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Liberty Net: This is a commercial site, designed for tourists, among others, but it is valuable for its lists of and links to Philadelphia cultural venues, such as galleries, theaters, and musical groups. This is a great resource for locating general information on many arts groups in the region: http://www.libertynet.com
Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Demonstration Exhibit:This exhibit represents a
collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania and the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. It
includes about 60 to 80 listings of Philadelphia sites, organized by century from the 18th to
the 20th. For each site there are images and links to information about the architects and
firms, as well as often extensive bibliographies.
http://pab1.gsfa.upenn.edu/pab/exhibit.cfm
The Philadelphia Museum of Art:Among the major museums in the U.S., its holdings include
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Turkish, Southeast Asian, Indian and Himalayan art as well
as European and American. The museum itself includes a Japanese ceremonial teahouse, a Chinese
palace hall, a 13th-century French cloister and a suite of 18th-century French interiors.
The American holdings include Pennsylvania German art and early Philadelphia furniture and
decorative arts, as well as the most important collection in the world of works by Philadelphia
artist Thomas Eakins. This site represents some of those holdings through
an ever-growing set of on-line exhibits--information and images from special exhibits from 1997
to upcoming events, such as the Alice Neel and Thomas Eakins shows next year:
http://www.philamuseum.org
The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts:Founded in 1805, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
Arts (now known also as the Museum of American Art) was the first art museum and school in the
U.S. Its collections of 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century American paintings, sculptures, and works
on paper are internationally recognized. It is an important center for the study of Thomas Eakins.
The site includes an archive of past exhibitions from 1996, some with biographies and background
information, such as the 1999 Maxfield Parrish exhibit: http://www.pafa.org
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology:
This is an amazing site, and a wonderful museum, world-reknowned for its collections of African
and Asian artifacts, as well as collections from many other regions. The site includes images
and background material for each of the galleries, on-line exhibits (a virtual archaelogical
dig in Turkey, histories of body modification and wine drinking), and many fun activities,
such as creating your name in hieroglyphics:
http://www.upenn.edu/museum
Brandywine River Museum: This museum focuses on American art of the Brandywine Valley
and American illustration and houses much work of the Wyeth family, as well as American
illustrators, such as Howard Pyle and Maxfield Parrish. The site includes some of the most
famous images from the museum's important collections of American illustrations and Wyeth
family paintings. In addition, the site has a virtual tour of N.C. Wyeth's studio:
http://www.libertynet.org/~bmuse
Arthur Ross Gallery: Housed in a historical building designed by Frank Furness, this
gallery on the University of Pennsylvania campus has year-round art exhibitions. The site
includes images and backgrounds on upcoming and past shows. Especially useful are the
guides to past shows on the Treasures of Uzbekistan, the architecture of modern South Asia,
and Maghreb textiles: http://www.upenn.edu/ARG/
Philadelphia Public Art:This site, created by an individual, Chris Purdon, contains
images of over 300 pieces of public art in Philadelphia, organized by neighborhood (into "tours")
and subject. The site can be searched by title or artist:
http://www.libertynet.org/artguide
Philadelphia Mural Project: This site, created by an individual, has a growing number of
beautiful photos of Philadelphia murals, organized mainly by area of the city. The site includes,
interestingly, paintings not part of the official Mural Project, but appearing more spontaneously
on walls, thus challenging an easy division between the terms "graffiti" and "mural":
http://pobox.upenn.edu/~davidtoc/murals/murals.html
Campus Sculpture at the University of Pennsylvania: This site has images of many public
sculptures, organized by title and artist, at the University of Pennsylvania and a map showing
their locations: http://www.upenn.edu/fm/facts/sc/sclists.html
Historic Philadelphia Tour: Created by the Independence Hall Association
(a nonprofit organization connected to Independence National Park), this site offers many
historical guides to Philadelphia and Philadelphians, like Ben Franklin; the best feature of
the site is its virtual tour of historic Philadelphia which offers images and historical
background on a number of sites, such as churches, museums, and houses:
http://www.ushistory.org/tour/
Germantown Tour: This site is part of the IHA project (ushistory.org) that generated
the virtual tour o historic Philadelphia. This virtual tour of Germantown features many images
and descriptions: http://www.ushistory.org/germantown
Atwater Kent Museum: A museum devoted to the history of the city of Philadelphia,
depicting three centuries of life in Philadelphia and located in the original home of the
Franklin Institute. This museum now houses the Norman Rockwell Exhibit as well. This site has
a nice collection of on-line slides of artifacts of daily life, from clothes to Baldwin
locomotives:
http://www.philadelphiahistory.org/pages/index2.html
Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies: According to its literature, this is the only
museum in the nation collecting material on the multicultural heritage of the U.S. In the
"online resources" section of the website, there are wonderful exhibits on ethnic weddings,
as well as a collection of manuscripts of early immigrants' guides to the U.S. and first person
accounts of steamship voyages:
http://www.balchinstitute.org/
The Library Company of Philadelphia: Begun by Benjamin Franklin, the Library Company
is now an independent research library with extensive holdings in early Americana, with especially
fine African-American and Native American collections. Half of the collection is listed in the
on-line catalogue (and available for viewing at the library itself), including the African American
collection. The site also lists upcoming papers in a public seminar series on Early American
Economy and Society. The full-length papers are available on line before the seminar talks;
there is an on-line discussion forum, as well:
http://www.librarycompany.org
Philadelphia Historical Digital Image Library: This site represents a collaboration
between the Jefferson Medical College and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. It is a vast
photo archive of Philadelphia scenes, especially relating to the medical college, but far-reaching.
The site features a very specific search function that allows searches by photographer/engraver,
as well as site or subject (surgeries, e.g.):
http://jeffline.tju.edu/archives/phdil/phdil.html#1
Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image (at the Rare Book Library at the University
of Pennsylvania) This site has a rich series of on-line exhibitions using materials from the
archives/collections of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Penn. Some exhibitions feature
audio files, such as the wonderful exhibits on Marian Anderson and Leopold Stokowski. Another
wonderful exhibit shows early prints and manuscripts from the Americas:
http://www.library.upenn.edu/etext/exhibits/index.html
Historic Bartram's Garden: Bartram's Garden is the house and garden of colonial
botanist John Bartram. The site includes historical information on Bartram, his house, botany
(especially Franklinia, named after his friend Ben Franklin):
http://www.bartramsgarden.org/history/index.html
Wyck House: This Germantown house dates from the late 17th century; the site includes the
history and architecture of the house, as well as background on surrounding Germantown:
http://libertynet.org/wyck
The Fairmount Park Houses: This site, part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art site,
features images and historical background of the colonial houses, such as Lemon Hill and
Strawberry Mansion, in Fairmount Park:
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/parkhouse/
Rosenbach Museum & Library: This museum of literature and the decorative arts has some
nice "curriculum guides" for teachers on subjects featured in the collections, such as Phillis
Wheatley and Marianne Moore. These guides have biographical info and manuscript images, as well
as links to other sources. The site also includes samples of recent manuscript exhibits:
http://www.rosenbach.org
Rare Book Department at the Free Library of Philadelphia:This large collection includes
holdings in American children's literature, illuminated medieval manuscripts, Charles Dickens,
and Edgar Allan Poe. There is a nice exhibit of English children's books on-line:
http://libwww.library.phila.gov/research/research.taf?_function=detail&_UserReference=5F7098F3911FC7893A0224A9
Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site: This is one of the houses where Poe
lived during his six years in Philadelphia, now a museum operated by the park service.
The site features biographical material and images of some of Poe's other homes, along with the
text of "The Raven": http://www.nps.gov/edal/index1.html
Charles Blockson Collection at Temple University: This is a wonderful bibliography of
references at the Blockson collection on the African-American community in Philadelphia. This
is a great place to begin looking for Philadelphia black history:
http://www.library.temple.edu/blockson/inside.htm
Poetry in the Philadelphia Area: This site has links to 10 to 15 poetry series in
the Philadelphia area:
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~hstarr/philly/
The American Poetry Review: http://www.aprweb.org
Painted Bride Quarterly: http://webdelsol.com/pbq/
Philadelphia Inquirer:
http://www.phillynews.com
Philadelphia Tribune: http://www.phila-tribune.com/
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