The Philadelphia Public History Truck settles down at little berlin for its first stationary exhibit

<em>First and Flames</em>

While walking through a courtyard toward the little berlin exhibition space on a recent Saturday, I met with a group of people who had never visited the gallery before. They seemed uncertain they were headed in the right direction, and I overheard one visitor comment on the landscape to another: “Did you watch the last episode of The Walking Dead? This looks like that.” 

This statement proved a good introduction to the contents of the exhibition, as “Manufacturing Fire” deals with East Kensington’s excess of crumbling textile factories and their tendency to catch fire, leaving behind an abandoned industrial landscape that wouldn’t be out of place in zombie lore. 

“Manufacturing Fire” marks the first stationary exhibition for the Philadelphia Public History Truck, a repurposed Italian ice-peddling vehicle with a mission rooted in the M.A. public-history thesis of little berlin member Erin Bernard. The truck seeks to create accessible and personal neighborhood-specific history exhibits that rely on oral histories and partnerships with community stakeholders. 

The show at little berlin came together through a number of History Truck events in which the truck historians spoke with and collected the stories of East Kensington residents. Bernard was struck by the frequency with which fire was mentioned in these narratives. The tragedy of the Buck Hosiery Factory fire in 2012, that claimed the lives of two firefighters, convinced her that Kensington’s propensity for flammability was a compelling means to frame the story of a community. 

Those familiar with presentations of history at established museums will recognize the trappings — didactic signs or interactive games that illustrate points and hope to force some active learning upon the viewer. At a museum, these arrays would be glossy, whereas at little berlin, they are homespun — and perhaps more endearing. 

Little berlin rests in the shadow of Viking Mill, an old textile factory that was shut down this past October for fire and other code violations. Viking Mill is the phoenix from the ashes of Arrott’s Steam Power Mills Co., which burned to the ground in an 1881 multi-block inferno. 

At the exhibition, there are also several revelations on the hist-ory of tense racial relations in the community. One display, based on oral history collected from St. Francis Inn’s soup kitchen, brings to light how guests of the inn were told to take differing paths to the post office in the ’90s, to help prevent race-based violence by East Kensington residents on non-white passersby. 

Particularly poignant is “First and Flames,” a hand-made floor map placed upon a rug, bringing to mind the area’s history in producing rugs. On the map, tags with burned edges mark the date and location of fires. Words connected to first memories of the neighborhood, which were collected during a “storytelling block party,” dot the spaces in between. 

The full stories are written on strips of fabric and contain sentences like, “The mother of my kids passed away in an accident” or “I got lost on my way to little berlin.” The memories are unrelated to the fires, but placing the two near one another mingles the ghost of history with current residents, creating a space where time seems to dissolve. 

Sat., April 19, Noon-5 p.m. and Sat., April 26, noon-8 p.m., or by appointment through April 26, little berlin, 2430 Coral St., littleberlin.org.