Olde Philadelphia

Today I went to the American Philosophical Society to use their library. It was a bit stricter than archives I had used before. After I introduced myself as a PACHS fellow they asked for two forms of ID and had me create a username and password for a library user account then gave me a magnetic card to hang around my neck for the day, so I could beep open the doors. Once in the reading room, books had to be requested electronically. But one librarian was very nice and, when I told him that my research intersected with Ben Franklin's stay in France he relished the opportunity to wax lyrical about Franklin's dalliances with aristocratic French ladies. It must be true, I saw for myself in his correspondence that they all addressed him as "Papa". He's very well thought of in Philadelphia too. That statue on the building is Franklin as a Roman and there's a life-sized statue of him seated on a bench at UPenn as well as busts everywhere.

I also went to the mint (because it is closed weekends). I don't have any photos of that to post because taking photos is banned, they even threaten to prosecute any caught trying! Actually, this didn't surprise me so much because a couple of days ago I heard someone discussing how it's illegal to have images of US currency. She was complaining that she tried to scan a dollar bill to use on a poster or something but Photoshop refused to abet her! The mint wasn't that interesting and you couldn't see much happening in the machines but it was free.

Another thing you see in that part of town is horse-drawn carriages. Unlike New York, there's no Central Park so I figure they must be doing historical tours of the buildings etc. (that would explain why some of the female drivers are dressed up like Betsy Ross). Last time I was there I noticed someone holding a sign in protest against the carriage rides, it said something about it being an archaic and cruel practice to make animals pull vehicles. But there was someone else holding another sign explaining that these horses had been rescued from slaughter (it didn't explain why they were destined for slaughter in the first place). I wished I had Cindy with me so she could tell them that sending horses to an abattoir is not a waste if they end up on her plate!