Museum of the American Revolution Opens

Good morning Philadelphia! 

If you haven't already seen the Newsroom post about the Museum of the American Revolution, you can view here or connect to this link: 

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/museum-american-revolution-opens

Towards the end of this little video is a shot of a young bearded man moving some of the "stacks" and pulling a large, old book from the shelf.  That young man works at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP)and we get our work from similar stacks in another room at HSP.  

Steve Rockwood and another FamilySearch employee came to visit us at HSP after they went to the MoAR opening on Wednesday the 19th.  It was fun to see them and, because they were visiting, the Director invited us to go with them into one of the HSP vaults to view some precious documents.  

We saw the museum owned, original, hand written draft of the Constitution. Sorry I have no photo to share.  I didn't think to bring my phone into the vault.....

We also saw the first, hand written draft of the Article of Confederation, also owned by the Museum.  The vault is full of fabulous and precious finds.  I could spend many days in there; if I had the security code, the vault door combination and permission. So.....nevermind.  (Only 3 people in the world have the combination to the lock)

The museum is wonderful although admittedly we didn't see much of it because the Founders Day event before the actual opening was way too crowded. So, knowing we could return as often as we wanted, we left after a couple of rooms because we just couldn't get to the glass to see the exhibits.  But we will go again because it will be worth it. 

We did get our photos taken while we were there. 

Another cool thing we did get to see was this "tree". 

The paper tells the story: 
Touch a Piece of History
This smooth wood is a fragment of the last surviving Liberty Tree, which stood in Annapolis, Maryland until 1999.  It was one fo the numerous Liberty Trees that American colonists used as symbols and gathering places in the 1760s and 1770s.  Salvaged after the tree was blown down in a hurricane, this piece was donated to the Museum of the American Revolution by the Providence Forum.  
Please touch this wood from the Annapolis Liberty Tree.

Another fun thing to see was the docents.  This couple was happy to have their photo taken as they came through the front doors on their way to their shift.

At the top of the grand staircase in the lobby of the Museum is this wonderful painting.

This painting of General Washington, and his tent which is now housed in the Museum, also brought to mind this new YouTube video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3QiBLndU-k

I hope that anyone who views my blog will take a minute to view this video.  It is the story of British General Howe's dog.  It is a true story and every historical detail in the video was researched by our friend at HSP, Joaquin Sender.  The creators of the video wanted to be sure that everything was accurate.  I think they did a great job. Any dog lover will be touched by this story. 

Great to know that the Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a great source on many levels. 

On another note, the trees continue to surprise me with beautiful color and then bright green leaves.  Sadly, the "mild" winter this year has affected the lilacs and many flowering trees so there is not as much color as in past years I am told.

The other "color" in Philly is something that we have all known about for several weeks now.  This very large blue advertisement went up on City Hall weeks ago: 

The blue sign isn't big enough in this post for you to read so I will tell you what it says:  The Future is Now.  It is an advertisement for the NFL Draft which is being held here in Philadelphia next week.

So, I enjoy watching sports as much as the next person I think, but I am not fanatical about it.  But this city has gone crazy with the NFL draft coming to town.  The major parkway (Benjamin Franklin Parkway) going into the museum district and leading up to the wonderful, iconic Art Museum stairs or as most people call them, the "Rocky stairs", is closed to prepare for the draft events, including the Penn Relay race. 

There are people who come to Philly having planned their trip around the "Rocky stairs" and are turned away because of the NFL draft.  

We are very close to the Art Museum so on Saturday we decided to walk around and see what was happening. 

A sweaty selfie with a few tulips in street boxes behind us.

A stage is being built  in front of and close  to the "Stairs" of the museum. It began to rain so we didn't get close enough to see if anyone could even get into the museum.  Perhaps we will check it out later. 

We could see there were lots and lots of bar or draft tents already up.  There was also a large NFL Shop tent.  Wow.....

Well, I think we will be staying out of the way of the revelers this week.  We will be walking to and from work as much as we can. The weather is supposed to be nice the end of the week when the events begin.  It will be our first big event of the summer, but it will definitely not be the last. I am already trying to scope out where to set up our chairs for the enormous July 4th event. 

I understand the fireworks that are set off from the roof of the Art Museum are spectacular! 😁😁😁😁