First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory

Abstract

First City: Philadelphia and Forging of Historical Memory. By Gary B. Nash. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. Pp. 352. Illustrations. $34.95.) Ask students to describe significance of city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to American history and undoubtedly they mentally will compile a list that would include Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Declaration of Independence, and United States Constitution. The scope of average student's historical of Philadelphia might end right there. To fill that void, Gary Nash has written a wonderful volume, filled with stories of historical discovery, describing preservation of Philadelphia's past for benefit of all. First City tells story of Philadelphia's growth from a new perspective: efforts of city's cultural institutions to preserve historical over different eras. Nash drew his inspiration based upon his involvement with a 1989 exhibition at Historical Society of Pennsylvania titled Visions and Revisions: Finding Philadelphia's Past. Hence, one of major themes of Nash's is to examine role of historical societies, libraries, and museums and such questions as: What constitutes history? How is historical cultivated, perpetuated, deflected, and overturned? What do we need to know about past, and who is entitled to reconstruct it? How does past help us to make sense of present? Who has authority to answer these questions? Additionally, Nash's recent work analyzes anonymous groups of society-the women, racial and religious minorities, and laboring people that Nash feels are important in restoring last chapters of city's history. In many cases, he tells us that preserving of Philadelphia's growth consists of managing and manipulating historical memory (10). The forging of for city of Philadelphia dates from colonial era and founding of three separate organizations in rapid succession: Library of Company of Philadelphia (1731); American Philosophical Society (1743); and Historical Society of Pennsylvania (1824). Nash provides reader with pertinent highlights from Library Company's rapid growth: its move to State House in 1741 with over 600 volumes; 1755 acquisition of early accounts of colony's founding; move to Carpenters' Hall in 1769; and acquisition of primary source material in American history, first library of kind in nation in 1784 (15). Although it was established during same era, American Philosophical Society was not to share immediate success of library counterpart due to changes in leadership, particularly loss of Peter Du Ponceau, a practicing attorney. The author presents a balanced view of rise and relatively rapid decline of society as well as major acquisitions, including papers of Benjamin Franklin in 1840. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania would flourish under leadership of John Fanning Watson, an amateur historian who would be recognized as one of earliest collectors of American material culture. Philadelphia's rise as a seaport city also helped ensure successful cultural growth. Maritime commerce dominated city as approximately seventy wharves and twenty shipyards presented graphic evidence that Philadelphia had grown mightily (45). This interwoven system of merchant importers, consumers, shopkeepers, and female entrepreneurs enabled Philadelphia to create a vast amount of mercantile wealth. In turn, this amassed wealth was often reflected in Philadelphia homes and in acquisition of cultural items. According to Nash, the leaders of Philadelphia's cultural institutions attracted great importance to acquiring portraits of such worthies as Thomas Lawrence, Thomas Mifflin and his wife, Robert Morris, and Charles Willing Jr. Equally as important as emblems of cosmopolitanism and status were furniture designed for upper classes (65-66). …