Guest Commentary: No Future For Philadelphia History?

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Have a say in the hereafter of the museum

There's a public meeting tonight, Midweek February 27th, starting at 6 p.thou., to discuss possible futures for the Philadelphia History Museum. It may exist your terminal gamble to assistance salve the historic establishment.

The consequence is free, but registration is required here.

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Guest Commentary: No Future For Philadelphia History?

A good government advocate faults Metropolis Hall for the appear closure of the Philadelphia History Museum. Have your say about it tonight

• Do Something

  Have a say in the future of the museum

• Read More

  From Brett Mandel

Guest Commentary: No Time to come For Philadelphia History?

A expert government advocate faults City Hall for the announced closure of the Philadelphia History Museum. Have your say about it this evening

Feb. 27, 2019

The news that Philadelphia's museum dedicated to its history equally a urban center is shuttered is devastating and tragic. For a city that then embraces its past every bit packaged for tourists and outsiders, the idea that we can allow our ain city history to be, well—history—is a failure of civic leadership that is a criminal offense against our posterity. If the mayor and peak borough leaders cannot find the resources and direction to save and revitalize this museum so they should exist history!

The Philadelphia History Museum, formerly known as the Atwater Kent Museum, is mandated past Philadelphia's city charter to serve as a steward for our commonage memory. While the actual museum has been a sleepy institution in contempo years, its resources and collection are incredibly impressive. A revitalized Philadelphia History Museum has the ability to tell the story of our urban center and to inform every discussion nigh its future. Simply, if a central repository of city history is to disappear, and if the collection is scattered to the wind, our city will be much the worse for the loss.

The collective civic inability to support the city's history museum is not a story about a lack of money. Clearly, the resource be in Philadelphia to back up and so many worthy—and fifty-fifty many questionable—organizations. In recent years, the civic community has supported the creation and renovation of an impressive array of new and refreshed institutions. No, this is a story of a failure of imagination and a dereliction of municipal stewardship.

The city accepted responsibility for the museum more 80 years ago and that responsibility is memorialized in the urban center charter that is Philadelphia's central governing tape. Our elected leaders have an obligation to sustain this institution and Philadelphia equally a whole has a responsibility to safeguard its past and its history museum. Its closure is a dereliction of this responsibility.

We should not stand for such a civic loss and the failure of our city leadership on this affair has been disappointing. Any Mayor or civic leader who will not stand up upward to preserve our city'south history, should, themselves exist history.

The Board of Trustees of the Philadelphia History Museum have invited the public to participate in a discussion almost the time to come of the museum and its celebrated collection beginning at 6 pm tonight, February 27th, at the National Constitution Center. Everyone with a comment or a question or an idea should program to attend.

Hither's my thought. Those behind the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame and the Philadelphia Music Hall of Fame take long sought to construct a home for their collections and a shrine to their inductees. Their dreams could help infuse some energy into the discussion well-nigh the future of the Philadelphia History Museum. Properly capitalized—perhaps with an initial contribution from the city'south deep-pocketed Rebuild initiative—the history of the city, its sports and its music could be told in a style that tin can preserve the Philadelphia story for hereafter generations.

More than than three centuries of artifacts and stories and information uppercase have been collected and curated to course our urban center's history museum. If that museum is disassembled, it volition never exist again no matter how elements of information technology are preserved. We should not represent such a civic loss and the failure of our metropolis leadership on this matter has been disappointing. Whatsoever Mayor or civic leader who will not stand up to preserve our metropolis'due south history, should, themselves exist history.

Brett Mandel is former executive director of Philadelphia Frontward, a nonprofit that encourages civic date and advocates for smarter uses of public money. He ran for City Controller in 2013.

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/guest-commentary-no-future-for-philadelphia-history/

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