Second Bank/Portrait Gallery (Katy Blanchard)

THE SECOND NATIONAL BANK





There is a chance that I enjoy a good strong doric column more than other museum goers. That being said, The Second Bank right here in Philly (built by Wm. Strickland, who also built the nearby Merchant's Exchange), currently houses a colonial portrait gallery. The building itself is impressive, even for those that don't find the doric the finest of the column choices. But I will admit that the entirety of the museum was impressive. You enter into the lobby and you can proceed straight through, or through some rooms to the left or the right. There is a room with two computers on which you can search the portraits in the collection by historical activity, person, or even donor.

Portraits are everywhere. High on walls, in groups, and hung singularly. Each time they are accompanied by a small number to the lower right corner and the text can be found below. This allows the eye to not be so cluttered by the text. One example is below:








In the main section of the building, under the central vault, the architecture of the room is mirrored in large steel structures. [reminescent of the Ben Franklin House across the street]

I found this incredibly striking. It allowed the architecture to speak for itself, tied the history of the historic structure to the modern form of exposed steel, gave space to the room without using thick walls to obscure the images, and really kept the flow of the space. [disclaimer: i really like exposed steel]

In the back gallery, there were portraits surrounding the top of the gallery, again with the small numbers to lead you the text below.

In between the portraits and the text was a series of window panels and scrims that were lit with varying degrees of light that created a mosaic of period imagery.

I must say that though I am not a portrait person, the display of the material in this building was incredibly eyepleasing.

The Mummer Museum

The Mummer Entraceway with the most recent winners

The Mummer Museum opened in 1976. If you open another window with the website, you can actually listen to String Band Music while you read this. I don't really know the difference between String Bands and Fancy Brigades and the Comics. So I will admit that while I went to the Museum to entertain a teenage cousin, I was indeed hoping to learn something new. However, I don't really think that it has been updated, other than the substitution of a newer costume here and there, since 1980. I won't lie: I enjoy putting on a costume that has been bedazzled with countless sequins and feathers as much as the next guy, but if you wanted to actually LEARN about the Mummers, I'd steer clear of the text panels.












At the top of the stairs, you enter a small hallway and are greeted by a figure in costume that looks kind of dated, but you hope its not a portend of the rest of the space.

Inside the warehouse like space, similar to the spaces where these creations are manufactured, there are photo murals on the walls and random snippets of costumes with no real labels all over a room with lots of natural lighting. I know these are pirates. But I don't know which club made them, what year they were worn, if they won awards, or if they belong to a fancy brigade [let alone what a fancy was]. Arrrrgh.






This the first text panel you see out of the giant warehouse-like space. And the light has burned out the panel: The Origins of Mummery. I *know*. I was disappointed as well.

It kind of looks like a Fun House, and really, why shouldn't it? What you are really seeing is that not a lot of the lightbulbs work. On the left? A series of "questions" and you can hit a button to see the answer. 2 of the 8 worked.

I don't know what was 5 degrees in 1918 and 62 in 1973, I just know that information stopped around then.

"these" are Mummers. There is a chance that one of the lit up featured folks was working on a Pan Am plane

Though they seem fancy, in that different images light up at various times, its obvious there once was a third of these outlines that no longer works at all. And while I like a period mustache as much as the next museum visitor, it seems like this part could be easily updated.

The highlight, of course, is being able to don a costume seen in a recent parade. I still have no idea if a Fancy Brigader, a String Bander, or a Comic wore this, but with those feathers and that hat? I can't say that I didn't have a good time.