"Representing 350 years of Philadelphia history, Philadelphia Revealed: Unpacking the Attic is an interactive exhibition of over 600 artifacts from the Atwater Kent Collection (AKC) at Drexel University on display at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). Hundreds of historical images, multimedia features, and hands-on elements highlight the AKC’s earliest acquisitions and absorbed collections, national celebrations, the city’s urban development and civic history, sports, salvaged material and relics, manufacturing and retail milestones, and art and music of Philadelphia. 

It has taken more than 80 years to assemble these Philadelphia stories. Many of the pieces have never been displayed before.

Stacey Swigart is the director of the AKC. Originally from Phoenixville, her early career took her to several city museums and historic preservation organizations before she ended up being the last person hired by the Philadelphia History Museum for its post-closure activities. She’s been with AKC since 2019, became director in 2022, and is part of the team that curated the objects selected for the exhibit out of the more than 130,000 pieces in the collection (including tens of thousands of photographs).

The idea for the exhibit was inspired by Drexel’s work taking over stewardship of the former Atwater Kent Museum collection. 

'We knew at some point we wanted to do some sort of exhibition related to the various objects,' Swigart explains. 'And how do you do that? We put up an exhibit last year here [at PAFA] called Seeing Philadelphia but it was small, just 2D materials. This one we knew we wanted to delve a little bit deeper, but how do you do that? How do you tell the story of Philadelphia?' 

To do that, they decided to also tell the story of how the collection evolved, what story of Philadelphia it tells, where there are gaps in the story — and to collect new stories from visitors to the exhibit." 

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Read the full article "The Citizen Recommends: Philadelphia Revealed" online at thephiladelphiacitizen.org by Christina Griffith (The Philadelphia Citizin, July 25, 2024). 

Featured Photo Credit: Wyche Studios; Photographer: Liz Russell