Philadelphia has seen numerous waves of immigration from different countries and cultures over the course of its history, including a large number from Puerto Rico after World War II. “We have to start before that, back to the Spanish American War,” to fully consider the city’s relationship with Puerto Rico, noted Selena Bemak, programs and communications coordinator at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP).

That is where a new exhibit, HSP 200 + Taller 50: Uncovering and Preserving Puerto Rican Stories begins, with the 1898 conflict that yielded Cuba’s independence and the United States’ acquisition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.

During that war, Major General John Rutter Brooke served as military governor of Puerto Rico. “He was beloved by the islanders,” said Bemak. “After the war, he was offered the governorship, but had to decline it because he was reassigned to the military governorship of Cuba.” He was a Pottstown native who led troops in the Civil War, including the battles of Gettysburg and Antietem, as well as the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. After his retirement, Brooke lived in Philadelphia and donated his papers to HSP, which contain a wealth of documentation of the city’s relationship with the island at that time.

The Brooke papers were just one of the sources the curators mined for the exhibit. “A lot of items came from the Balch Institute,” Bemak said, referring to the Philadelphia organization that had collected materials on several ethnic groups in the United States and merged into HSP in 2002. “I was pleasantly surprised to find so much material in so many places.” Another fruitful source was the Jane Campbell Collection, an exhaustive set of over 100 scrapbooks of Philadelphia newspaper clippings, postcards, and photographs compiled between 1890 and 1921.

Puerto Rican migration to the mainland increased with the Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917, which conveyed citizenship to Puerto Ricans. “The main driving factor of Puerto Rican migration was employment,” explained Bemak. At the time, Philadelphia was home to industries that were familiar to Puerto Ricans, including cigar manufacturing, sugar refining, and the garment industry. “Until the 1950s, Philadelphia had a prominent cigar business presence,” said Bemak. “It made for an easy transition from the island.”

“One of my favorite items in the exhibit is our Eisenlohr cigar box,” noted Masada Devine Melendez, the archivist for Taller Puertorriqueno. The Otto Eisenlohr & Brothers, Inc. was founded in Philadelphia in 1850, with the “Cinco” cigar being their most popular product. A rival, the Bayuk Cigar Company, came along in 1896, whose best-known product, the “Philadelphia Hand Made” is still made, as the “Phillies” brand.

As Puerto Ricans arrived and gained employment in these industries, they settled near the work in Kensington, Northern Liberties, and Spring Garden. This knowledge of the kind of work Puerto Ricans did and the neighborhoods they gravitated to helped Bemak hone her search for items.

The exhibit also highlights the post-war migration surge of the 1950s. At that time, much of the Puerto Rican community moved north, creating the 5th Street corridor known as El Bloque de Oro (the Golden Block) from about York Street to Allegheny Avenue. That coincided with the founding of civic and cultural organizations, including Concilio, the Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations in 1964 and Taller Puertorriqueno in 1974. In its inaugural year, Concilio sponsored a Puerto Rican Week Festival, which was the precursor to the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade, which it still hosts.

For this exhibit, the collections of the two collaborating organizations complemented each other. While HSP owns an exhaustive archive of documents, “We have an artifact collection and an art collection,” said Devine Melendez. Examples from Taller’s Eugenio Maria de Hostos Archives include Vejigante masks and maracas made from coconuts, Taino carved clay objects, and carvings of Puerto Rico’s distinctive coqui frogs. “It’s a natural match,” said Justina Barrett, HSP’s chief learning and engagement officer. “They’re not an archive, but they understand what we’re doing.”

Of particular note is a display about a 1979 Taller oral history project, called Batiendo la Olla, or Stirring the Pot. The 65 interviews resulted in a book documenting the variety of Puerto Rican experience in Philadelphia, with some participants who were born on the island and came to Philadelphia, others were Philadelphia born, and still others returned to the island after being here. The original tapes reside in Taller’s archive, and some appear in the HSP online exhibit Neighbors/Vecinos. “As part of our anniversary celebration, we’re going to create a new edit of the book and also have some new interviews,” said Devine Melendez.

This collaboration is the fourth in HSP’s year-long celebration of its 200th anniversary. “We centered it around five themes from our strategic plan,” explained Justina Barrett, director of education and programs at HSP, with this exhibit representing the theme “America’s Promise and Its Many Voices.”

A workshop entitled “Peopling Pennsylvania: Puerto Rican Ancestors” will be held on September 24. On September 26, HSP will present a lecture by journalist Juan Gonzalez, co-host of the news program Democracy Now! entitled “From Puerto Rico to Pennsylvania: History, Challenges, and Amor Boricua.”

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HSP 200 + Taller 50: Uncovering and Preserving Puerto Rican Stories is on display at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust Street, through October 11. The free exhibit is open Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. and Wednesdays from 1:00 until 7:00 p.m.

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