Ring of Fire

While doing an internet search of museums to visit in Philadelphia, I stumbled on the Fireman's Hall Museum. What a completely adorable place! First, some photos:









In short, there are a few things that made the Fireman's Hall Museum so enjoyable.

1. The location is fantastic. The museum is a few steps from Elfreths Alley and only a few blocks from Independence Hall, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, and the rest of Old City. To give you a sense of the location, this is Elfreths Alley:





2. The museum is free. A donation bucket is available for those who desire to be generous, but donations are not required. All too often, museums become places only for families or individuals who can afford a ticket price of $10 or more.

3. The museum is totally digestible. Larger museums (like the Metropolitan, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, or even the Penn Museum) are simply too big to absorb in one visit. In contrast, the Fireman's Hall Museum has only two, relatively small floors, and the exhibits are not too text-heavy.

4. The museum has great stuff, the kind of stuff that one does not often see. When was the last time you saw a fire bucket or walked up the first, very primitive fire engines? The stuff at the Fireman's Hall Museum is also thought-provoking. Although I had worked with these kind of objects before, I had not particularly thought about the fact that more effective firefighting developed hand in hand with improved water systems. In that sense, the museum fulfilled part of its purpose - to educate the public.