Little known parts of Independence

May of 2012 and it's "Take My Students to the Mutter" time again! On this afternoon, once I dispersed the students to their own devices, I walked through some areas I'd never visited before. They are loosely affiliated with Independence, or at least they list them on their website. Benjamin Rush was a physician during the Revolutionary War and he lived in Philadelphia. He actually helped found the College of Physicians of Philadelphia where the Mutter Museum is located, so I've been learning about him through my many visits there. They have a medicinal herb garden named after him. On my walk through Philly I found his house site and his grave. Christ Church is known more for having Ben Franklin buried there, but it was a double treasure for me to see Rush's grave.

Both pages are wallpaper. On the left I needed something to balance the greenery of the photos, so chose brown tones. I like the swirl on the paper--it makes me think of Grecian columns. The journal box was from the Vintage card pack from Creative Memories. I thought the edge set off from the swirls nicely. On the right is actually a remnant of paper. I mounted it right and then tried to "hide" the missing left edge by mounting the map of the burial ground and the photo of Franklin's grave flush left. There's a tiny bit of un-papered page showing, but not much.

My other stop of the day wasn't exactly part of Independence NHP, but it was in the same genre. There is a group that keeps the Ross house as a museum. The Ross's were real people, but there is no real proof she sewed the flag of our country. Nonetheless, it's a good way to teach people about liberty and the house tour was a nice end to my visit.

This is of course wallpaper again. I thought the antique looking flag the perfect background. The circle of stars frames the entry ticket nicely and the stripes provide a nice background to the photo of the house and the commemorative plaque. I wish I could remember where the paper came from, but nothing comes to mind.