Philadelphia Revealed WHYY

Stories about the stuff we collect and what happens to it after we’re gone. Neil Benson was a photographer and salvage artist who believed that “trash is simply a failure of imagination.” When he died in 2023, Benson left behind a house filled floor-to-ceiling with his collections of typewriters, Hawaiian shirts and a jacket covered with hundreds of buttons. That jacket reminded storyteller Neil Bardhan of his father’s collection of political campaign buttons and childhood trips to antique stores and a motel-room flea market.

Ever since she was young, Tanisha Palmer has loved to style hair – for herself, for her dolls, for her friends. And her friends let her practice on them, even though when she was starting out, she’d sometimes make mistakes and burn their scalps. Tanisha was inspired by a decorative comb that was made as a souvenir for the 1876 Centennial, aka the United States’ 100th birthday party.

The handcuffs in the Atwater Kent collection stood out to Yahya Moore right away. He was recently released from prison, after serving 25 years for a crime he didn’t commit. Through studying the law, he saw the link between modern mass incarceration and slavery. And feels a deep connection to the abolitionist who might have worn these shackles: John Brown.

Anjoli Santiago has always had a conflicted relationship with religion. Church made her feel like she belonged… until it didn’t. Now, she’s seeking a new spirituality that’s inspired by water. So she’s blown away by an image that seems to bring her two spiritualities together: a church, floating on the Delaware River.

Growing up, Jamie J’s house had a radio in every room. Music brought the family together. Now she’s the culture keeper for her family, taking care of the collection of antique radios. They remind her a lot of the radios from the Atwater Kent collection.

Introducing Philadelphia Revealed, a new podcast from WHYY. In every episode you’ll learn about an object in the Atwater Kent Collection at Drexel University and hear a story inspired by it from a First Person Arts storyteller.