Philadelphia – Page 2

After many many years of the train room more or less looking the same, it seems today 6/4/2019 the Franklin Institute announced it will be renovating the train room and making it a two story affair!

New article here: https://www.inquirer.com/arts/franklin-institute-philadelphia-locomotive-train-room-renovation-baldwin-60000-20190604.html?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

While it’s awesome to hear the place is finally getting some updates, I really hope they plan to include many actual hands-on exhibits like they’ve done in the past, and not limit them to touch screens. Kids need to feel the weight of a train part, or be able to handle and see perhaps modern technology in modern passenger and freight trains. They can play with touchscreens at home!

Another awesome piece of Franklin Institute ephemera has been found – a booklet from an Art Expo held at the Franklin Institute from April to June, 1937. The expo was put on by the Graphics Arts dept the Institute had at the time, and was organized in part by Alexey Brodovitch, who also designed the poster below as well as the booklet/catalog for the event. (Alexey is also known as a founder of the current Philadelphia College of Art). The expo was focused on advertisement posters from both the US and around the world.

It amazes me that stuff like this still exists, 80+ years later. Granted there are books that are in the 100s if not thousands of years range, but for this stuff to randomly pop up is why I love collecting it so much, and provides a picture as to what a place I love was like well before my own parents were a twinkle in their parents eyes!

You can find a larger version of the poster above on the web site of the Library of Congress.

That said…enjoy a few pics from the NEW POSTER booklet: