Nerd Tourism: Streets of Philadelphia

The movers came and they took quite a while getting my things into the truck, but that's also because they were doing it right, wrapping everything in blankets and such to ensure its safe delivery, 3000 miles away. Afterwards I had to find something to do with myself for the rest of the day. Luckily that wasn't hard to do.


Bunnicula does not know what to make of the empty apartment.

I stopped for lunch then headed for the Mason Museum, a place I've always wanted to check out, taking photos along the way...


Wee airplane over City Hall

Former Mayor Frank Rizzo could use a shoe shine.




John McCain as a mummer?


To my chagrin but not my surprise, the Mason Museum is closed on Mondays. So I hightailed it over to the Franklin Institute in hopes of catching the Galileo exhibit there.



Seeing the instruments in the exhibit were cool, but unfortunately nearly all of the medieval books in the exhibit were facsimiles, and not terribly convincing ones at that. I could tell the 4 or 5 real ones out of the dozens of fakes from across the room. Also, although most of the exhibit was very low lit, at the exit two of the REAL medieval books, one on loan from UPenn's rare book room and another, funnily enough, from my now-former company (because the book was published in Amsterdam by Louis Elzevir in the 1600s) were under the harshest possible fluorescent lights. I shook my head. Tsk tsk. Wanted to call the book police, as if there were such a thing.

But the Franklin holds a lot of Philly nostalgia for me. As a very young child I thought I'd be a scientist (a paleontologist, I declared, in kindergarten). Going through the heart for the first time is a very vivid, exciting childhood memory of mine. A first love, even. I went through it again today. Though I've been at the Franklin for a number of things over my years in Philadelphia (shooting a music video, seeing IMAX films, even DJing there) but going through the heart today as an adult was movingly nostalgic for me.




Also I forgot how much I adored Foucault's Pendulum, even if it does remind me of Vertigo.



Can you feel the earth move under your feet? Since half of the pegs are knocked down, you can see it's near closing time.

Speaking of first loves, I ducked into the Free Library of Philadelphia, but only briefly. Missed the rare book room hours. Might try to find the time to go by again this week. That was the first rare book room I'd been in, and now I feel I'd appreciate it much more. Also, as a teenager, I started taking the train into the city to work on this research project, and it was an important summer for me, learning to love not only the library but negotiating the city for the first time on my own.





I also ducked into the Book Corner, a beloved former haunt, to see what they had in their rare books, even though I can't buy a thing because all of my stuff is packed and gone. Still spent a decent amount of time in there. They've got great pretty used copies of everything. A real browsing bookstore.



Continued on over to Mugshots for a coffee, passing another fave, Eastern State Penitentiary. One peanut butter and chocolate soy smoothie (plus espresso shot) and a few chapters of Origin of the Species via Kindle later, and it wasn't a bad first day of (thankfully temporary) unemployment.

Curtis Institute of Music Library

The Curtis Institute of Music is one of the most respected conservatories in the world, instructing about 160 scholarship students annually in a performance-focused environment. The John de Lancie Library is located in the Milton L. Rock Resource Center, which is located across the street from the institute on Mozart Place near Rittenhouse Square in Center City Philadelphia.

The library houses more than 80,000 music scores, books, and recordings in the four floors of a 1908 townhouse. The cramped confines of the beautiful building pose space challenges for their small professional staff. Planned renovations to the basement and the eventual relocation of the orchestra parts library and instrument collection to a new facility should give the de Lancie Library room to grow.

Head librarian Elizabeth Walker says that their collection is almost entirely scores and recordings for student use; very little research materials are used. For the de Lancie Library, there are 3 professional librarians, one quarter-time archivist, and one-and-one-half support staff positions. All of the Curtis librarians are performing musicians with cataloguing knowledge in at least three languages. The three orchestra staff members, whose library is located on the top floor of the building, equal about three-quarters of one full-time position. The orchestra library staff also rent all the music for Curtis’ students.



The first floor of Curtis’ library mainly consists of a periodicals reading room. There are interesting donated artifacts in this room, like death masks and hand casts of famous composers and a beautiful, giant Latin Gradual from Spain, dating from the latter half of the 16th century.



It was a bit jarring to see such a thing just out in the open like that, surrounded by boxes. It is the second of a 4 volume set, illustrating the music of the propers of masses that fall between the first Sunday of Lent and Palm Sunday. The parchment folio stands about three feet tall. A closer look:



On the second floor there is a rather beautiful hurdy gurdy as well that was donated by a former student. The second floor accommodates students’ audio and visual needs, with microform readers, Internet access, and listening carrels with turntables, cassettes, CD and CDR capabilities. Students can access the library’s proprietary catalog, the Rock Online Catalog (ROC), at computers on this floor as well. Currently 90 percent of the Institute’s materials are catalogued in ROC, including all extant recordings of Curtis performances. The library also provides access to a growing number of music-related electronic databases.



There are also stacks of recordings, primarily on vinyl, but some other media as well including reel-to-reel tape.



Also on the second floor is an enclosed listening room for groups to watch and listen to performances.



Although the top floor was closed, there is an instrument lending library for the Curtis students. Eighty string instruments, ranging from 17th century Cremonese craftsmanship to modern American instruments are housed in a climate-controlled room. A wide selection of woodwind and brass instruments are also available there.

The library at the Curtis Institute of Music is one of a score of amazing special libraries tucked away in the streets of Philadelphia. One can live their whole life in the city and not know that such places even exist. As a library student and lover of this fair city, I’ve been making it my business to visit a lot of these libraries and check out their collections. There are a lot of treasures in this town if you take the time to look.

This particular visit (and this blog entry) is for an assignment for my Music Librarianship and Bibliography class, via the GSLiS at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I’m taking this class through a consortium as a Fasttrack MLIS student at the University of Pittsburgh. Come spring, I’ll have my degree.

I Represent Philly

This player has a bunch of songs loaded on it from the Philly bands playing Philebrity's Philly Jawn party at South by Southwest (SXSW) this year. You can skip forward through the tracks as well, it's all really good (and yes, my roomie's on there as well).

Guess what other Philly thing will be in attendance in Austin?

ME.

Wooo. Can't wait. Next Thursday is too far away. Baby needs a vacation.