Just Do It

Philadelphia Stories: The Building of a Great American City

by Tami Fertig

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Published: Jul 31, 2007

Opening reception Fri., Aug. 3, 4:30-7 p.m., exhibit runs through Aug. 31, free, The Art Institute of Philadelphia, 1622 Chestnut St., 215-567-7080, www.phillyhistory.org

Pick a corner, any corner. Betcha PhillyHistory.org contains a photograph of your chosen location, shot sometime between the 1870s and now. The Web site, run by the city's Department of Records, uploads thousands of pictures every month from the municipal archives (which holds roughly 2 million images) into an easy-to-search database. It's a glorious photo album of the city, painstakingly tracking our growth from birth to old age.

Squinting at the details of these grainy black-and-white photographs, however, does not really do them much justice. With that in mind, The Art Institute of Philadelphia, in conjunction with PhillyHistory.org, will showcase 80 large-scale, framed prints of selected images — many previously unavailable to the public.

Some of the pictures document men at work, building the places and things we take for granted (docks on Delaware Avenue, sewage pipes, City Hall); others capture landmarks long gone (Connie Mack Stadium, Broad Street's opera houses). A handful simply serve as fascinating glimpses into turn-of-the-century Philly. In one photo taken at 13th and Market in 1910, blurred gray figures in overcoats and hats pack the sidewalk outside Hanscom's, a cafe whose sign declares it "an eating place of rare excellence." In another, a tired-looking man in tattered clothing sits beside the gigantic head of Billy Penn, not yet placed atop City Hall.

In addition to the prints, Inky senior photog Clem Murray and The Art Institute's Robert H. Crites will exhibit several modern-day photographs next to their 100-year-old counterparts, compare-and-contrast style. Fun fact: In 1912, a camera pointing west from CP's home at Second and Chestnut revealed a crane, a pile of dirt, the beginnings of a wall and a whole lotta nothing else.

 

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