Browse Exhibits (29 total)
Johnny Mulligan
After immigrating from Scotland to Philadelphia in 1922, Johnny Mulligan boxed professionally, danced with the Irish Merrymakers, and played striker for the Electric Storage Battery Company's industrial league soccer team.
Malka Al Saadi and Mutaz Al Mudaris
Growing up in a religiously, ethnic, and culturally diverse community in Baghdad, Iraq, Malka Al Saadi (b. 1941) became a prominent obstetrician-gynecologist, and a department head at Saddam College of Medicine. Mutaz Al Mudaris (b. 1973), her second son, became an agricultural engineer, and having learned English as a child in Great Britain, also worked as a translator for Iraqi Youth TV. Forced to flee to Jordan because of threats against their lives during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, they immigrated to the United States in 2009. In this inervuew they talk about their lives in Iraq through three wars, the collapse of their homeland after the U.S. invasion in 2003, and their new lives in Philadelphia, which reminds them of Baghdad.
Marco Jara
Marco Antonio Roman Jara (b. 1970) was raised in a large, extended family in Mexico City, Mexico. After growing up and moving to Cancun, Mexico, Jara fell in love and decided to immigrate to the United States to marry the love of his life. Impressed by the diversity he found in Philadelphia, Jara embraced his new home in the City of Brotherly Love.
Max Tannenbaum
Max Tannenbaum (b. 1905) was 7 when his father left Ukraine in 1912 for the United States. For the next decade Tannenbaum worked to provide for his mother and younger brothers. Conscripted into the Red Army after the Bolsheviks took over Ukraine, he fled to Poland and then the United States, arriving in Philadelphia in 1924, where he became active in unions before starting his own business.
Min “Mandy” Wang
Min “Mandy” Wang (b. 1986) grew up in Liuyang, China, where she worked in the local fireworks factories before attending Central South University Forestry and Technology in nearby Changsha City. There, she also met her Chinese-American husband. After giving birth to their son in Hong Kong, so that he could have dual citizenship, Min in 2018 joined her husband in Philadelphia. Today, she dreams of moving to the suburbs and making enough money to send her children to a good school, so that they can take full advantage of the opportunities available in America.
Mingchu Pearl Huynh
Born in 1965 to Chinese parents in Vietnam, Mingchu Pearl Huynh grew up during the Vietnam War. Displaced by violence, Huynh began working at a young age to help support the family. To make sense of her life, she turned to Buddhism, starting a lifelong journey of service to others. After living in a refugee camp in Indonesia, Huynh came to the U.S. at age 14, ran away from home, went to college, and became a software engineer. After living in New York, Huynh settled in Philadelphia in 2012, where she devotes herself to the community.
Radio Show
Charles Hardy produced the radio series I Remember When: Times Gone But Not Forgotten, broadcast on WHYY-FM, Public Radio in Philadelphia in the early 1980s. The series, drawn from oral history interviews, explored the history of Philadelphia during its industrial heyday through the memories of those who had lived through it.
Sam Brosilow
Sam Brosilow (1898-1983) was three when he came from Russia with his parents to Philadelphia. He began working in the men’s garment industry at the age of 14 and remained a cutter throughout his career. Radical in his beliefs about workers' rights, he supported the unionization of the Philadelphia clothing industry and was an active member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Tough and cantankerous, Brosilow stood up to anyone, regardless of their position.
Xichuan "Matt" Zhang
Xichuan "Matt" Zhang (b. 1964) grew up with his mother and four siblings in a small town in Shaanxi Province, China. In 1995, Zhang immigrated to the United States to teach Chinese martial arts at the University of Delaware. After meeting his wife, he packed up his things and moved to Philadelphia. There, Zhang found a home in the people, culture, and opportunities the city has to offer. In this interview, Zhang talks about his life in China and the United States, and his dreams of sharing his knowledge with the people of Philadelphia.