Stephen Smith, c. 1840-1850. James Stidun (dates are not known) Oil on canvas
Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, given to the Society by Mrs. Henrietta Clemens Mouserone, special representative of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

Stephen Smith was born into slavery in Cecil County, Maryland, sometime around 1797. At the age of 21 he purchased his freedom and soon after moved to Columbia, Pennsylvania. Smith opened a coal and lumberyard and began shipping coal and timber throughout Pennsylvania. His firm, Smith & Whipper, purchased a freighter for moving goods across the Great Lakes to Canada.

In 1842, Smith and his wife, Harriett Lee Smith, moved to Philadelphia. He left his partner William Whipper, a prominent black philadelphian, in charge of his business in Columbia. After the Civil War, Whipper revealed the two partners' involvement in the Underground Railroad, shipping fugitive slaves from Philadelphia in railroad cars, then ferrying them by freighter across Lake Erie to freedom in Canada.

Smith was active in the economic, political and social life of Philadelphia's African American community. Ordained to preach in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, he gave generously to many charities, including Mother Bethel. He built Smith's Beneficial Hall as a meeting place for black organizations. The hall burned in the riots of August 1842 when many homes of African Americans were also destroyed. Smith also invested in real estate within the city. At the time of his death in 1873, he owned more than 100 houses, lots and buildings. He left the bulk of the estate to found the Stephen Smith Home for the Aged, a residence for older African Americans at 1050 Belmont Avenue. The Smith Home is now West Philadelphia Geriatrics at 44th Street and Girard Avenue.

Virtually nothing is known of the artist John Stidun. The museum's collections contain Stidun's pendant portrait of Smith's wife, Henrietta Lee Smith. The donor of both portraits, Smith's grandniece Henrietta Clemens Mouserone, identifies Stidun as a "prominent Negro artist" in her manuscript life of Smith. The portrait's canvas has the stamp of a Philadelphia store, but there is no listing for Stidun in the Philadelphia directories.

George Washington, 1796-1803. Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828); oil on canvas. Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia Donated by Francis R. Wharton, 1903. The portrait artist, Gilbert Stuart, visited Philadelphia in 1794 and moved to the city the following year because it offered him access to many notable figures, especially George Washington. Washington was much admired in the United States and in Europe as the ideal "warrior-statesman," and Stuart expected to profit from portraying him. During Stuart's years in the Philadelphia, he painted three portraits of Washington from life: two in his studio on Chestnut Street and one, the most famous, in Germantown. The painting shown here is a copy of the one done in Germantown. The original is owned by the Boston Athenaeum and is often called the "Athenaeum portrait."

William Penn in Armor, c. 1770 Artist unknown, copy of an orignal; oil on canvas. Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia. Donated by Granville Penn, 1833. Before William Penn became a Quaker and a pacifist, he fought in his father's fleet against the Dutch and managed the family estate in Ireland where he participated in putting down a local insurrection.

This painting is a copy of a lost original painted in 1666 depicting Penn at age 22 in the knight's armor that he wore in Ireland. The Latin inscription on the left "AETIS. 22. / 1666. / OCTOBER. 14 and on the right: "PAX QVAERITUR / BELLO" translates to "Peace is the goal of battle."

The one definite image of Penn from life is a chalk drawing by Francis Place done about 1698. This drawing is at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. There are so few images of Quakers of this period because most considered them a sign of vanity.

Isaac Norris, c. 1850. Copy of an original, artist unknown; oil on canvas. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at AKMP. Donated by the estate of Anabel C. Parson, 1973. A wealthy Quaker merchant, Isaac Norris (1671-1735) and his father Thomas, who died in Port Royal, Jamaica, had substantial economic interests in the growing trade in slaves coming to Philadelphia from Africa and the Caribbean. Isaac, one of the original participants in William Penn's "holy experiment", served as Philadelphia's mayor in 1724. Norristown just outside Philadelphia is located on land Norris purchased from Penn in 1704.

George Washington, 1796-1803. Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828); oil on canvas.

Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at AKMP.

Donated by Francis R. Wharton, 1903.

Philly, World War I mascot of "Philadelphia's own," 315th Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army, 1932. See Philly in the exhibition, Wartime: Illustrations by Norman Rockwell, May 24-December 31, 2006 The dog Philly was a good luck charm and decorated veteran with the 315th Infantry Regiment, known as "Philadelphia's own," when it fought in France during World War I. Philly was enlisted as a stray when a member of the 315th picked her up while the troops were training in Maryland, named her Philly, and smuggled her on a troop transport to France. Philly lived in the trenches and on sentinel duty barked at night whenever German troops began their attacks. A German commander went so far as to place a bounty on her head. Philly received two honorary Bronze stars, one for a mustard gas attack and one for a shrapnel wound. At war's end she returned to the United States with the troops and marched in the victory parade in Washington, D.C., in front of President Woodrow Wilson. Philly lived until 1932 in Philadelphia and attended annual regimental reunions, where her favorite foods were liver and cake. In 1998, when the 315th was eliminated in military downsizing, Philly was donated by the regiment to the Philadelphia City History Collection at AKMP.

John Wanamaker (1838 - 1922) is best remembered as father of the American department store and modern commercial/retail advertising. Wanamaker opened his first store in 1861, with his brother-in-law Nathan Brown. The store, called Oak Hall, was located on the southeast corner of 6th and Market Streets. Sales at Oak Hall were unremarkable for the first ten years, then in 1871 Wanamaker instituted a new policy, one price -no bargaining - and "goods returned and money refunded." Business began to flourish. Wanamaker also believed in truth in advertising and one of his four cardinal business principles was, "Truth in Word and Print."

In 1875 Wanamaker bought the abandoned freight depot of the Pennsylvania Railroad at 13th and Market streets. Although it was officially called the Grand Depot the store became known as Wanamaker's. In 1877 Wanamaker began adding other "Departments." The Grand Depot is considered to be the first American department store. In 1880 Wanamaker persuaded John Doll, who owned The Temple of Fancy, to open the first toy department in an American department store.

In 1903 construction began for a new store at the 13th and Market site. When the new store was dedicated in 1910 it was simply called Wanamaker's.

He was one of Philadelphia's great philanthropists and civic leaders. Wanamaker was appointed Postmaster General of the United States in 1889 by President Benjamin Harrison. He served on the Centennial Board of Finance, was President of the YMCA for eight years. He helped found Presbyterian Hospital and built the children's ward there. He served as Vice President of the Board of the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. Wanamaker chaired the Citizen's relief Committee that raised money for many causes including, relief of famine in Ireland, aid for victims of Yellow Fever in the American south and support for victims of the Ohio River flood in 1913.

On the day of his funeral, the city closed all public schools and flags were lowered to half mast. His pallbearers included the Governor of Pennsylvania, the Mayors of Philadelphia and New York, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Thomas A. Edison.

Barbara Klaczynska, Ph.D., is an adjunct faculty member at Saint Joseph's University and Holy Family University near Philadelphia and a consultant to nonprofit organizations and historic religious properties. Regarding her efforts to encourage understanding of the past, Klaczynska said: "I hope to make my younger students understand how the evolving world of their parents and grandparents has shaped their lives. More specifically, we study the barriers women faced when they were tracked in different jobs than men. For example, my mother-in-law had to give up her job of 20 years when her employer found out she was married. Married women were not allowed to work in some offices in the 1930s. In my own experience, I remember want-ads offering different pay rates for men and women. These are only a couple of the many work-related challenges that women faced."

Klaczynska is one of 28 Citizen Commentators who reflected upon individual objects in AKMP's current exhibition, The Real Thing and Why It Matters. Referring to the industrial sewing machine on exhibit, she said: "My mother worked in the knitting industry in Philadelphia…this involved a high level of sewing. She made doll clothes, custom made slip-covers for homes, draperies, and did institutional work such as the curtains for the Academy of Music. The long years of working in this industry impacted her health—she developed arthritis in her feet from the concrete floors and her index fingers were turned from pulling the heavy materials through the sewing machine. She developed allergic reactions to some of the fabrics and the fiberglass fabrics cut her hands. Despite her health problems, she loved her work and especially the people from diverse backgrounds she met on the job."

Margaret Mercer, (1848) by Thomas Sully (1783-1872), Oil on canvas, Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, presented to the Society by the Pennsylvania Colonization Society.
Margaret Mercer (1791-1846) grew up on a plantation near Annapolis, Maryland. She was a pioneer in women's education and has been described as one of the "mother's of feminism." Mercer became interested in education through her work in Sunday Schools of the Episcopal Church. In 1836 Mercer bought Belmont, a plantation near Ashford, Virginia, and opened a boarding school. In addition to the usual curriculum Mercer insisted that her pupils learn mathematics, science, astronomy, the natural sciences, and philosophy, subjects usually not taught to young women. Her influence extended beyond education. Mercer drained marshlands to create farms and moved wells whenever she believed they were not deep enough or contaminated. Her insistence that women study the sciences, agriculture, and sanitation challenged contemporary thinking on the role of women. Her insistence that African Americans learn to read and write broke Virginia law and created hostility towards her in the community.

Mercer was a founding member of the Virginia Colonization Society and member of the American Colonization Society (ACS). She opposed slavery and was a leader in the movement that proposed returning former slaves to a free society in Liberia. She freed slaves who worked on her family's plantation and paid passage to Liberia for those who wished to go. Mercer made certain that every black person who worked for her and on the surrounding farms learned to read and write. She welcomed them at religious services. Mercer also raised money to support the education of promising young African Americans and personally paid for the education of several young black men, sending one to Baltimore to study medicine. ACS commissioned a ship to take freed slaves to Liberia and named it for her. A school in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, was also named for her.

Stephen Smith, c. 1840-1850 James Stidun (dates are not known) Oil on canvas, Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, given to the Society by Mrs. Henrietta Clemens Mouserone. Stephen Smith was born in slavery in Cecil County, Maryland, sometime around 1797. At the age of 21 he purchased his freedom and soon after moved to Columbia, Pennsylvania. Smith opened a coal and lumberyard and began shipping coal and timber throughout Pennsylvania. His firm, Smith & Whipper, purchased a freighter for moving goods across the Great Lakes to Canada.

In 1842, Smith and his wife, Harriett Lee Smith, moved to Philadelphia. He left his partner William Whipper, a prominent black philadelphian, in charge of his business in Columbia. After the Civil War, Whipper revealed the two partners' involvement in the Underground Railroad, shipping fugitive slaves from Philadelphia in railroad cars, then ferrying them by freighter across Lake Erie to freedom in Canada.

Smith was active in the economic, political and social life of Philadelphia's African American community. Ordained to preach in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, he gave generously to many charities, including Mother Bethel. He built Smith's Beneficial Hall as a meeting place for black organizations. The hall burned in the riots of August 1842 when many homes of African Americans were also destroyed. Smith also invested in real estate within the city. At the time of his death in 1873, he owned more than 100 houses, lots and buildings. He left the bulk of the estate to found the Stephen Smith Home for the Aged, a residence for older African Americans at 1050 Belmont Avenue. The Smith Home is now West Philadelphia Geriatrics at 44th Street and Girard Avenue.

Virtually nothing is known of the artist John Stidun. The museum's collections contain Stidun's pendant portrait of Smith's wife, Henrietta Lee Smith, which is currently in need of restoration. The donor of both portraits, Smith's grandniece Henrietta Clemens Mouserone, identifies Stidun as a "prominent Negro artist" in her manuscript life of Smith. The portrait's canvas has the stamp of a Philadelphia store, but there is no listing for Stidun in the Philadelphia directories. We hope to discover more information about the artist.

Aaron Levy, painted by Robert Edge Pine c. 1780. Oil on canvas, Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection, Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia. Aaron Levy (1742-1815), a Jewish immigrant from Amsterdam, became known in Colonial Pennsylvania as a prominent land speculator. He founded Aaronsberg in Centre County, the first city in the United States designed by and named for a person of Jewish descent. Along with business partner and ‘Financier of the Revolution' Robert Morris, Levy loaned significant amounts of money to the Continental Army.

After the Revolutionary War, Levy settled in Philadelphia and became an early member of the Mikveh Israel Congregation. Others in the congregation who supported the war effort include Haym Salomon, Reuben Etting, Philip Moses Russel and Benjamin Nones. Congregation members also signed the Non-Importation Resolutions of 1765 and in 1783 petitioned for changes eventually made to the oath of office that allowed Jewish people to serve as elected officials in Pennsylvania.

The congregation of Mikveh Israel remains active today. Its synagogue shares a building with the National Museum of American Jewish History.

Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy (Connie Mack) shown with 1906 Philadelphia Athletics. Print supplement of The North American (May 1906). Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy, known to baseball fans as Connie Mack, was born to Irish immigrants on December 22, 1862, in East Brookfield, Massachusetts. He worked as a New England textile mill hand before discovering baseball. Mack began his Major League career on September 11, 1886, with the Washington Senators. He was a catcher for 11 seasons on 3 different teams and ended his playing career in 1896. In 1901, following a stint with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Mack borrowed $10,000 to invest in the Philadelphia Athletics when he became their manager. Mack continued in this role, nicknamed the "Tall Tactician," for 50 years. He led the A's to five World Series and nine American League Pennants, and holds the major league mark for most wins (3,776), most losses (4, 025) and most years managed (53). Mack was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York, in 1937 by the Veterans' Committee. In 1953, against Mack's wishes, Philadelphia's Shibe Park (b. 1908-09) was renamed Connie Mack Stadium. When the A's moved to Kansas City after the 1954 season, the Phillies bought the stadium for $2 million. It was torn down in 1976, five years after Veterans' Stadium opened. Mack died February 8, 1956, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

David Bustill Bowser. Fireman's parade hat, United States Fire Co., Philadelphia, painted by Bowser, c. 1850. David Bustill Bowser, an African American freeman who lived his entire life in Philadelphia, was an accomplished artist best known for portraits, particularly those of John Brown and Abraham Lincoln. He also earned his living by painting trade signs as well as emblems and banners for fire companies and fraternal organizations. In the 1860s during the Civil War, Bowser was commissioned to paint regimental flags for U.S. Colored troops. There are seven examples of Bowser's work in the AKMP collection. Four are currently on display in the exhibition, A Legacy for Philadelphia. Ida Bowser Asbury, the artist's great-granddaughter, donated the pieces to AKMP in 1954-55.