Hot Town, Summer in the City…of Philadelphia

While I enjoy my internship at the Library Company’s Print Department and work days are never dull, there is something special about the mythic summer weekend, the fleeting two-day space of freedom immortalized in film and song.  Every Thursday night my apartment mates and I begin to wonder aloud, what are we doing this weekend? Housing and cataloging the Holstein Stereograph Collection has taught me that the answer a person in the late 19th century might have given to this question is very similar to our own today.

Feeling celebratory, we might join a crowd of spectators at a parade:

Tiring of all the riches of land, we might head to sea (or, if in Pennsylvania, to the Schuylkill River):

If not inspired enough to move from your computer and get started on your own weekend plans, why not learn more about these particular images, and visit the Library Company’s Flickr page. All of these stereographs, plus many others, are included in our photostream, as is information about the views depicted and the name of the photographer. Enjoy!