A guide book of art, architecture, and historic interests in Pennsylvania
History
A guide book of art, architecture, and historic interests in Pennsylvania
Architecture -- Pennsylvania; Art -- Pennsylvania; Historic buildings -- Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania -- Guidebooks; Pennsylvania -- History
portraits, drawings, studies, and manuscripts by Benjamin West, includes
the full length portrait of William Hamilton of the Woodlands, and his
niece, Mrs. Ann Hamilton Lyle, probably the most beautiful of West’s
portraits in this city; other artists represented are Charles Willson
Peale, Jacob Eicholtz, Thomas Sully, Rembrandt Peale, John Neagle,
Charles Gilbert Stuart, Robert Edge Pine, John Singleton Copley, Walter
G. Gould, Henry Inman, Paul Weber, and William E. Winner. Among the
miniatures are those by John Trumbull, James Peale, and Robert Fulton.
Marble busts are of Washington, Franklin, Milton, Henry Clay, Major
General Robert Patterson, T. Buchanan Read, and Dr. Joseph Parrish.
Relics of great historic interest include the Ephrata Printing Press,
the Charter of the City of Philadelphia, and the “Great Belt of Wampum,”
representing the famous Shackamaxon Treaty between William Penn and the
Indians, “never signed and never broken.”
MASONIC TEMPLE, Broad and Filbert Streets; Norman architecture; built,
1870; John T. Windrim, architect. Rooms with notable decorations are the
Egyptian; Oriental, Moorish style from sketches made in the Alhambra by
John Sartain; and Corinthian, copied from well-known standards of
architecture, ornament and familiar figure composition. Museum said to
be the greatest existing Masonic museum, contains aprons of Past Grand
Masters of the three oldest Lodges in the world; and George Washington’s
apron, made by Madame Lafayette and presented to him by the Marquis,
worn by Washington at laying of the corner-stone of the Capitol at
Washington; an ancient Templar Cross, original Crusader’s Cross, found
in a grave at Tyre, Syria, A.D. 1250; notable jewelers’ art of England,
Denmark, Germany, France, and Great Britain, in badges, including one
owned by Napoleon I; tablet from Temple of Herod; Sephar Torah, ancient
scroll of the law found in Germany, over eighteen feet long, and from
three hundred to five hundred years old. Library, Byzantine decorations,
with coats of arms, of various Guilds and Grand Lodges, in the ceiling.
The Great Hall, or front entrance, contains portraits and paintings,
among them “The Puritans” by F. J. Waugh and “A Marine Scene” by
Richards; Seals of the States of the Union, and paintings portraying the
Pan Athenia, Greek festival. On the second floor are the Grand Lodge
Room, representing a Corinthian temple, constructed to appear roofless;
the columns, reproductions of the Lysicrates, Athens; mural paintings
represent the mythology of the Greeks, “Weighing of the Soul,” “Ulysses
Passing the Island of the Sirens,” “Birth of Athena,” “Judgment of
Paris,” “The Golden Fleece.” Renaissance Hall, the Tabernacle, contains
the Veils of the Temple. Two paintings at either end represent a High
Priest, and a Scribe. Ionic Hall and Norman Hall have characteristic
ornamentation; Egyptian Hall, decorations are copied from Temples of
Karnak, Elephanta, Philae, Rameses, the Cataracts and Tombs; Ceiling
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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