver, made by Thomas Fletcher, Philadelphia (1787-1866), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at the Atwater Kent Museum, deposited by the United Bowmen of Philadelphia. The United Bowmen of Philadelphia, founded in 1828 by Titian Ramsey Peale, son of renowned artist Charles Willson Peale, was the first archery club in the United States and was similar to men's clubs for tennis and cricket. Members included famed architect John Haviland, portrait artist Thomas Sully, and Baldwin Locomotive Works founder Matthew W. Baldwin. Before the beginning of the second season Franklin Peale, brother of Titian and a founder, described the equipment the club owned: "an outfit of the best quality, which consisted of a lemonwood bow, and spare strings, a dozen arrows contained in a quiver, a belt, pouch, grease-box, and tassel, a splendid pair of targets, and, finally, Waring's Treatise on Archery."

A few years after the club was founded, it acquired this superb silver punch bowl of Georgian design by Thomas Fletcher of Philadelphia. The bowl represented first prize, and the bowman who won it for the year was obliged to ornament it with a silver decoration, 23 of which are appended to its rim. It is believed to be the oldest sporting challenge bowl in the United States.

Model 10 Radiodyne breadboard radio, Atwater Kent Manufacturing Company, Philadelphia, 1923. 31-inches long, 9-½ inches wide, with the speaker 18-inches high; molded sheet steel, Bakelite, glass vacuum tubes, wood and miscellaneous material. The Open Set is commonly referred to by collectors as a "breadboard." It includes two radio frequency amplifiers, a detector and two audio frequency amplifiers, assembled on a mahogany board. See AKMP History for additional information concerning the Atwater Kent Manufacturing Company.