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It Takes a Lot of Power to Play Lightning and Thunder
I’m old enough to remember shopping for music in physical stores, flipping through the albums by hand in the hopes of finding a hidden gem. Sometimes I’d take a chance buying an album based entirely on the intriguing artwork on the cover, but this was an unreliable way to spend my money. I recently had…
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Loose Lips Sink Ships
For men and women deployed during World War II, mail was an important morale boost. Letters from home were a brief escape from the stress and dangers military and civilian personnel experienced daily. The Ann Ingersoll Townsend Simpson papers are full of correspondence to and from her while she was serving in the China Burma…
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The Philadelphia Orchestra, an Argentinian researcher, and the Free Library of Philadelphia
STORIES FROM THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION RECORDS In honor of National Library Week, I’m sharing a story of The Philadelphia Orchestra, a scholar from Argentina, and the Free Library of Philadelphia. While processing the files of the Orchestra’s administrative staff, I came across a letter written in Spanish, addressed to the “Orquesta Sinfonica Filadelfia, U.…
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Finding Your Ancestors in the Archive
Note: Please refer to the University of Pennsylvania’s Sensitive Materials Statement in reference to the harmful language found in documents below. Last year, I listened to an investigative podcast called Sugar Land, about the discovery of the unmarked graves of 95 convict laborers who were buried on land that a school district wanted to develop.…
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What’s in a name? An Alternate Identity of The Philadelphia Orchestra, and a Brief Foray into its Recording Activities
STORIES FROM THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION RECORDS Many of us are aware that some of the most famous movie stars of the 20th century had stage names. Handsome, debonaire Cary Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach, and “bombshell blonde” Marilyn Monroe was Norma Jeane Mortenson before achieving her iconic status. Before their time, authors published…
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The art and creativity in Jewish tuǧras
After cataloging enough documents and manuscripts with tuǧras of fascinating dimensions, drawings, and levels of design, I realized that a post showing the great and unique Jewish tuǧras was called for. Tuǧras, as explained by The Getty Art and Architechture Thesaurus, “[…] were used as authentication on documents, because the Ottoman sultans did not sign…