Thursday, August 1, 2013

Hot Town, Summer in the City…of Philadelphia



While I enjoy my internship at the Library Company’s Print Department and work days are never dull, there is something special about the mythic summer weekend, the fleeting two-day space of freedom immortalized in film and song.  Every Thursday night my apartment mates and I begin to wonder aloud, what are we doing this weekend? Housing and cataloging the Holstein Stereograph Collection has taught me that the answer a person in the late 19th century might have given to this question is very similar to our own today.  

On a hot day we might take a dip in the pool or seek out a scoop of ice cream: 


If yearning for cultural edification, we might explore an exhibition or attend a concert:  





Feeling celebratory, we might join a crowd of spectators at a parade:


Possessing a spirit of adventure and a desire for the primal, we might sally forth to the zoo:
 


Tiring of all the riches of land, we might head to sea (or, if in Pennsylvania, to the Schuylkill River):




Or, if just plain tired, we might recline in a hammock or luxuriate in a field of flowers:
 





If not inspired enough to move from your computer and get started on your own weekend plans, why not learn more about these particular images, and visit the Library Company’s Flickr page. All of these stereographs, plus many others, are included in our photostream, as is information about the views depicted and the name of the photographer. Enjoy!

Kat Poje
Haverford '16
Print Deptartment intern, Summer  2013


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