Philadelphia
Dad and I spend a day in the City of Brotherly Love, starting at Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell before seeing the Museum of the American Revolution. We pause for lunch at Irish pub The Plough and the Stars before finishing our sightseeing at the excellent Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Independence Hall
Dad and I began our morning standing in front of Independence Hall, with hardly anyone about. We had arrived in downtown Philadelphia a little early for our appointment-only entry time, but it gave us a moment, amongst modern skyscrapers, to reflect on this building’s place in world history. The U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution — two incredible, inspired, founding documents of modern democracy — were debated and adopted in this spot by some of the finest minds of their times.After passing through security, we waited in Independence Square behind the building. I took a few minutes to step inside the West Wing, which has an exhibit with original printed copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. It includes Syng inkstand, believed to be the silver inkstand used by all 56 signers of the document, directly under its final line: “…we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
Construction on the Georgian-style building began in 1733. Its Assembly Room was completed for the Pennsylvania State House in 1753, but on the other side of the building, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was in session as early as 1743.
The Assembly Room was the meeting place of the Second Continental Congress from 1775-1783, when the Founding Fathers declared their essential rights and liberties, as well as their independence from Britain; and when they formed the new nation’s principles of government with the Articles of Confederation.
It is also where the Constitutional Convention met for four months in 1787 to refine and adopt a fundamentally different form of government — describing its ideals, its mechanisms, its limits on power, and its protections of liberty. Dozens of great men with new ideas and intellectual rigor gathered here and worked together with purpose and seriousness toward a true common good, one with global reverberations.
Liberty Bell
Just across the street from Independence Hall is the Liberty Bell Pavillion, all part of the multi-block Independence National Historic Park. The crowds were light, and Dad and I managed to find a few relatively quiet minutes with the iconic symbol of American independence, which was famously rung when the Declaration of Independence was first read to the public.Museum of the American Revolution
We walked a few blocks down Chestnut Street to the Museum of American Revolution — also part of Independence National Historic Park — which opened in 2017 and does a first-class job of walking visitors through all the major events of the American Revolutionary War.The museum’s collection includes several thousand objects, with a special theater presentation of a canvas tent used by General George Washington during his campaigns. (No photography allowed.)
The Plough and the Stars
We took a short walk from there to The Plough and the Stars, a large Irish pub located in a former bank. The Burns boys from Kilcar had fish and chips and shepherd’s pie.I walked back to retrieve the car, passing both the First Bank of the United States, a national bank chartered in 1791; and the Second Bank of the United States, founded in 1816.
I also got a quick look at Carpenter’s Hall, where the First Continental Congress met in 1774, and where Pennsylvania’s independence from the British Empire was declared in June 1776.
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Dad and I drove across town to the back entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, originally created in 1876 for the Centennial International Exhibition and now containing about a quarter-million objects in its collection.We decided to split up. Without a real plan, I wandered through the first and second floor to see American Art mixed with special exhibits of furniture and glass art.
Thomas Eakins, Between Rounds, 1898-99
Thomas Hovendon, And the Harbor Bar is Moaning, 1885
Georgia O’Keefe, From the Lake No. 3, 1924
Georgia O’Keefe, Birch and Pine Tree No. 1, 1925
At the center of the museum, atop the Great Stair Hall, is the golden Diana of the Tower by Irish-American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The statue was based on a model for a weather vane Saint-Gaudens created that was briefly placed above Madison Square Garden. It never quite worked. This second, more graceful statue balanced above the Garden from 1893-1925 before coming to the museum in 1932.
I took a quick intermission to see the front steps of the museum, made famous by the original Rocky movie. Just off to the side, a long line of fans waited to get a picture of themselves with the Rocky statue .
I went back inside and turned right to begin exploring the museum’s excellent collection of European, modern, and contemporary art. I found Dad doing the same.
James McNeill Whistler, Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Artist’s Mother, 1871
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Two Girls, Around 1892
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Portrait of Alfred Bérard with His Dog, 1881
Claude Monet, Port of Le Havre, 1874
Claude Monet, Under the Pines, Evening, 1888
Claude Monet, Japanese Footbridge and the Water Lily Pool, Giverny, 1899
Camille Pissarro, L’île Lacroix, Rouen (The Effect of Fog), 1888
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1889
Paul Cézanne, Bay of L’Estaque, 1879-83
Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1902-04
Pablo Picasso, Three Musicians, 1921
Joan Miró, Painting, 1933
Fernand Léger, The City, 1919
Man Ray, Fair Weather, 1939
Piet Mondrian, Composition, 1936
Some of the most compelling exhibits at the museum are full-sized rooms projecting period scenes through architecture, art, and furnishings.
One of these larger works is the medieval Cloister, modeled after the 13th-century Abbey of Saint-Genis-des-Fontaines in southwestern France and using some of its sculpture. Additional pieces to complete the scene were included in the early 20th century.
Cloister with Elements from the Abbey of Saint-Genis-des-Fontaines, 1270-1280s
I continued through the third floor to Temple Hall, with life-sized pillars from India elaborately decorated with deities and mythology. Stone reliefs between the pillars tell the story of the Ramayana, the epic tale (nearly 24,000 verses!) of Rama, one of the incarnations of Vishnu. Much of the temple has been reconstructed from pieces gathered in the early 20th century.
Temple Hall, India, c. 1560
It had been a big day, as we knew it would. And we still had a big-league ballpark to explore that night, if the rain didn’t get it the way.