View-Master World presents scenes from the View-Master packet Philadelphia (A631) from the Famous Cities Series.
Packet Cover
Booklet Cover
From the 16-page booklet:
Philadelphia, City of Brotherly Love, was founded in 1682 by an English Quaker, William Penn. Persecuted in England, Penn was imprisoned many times. King Charles II owed Penn’s father about $80,000. Penn, seeking a haven for the Quakers, asked the king to repay the debt with wilderness land in America. The charter was granted in 1681, and Penn opened Pennsylvania as a place of religious and racial freedom. In 1682 Penn sailed up the Delaware to the mouth of the Schuylkill where he founded his “greene and countrie towne,” naming it Philadelphia, which in Greek means brotherly love. By 1700 Philadelphia contained 4,000 people of many nationalities—the pattern of the future population of America.
When Charles II granted him the land Penn said, “God hath given it to me and He will bless it and make it a seed of a nation.” In fulfillment of Penn’s prophecy, Philadelphia became the nation’s first capital. Here met the First Continental Congress; Washington accepted command of the Continental Army; the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed; and Betsy Ross made the nation’s original flag of thirteen stars and stripes.
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Aerial—City Center
Benjamin Franklin Parkway leads to city center
From the 16-page booklet:
PHILADELPHIA—“PHILLY”
Philadelphia is more than an historical museum. The traveler in the View-Master Guided Picture Tour sees a throbbing metropolis (pop. 2,002,512), fourth largest city in the U.S.A., and the world’s largest freshwater port. The Benjamin Franklin Parkway leads to City Hall, topped by the 37-foot statue of Wm. Penn. The broad Delaware River, separating the city from New Jersey, links Philadelphia to the Atlantic Ocean about 100 miles to the south. To the right, just out of view, the Schuylkill River winds through the city to join the Delaware.
Manufacturing is the chief industry. Products of its some 4,000 factories and mills include electrical machinery, automobiles, textiles, clothing, false teeth (the world leader), and half of the surgical instruments used by the nation’s doctors.
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City Hall and Penn Center
William Penn statue tops City Hall Tower
From the 16-page booklet:
WM. PENN OVERLOOKS HIS “GREENE & COUNTRIE TOWNE”
The 26-ton statue of Penn, his right hand extended as if blessing his city, was hoisted to the City Hall Tower in 1894. By tradition, no Philadelphia building may soar above the statue, which rises 548 feet above the street.
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Benjamin Franklin Institute
Benjamin Franklin statue, Franklin Institute
From the 16-page booklet:
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN STATUE,
FRANKLIN INSTITUTE
The statue of Benjamin Franklin sits in the foyer of the Franklin Institute, one of the largest museums of applied science in the country. Here the visitor may operate numerous exhibits, such as work the controls of a model of Apollo for moon landing, or a real pursuit plane, or see the mechanical brain solve mathematical problems.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) was born in Boston, Mass., the 15th of 17 children. At the age of 17, with no more than two years in school, he ran away to Philadelphia to become one of the world’s greatest men.
During Franklin’s lifetime he was a printer, author, publisher, scientist, inventor, and statesman. To list a few of his many deeds as a public-minded citizen, he helped found Philadelphia’s first university (The Academy, now the University of Pennsylvania), the city’s first public hospital, and the nation’s first subscription library.
In his will, Franklin left a trust fund of $5,000 to the city, part to be used for public works at the end of 100 years, the rest at the end of 200 years. Part of this trust has been used to help found the Franklin Institute, dedicated to the sciences he loved so well.
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Liberty Bell
Liberty Bell tolled out nation’s independence, July 4, 1776
From the 16-page booklet:
LIBERTY BELL,
INDEPENDENCE HALL
The Liberty Bell, the nation’s most venerated symbol of freedom, is on display at Independence Hall. The 2,028-pound bell was hanging in the Hall’s tower in July, 1776 when freedom was proclaimed. It, with the other bells of the city, tolled out the tidings. Its history is a mixture of folklore and fact. Its Biblical inscription (Lev. 25:10), “Proclaim liberty throughout the land . . .” is believed to have originally commemorated the liberty Penn granted to the Pennsylvania settlers. In part, the card below the bell tells us: “. . . This bell was first cast in England (1752). It broke in ringing after its arrival and was recast in Philadelphia from the same metal, and with the same inscription, in 1753 . . .” It cracked again in 1853, during the funeral services of Chief Justice John Marshall.
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Elfreth’s Alley
Elfreth’s Alley Houses pre-date the Revolution
From the 16-page booklet:
ELFRETH’S ALLEY,
A BIT OF OLD PHILADELPHIA
As the traveler strolls through Elfreth’s Alley, he is reminded that this is not just a museum piece. It is a thriving community occupied by people just as it was more than 250 years ago.
Typical Philadelphia spreads out in Row Houses similar to the 33 on the block-long Elfreth’s Alley—street after street of uninterrupted buildings.
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Benjamin Franklin Bridge
Philadelphia and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge
From the 16-page booklet:
PHILADELPHIA
and
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BRIDGE
An unprecedented view of Philadelphia may be had from the Pennsylvania Mutual observation deck. Its gleaming office buildings tower above Independence National Park; its many industries clustered along the waterfront, giving Philadelphia the title, “Workshop of the World”; the Benjamin Franklin Toll Bridge, which carries the steady flow across the Delaware into New Jersey and points beyond.
This ends our guided Picture Tour of Philadelphia—the city where the centuries meet.
2 comments:
I went into Independence Hall once in the mid 1950s. No one was there. The Liberty Bell was on the floor. No one was in the Congress. You could touch the bell, you could sit in the seats. Now the hall is well guarded and the Liberty Bell has its own building and is sealed. If you want to visit, go to the visitor center real early and get tickets.
If you want to see the Rocky statue it is at the bottom of the stairs to the library on the right.
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