ROOTS & BRANCHES

Who doesn’t like a birthday? OK, I’ll admit as the number of my birthdays has stacked up into a seventh decade, I get a little bit less enamored with all-out celebrations.

But when it comes to institutions, I think we’d all agree that “the more, the merrier” is a great way of looking at it.

That’s one of the reasons why I’m happy that Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, where I’m finishing up a spell as interim executive director in a few months, will be a partner for the 200^th anniversary of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania that officially will be next year.

It’s fitting that GSP helps HSP in this celebration since GSP began as the “genealogy committee” of HSP before becoming an independent organization, and the two continue to share an overlapping constituency of family historians.

HSP bills itself as “Philadelphia’s Library of American History” has more than 21 million manuscripts, books, and graphic images to prove it.

In kicking off the anniversary year, HSP’s Librarian and CEO David Brigham edited a survey of the collections titled Two Hundred Years: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1824–2024. A variety of authors used HSP’s documents, newspapers, graphics, and rare books to illustrate the breadth of the collections.

As part of the anniversary celebration, HSP is teaming up with five partners, each illustrating one of the society’s strategic themes, to develop collaborative programming and joint exhibits based on the strategic themes of the collections.  These partners are:

• Association for Public Art, which will begin an exhibit on Jan. 30 called “Public Art in Philadelphia: A Legacy Shaped by Women.” This partnership fits the HSP strategic theme of “The Soul of America: Visual, Performing, and Literary Arts.” This display will highlight the historic accomplishments and recent contributions of women who have worked in the public art field as artists, benefactors, and leaders.  
• Science History Institute, which collects, preserves, interprets, and shares the lesser-known and sometimes overlooked stories from the history of science and technology, will have an exhibit at GSP beginning April 10 around the theme of “Americans and Innovation: Science, Technology, and Enterprise.”
• Independence Historical Trust is the nonprofit that helps with the national park including Independence Hall in downtown Philadelphia, and its exhibit that begins June 5 will illustrate “Pennsylvania: Crucible of the Nation.”
• Taller Puertorriqueno, a community based cultural organization whose primary purpose is to preserve, develop, and promote Puerto Rican arts and culture, will curate an exhibit on “America’s Promise and Its Many Voices” coming aboard on Aug. 21.
• Finally, GSP will be the final partner to exhibit (beginning Oct. 14) and tackle the theme of “What’s Your Story? Chronicling Families and Communities.”

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HSP, 1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, phone (215) 732-6200, website https://www.portal.hsp.org/

 GSP, 2100 Byberry Road, Suite 111 – Philadelphia PA 19116, phone (267) 686-2296, website https://genpa.org/