My Mecca!

After my ice cream break I waited in the security line to get screened to go to Independence Hall. It was a very long line. very. Almost from market street to chestnut. When I finally made it through the checkpoint I flew through the Liberty Bell building (since I'd already done that with Gina) and crossed the street. I was early for my tour, so I visited Congress Hall while I had time. It was really interesting and I loved it and took lots of pictures of desks and tables and inkpots that I am not going to bore you with. Do you see how compassionate I am? Sparing you from the incessantly boring parts of my life?

Then, after Congress Hall, I went to the American Philosophical Society Museum. That was the only building in the entire complex where photography wasn't allowed. (I don't understand why we can take pictures of the original Constitution but not of some guy's drawing of a hummingbird, but whatever). The museum was small, but fun. And, Dad will be interested in this, there was a display of part of an Astrological journal that was never published but was being written and illustrated by English Astronomer John Bevis. The picture on display here was of a constellation that looks like a lion. If I had paid more attention when Ken Brandt was talking in high school I would know its name.

Then...I had my tour of I-Hall! For those of you who might not know it (I don't know who that would be, but still...) I spent most of the last year writing about the documents that were penned in this building.


The start of our tour included the guide asking where people were from. There was a large group from North Carolina who were there on a "Christian Tour." I mention them because they (down to every last one of them) were wearing red, white, and blue. I felt like they were on their way to a Fourth of July rally. This picture doesn't do them justice, but you have to take my word for it that they were quite a sight:


I-Hall itself was awesome, we got to see the Supreme Court room and (most importantly) the room where they drafted our founding documents. It was a holy experience. If Dr. Schippert were reading this, I would make an effort to include a brief mention of Robert Bellah's "civil religion" concept. You have been spared that painful experience, but I'm afraid you can't escape all pictures of desks...because it's just so exciting to me that you have to see them too:


It was a really magnificent feeling to be in the place that the men I'd studied for years actually used to craft a country. I'm not going to claim I could feel their ghosts, or that I could imagine what the room would have looked like with them in it, because that would be patently ridiculous. But it was still an awe-inspiring place to be. After the tour was finished and we were rushed out back into the daylight in the courtyard, I had to take a few minutes to re-adjust. It's hard to accept and process a place as important as this.

I visited what is Philadelphia's equivalent of the National Archives when I'd had sufficient time to think about the tour. In the west wing of I-Hall they have a small room containing original printings of the Declaration, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution (the copy of the Constitution was George Washington's personal copy). They looked old and yellow and almost made me cry. It's hard to believe how emotionally involved I am with stuff that was written so long ago. I wish I could call myself scholarly, but I'm really just a nerd.

Now, a note about the park rangers: they are cute. The hats are a little questionable, but there are some very good looking park rangers. And they're nice. The one in the archives room was really friendly. He answered my question about "how can these be considered originals since the National Archives claims to have the originals" (because these were original printings, those were hand written. Each created within days of each other). After he answered that he asked me where I was from, and I told him Florida, but that I just moved here. He asked why I was visiting I-hall, and I told him that I spent most of the last year writing a thesis that was heavily based on these documents and the men who wrote them. At which point he said: "so i can look forward to you visiting every weekend?" I laughed, but I'll be going back when I can. It's a cool place.

I think that's all I can write about my first i-hall trip. One last picture: