The country’s third longest Foucault pendulum is in Philadelphia‘s Franklin Institute. It proves that the Earth is round and turns on an axis. The Pendulum appears to change direction while in reality the Earth is the one spinning and the pendulum maintaining a constant direction. The museum is named after Read more
Rocky ran up the steps to the museum entrance as he trained to defeat the Russian boxer during the height of the Cold War. Tourists line up at his statue to take a photo with young Sylvester Stallone and leap at the top step. I’m not sure how many of Read more
The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, like many other American patriotic symbols, are not what the traditional national narrative claims it to be. For example, the Star Spangled Banner written at Fort McHenry came from the War of 1812, an expansionist American war of aggression against the British Empire, which they Read more
The first postmaster general of the United States is also the only non-president to be permanently featured on American money. He built his house in the middle of a courtyard in Philadelphia, making the museum tricky to find. Franklin was one of 17 children and apprenticed under his brother, a Read more
The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia is devoted to education on the American constitution and the history of American slavery. The constitution was severely challenged when southern states decided to leave the union despite the supreme court ruling that the nation is indestructible. But after the war and Abraham Lincoln‘s Read more
The famous French sculptor has his main museum at the Museé Rodin in Paris. Many of his works in clay have been cast in bronze for Philadelphia. Sculptures are one of the few forms of visual art that can be reproduced faithfully in a near-exact manner. Featured figures in his Read more
Philadelphia was the largest city in British North America at the time. Independence Hall was originally built as Pennsylvania’s colonial seat of power with the governor’s office and the courtroom inside the building. The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were signed here. You have to book in advance Read more
This museum in New York City should be seen in context with Philadelphia’s Weitzman Museum of Jewish Americans. This is the art and culture museum, and that is the history museum. The yellow OY/YO is immediately recognizable in both museums as are the photos of European Jews landing in Coney Read more
I was fully prepared for the Guggenheim in New York City to be the same experience as the Museum of Modern Art downtown. It’s crowded, caters to the basic mass market, and is massively overhyped. Its interior is structurally similar to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washing D.C. Being a giant Read more
Delaware made assisting slave escapes illegal, so participants had to be very clever about the Underground Railroad or risk getting caught. If caught, the penalty included a year in prison, a fine of $100, and being sold into slavery—a high price. Abolitionists sometimes managed to redeem the freedom of their Read more