Did this celebrity Bucks County couple secretly tie the knot?
After actor Bradley Cooper and supermodel Gigi Hadid were photographed wearing his-and-hers rings during an outing in Paris on Monday, rumors began to swirl about a confidential marriage.
In close-up photos posted by gossip blog DeuxMoi, Cooper, 51, and Hadid, 31, were spotted wearing what looked like thin wedding bands on their left-hand ring fingers on a walk from their hotel to the gym.
The couple were all smiles in the photos. Cooper wore light blue shorts with a dark blue T-shirt, and a backward NFL cap, while Hadid sported a white tank top with grey leggings.
The famously private couple hasn’t commented on the rumors, but fan chats and rumor mills are buzzing about the potential union, which comes nearly three years after dating rumors surfaced.
The couple was first spotted together on a date at New York City’s Via Carota in October 2023 after meeting at a backyard birthday party for the child of a mutual friend, according to Vogue.
In a March 2025 interview in Vogue, Hadid said the couple had agreed to keep things quiet but described their relationship as “very romantic and happy” and revealed she feels “lucky” to have someone like Cooper by her side.
“I respect him so much as a creative,” she said, “and I feel that he gives so much to me: encouragement and, just, belief.”
Gigi Hadid (left) and Bradley Cooper sit in a box with Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie (right), during an NFL game between the Eagles and the Detroit Lions on Nov. 16, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)Matt Slocum
The couple made it Instagram official in May 2025, when Hadid posted a photo of her and Cooper kissing at her 30th birthday party. “It’s a blessing to feel so loved!! I am grateful and honored to take on a new decade x x G,” the supermodel wrote.
The pair may now be in Paris but they are bona fide Pennsylvanians.
Hadid bought a farmhouse in New Hope with then-boyfriend Zayn Malik; they split in 2021. Cooper, who shares his daughter, Lea De Seine, with ex Irina Shayk,grew up in Abington’s Rydal community, though he’s long claimed to be from Jenkintown.
Actor and director Bradley Cooper attends the special screening of “Is This Thing On?” at the DGA New York Theater on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)Andy Kropa
Shortly after the Silver Linings Playbook actor began dating Hadid, Cooper purchased a $6.5 million, 33-acre Bucks County estate in Solebury Township, strategically located near Hadid’s residence.
Before they were sighted in Paris, the couple attended Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding at Madison Square Garden on July 3.
The preeminent jam band led by guitarist Trey Anastasio — who grew up in Princeton — will kick off its fall 2026 tour with three nights at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall on October 2-4.
The Vermont-born band, which also includes bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman, and keyboard player Page McConnell, have a long history at the Jersey Shore resort town.
Twice before, in 2010 and 2013, the band did three-night Boardwalk Hall stands in October, with each of those including one of the band’s trademark surprise Halloween sets. Also, in 2012, the quartet played three outdoor shows at Bader Field. In 2021 and 2022, the band did three shows on the Atlantic City beach.
In general, Phish doesn’t play Philadelphia the years it plays in Atlantic City. It played in Philadelphia for three nights at the Mann in 2013 and 2015, and in 2024 changed things up with a trio of shows at its own Mondegreen Festival in Dover, Del.
Fans pack the beach near the stage as Phish performs a beach concert in Atlantic City, Friday, Aug. 13, 2021. At right is Caesars Casino. VERNON OGRODNEK / For The InquirerVERNON OGRODNEK / For The Inquirer
Other high profile non-casino bookings this year included a stop on Shakira’s “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran” World Tour at Boardwalk Hall last month and the beach show with Australian electronic band Rüfüs Du Sol on Aug. 29.
Phish posted ticket instructions for the Atlantic City shows on Tuesday. A fan club ticket request period at tickets.phish.com is now underway and continues until noon Monday, Aug. 10.
Tickets go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, Aug. 14 at 10 a.m. Also, a limited number of travel packages for Atlantic City will go on sale Wednesday at noon at https://phishfall.100xhospitality.com/.
The next Met Gala is nine months away, but it’s already sparking charged opinions. The controversy centers around the Costume Institute’s decision to honor one designer at its next exhibit: John Galliano, a lauded fashion designer with a checkered past.
Galliano’s exhibit at the Met will be significant, marking only the third solo show for a living designer in the gala’s history. (The others were Rei Kawakubo in 2017 and Yves Saint Laurent in 1983.)
But it’s not all pierced leather and newspaper print (just two of the designer’s many signature elements). In 2011, Galliano was infamously canceled after his conviction in a Parisian court over a series of racist and antisemitic comments.
It cost him his job leading Dior. At the time, Galliano said his alcohol abuse sparked the outburst.
After “two years of exile‚” the designer’s career bounced back. Now, it will be showcased at length. Still, the Met is working to emphasize that the exhibit would not shy away from the problematic aspects of Galliano’s history.
“His career isn’t defined by a moment — something that he will live with for the rest of his life. The exhibition won’t shy away from any of the darkness in John’s past,“ Anna Wintour told Vogue. Wintor is the global editorial director of Vogue, chief content officer of Condé Nast, and Met Gala chairperson responsible for the event’s programming. “It’s part of what has shaped him. The show will take in the full arc of his career and grapple with all of it.” Wintour is a longtime champion of Galliano and his work.
The exhibit’s announcement — and the rehashing of Galliano’s comments — come during a time when antisemitism is surging globally. Fashion expert and professional thrifter Virginia Chamlee says the Met is equipped to accurately cover an influential artist without sanitizing the ugly parts.
Still, Chamlee noted, the biggest publicity draw for the Met’s annual exhibit is the televised red carpet walks leading up to the gala itself — not the exhibition that follows. She’s concerned that whatever efforts the Met has devoted to accountability could be lost to the larger audience.
“So there’s a real risk here,” Chamlee said. “Even if the museum intends to offer a complete examination of Galliano’s complicated legacy, it may come off as a straightforward celebration of someone who said things so heinous and racist that they were charged and fired for them.”
Met Gala attendees often wear looks by or inspired by the artists being honored, meaning Galliano’s pieces will likely be worn on celebrities whose looks will be photographed and televised prominently.
Fashion influencer and writer Ashley Ballard has collected vintage Galliano Dior-era pieces for years.
“It’s undeniable that Galliano’s time at Dior had a ripple effect on fashion and greater culture,” she said. The designer’s work redefined haute couture with immersive fashion shows, used historical references in fashion, and often bled into pop culture, with top celebrities wearing his designs.
“It’s key for us to remember that pioneers from this time period [1996-2011] — particularly Galliano and Alexander McQueen — created pieces that challenged high fashion as an institution,” Ballard said.
Citing Galliano’s incorporation of subcultures into his art, breaking the traditional molds of luxury fashion, Ballard called the designer’s work art that “bridged the gap between traditional fashion houses and audiences that historically were considered an afterthought.”
Ballard said the controversy over honoring Galliano was valid.
“This doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and people have the right to be upset by what was said 15 years ago,” she said. “[But] as a culture, if we genuinely care about minimizing hatred and the effects of addiction, it’s imperative that we support rehabilitation and reconstruction, offering the possibility that change is possible and welcomed — otherwise we become participants in the continuity of harm.”
Here’s everything else you need to know.
Who is John Galliano?
Galliano, 65, is a British designer who has worked for some of the industry’s top fashion houses, including Christian Dior, Givenchy, and Oscar de la Renta.
At the peak of his career, he served as Dior’s creative director for nearly 15 years. Galliano went on to work for Maison Margiela from 2014 through 2024.
Earlier this year, Zara announced a two-year creative partnership with Galliano.
What work is John Galliano best known for?
While at Dior, Galliano’s haute couture and ready-to-wear collections were hailed as among the best of the best.
He designed the fashion house’s signature Saddle Bag, premiering in 2000 and remaining a staple shape.
He’s also responsible for iconic looks, including the newspaper dress worn by Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City, and model Kate Moss’ 2011 wedding dress.
“Galliano’s work as a fashion designer is very highly regarded [and collectible],” Chamlee said. “Just look at the asking price [$375,500] of this Galliano for Dior Homme menswear leather skirt. The industry also largely welcomed him back years ago.”
Galliano was recorded at a Paris bar making drunken, antisemitic comments to a group of Jewish women.
The video recording surfaced in February 2011, just before Paris Fashion Week. Dior suspended and ultimately fired the creative director.
Galliano was tried by French authorities under national laws against antisemitic speech, where he was found guilty and ordered to pay €16,500 (about $19,000) in fines and damages. He also lost a compensation case against Dior in labor court.
What happened to Galliano after Dior fired him for his antisemitic comments?
Galliano spent years involved in public and private efforts to rehabilitate.
The 2024 documentary High & Low — John Galliano suggests Galliano was overworked and abusing alcohol and drugs when he made the disparaging comments. The documentary features interviews and analysis on Galliano’s efforts to repair the harm he’d done.
After a period of silence, alcohol rehabilitation, and outreach to Jewish organizations, some of the designer’s fashion peers and religious leaders began publicly forgiving him.
Notably, Anna Wintour has repeatedly championed Galliano’s work, both in the early days of his career and later, after his period of cancellation.
She reportedly helped the designer secure funding over the years, as well as his positions at Givenchy and Dior prior to his conviction and at Oscar de la Renta in 2013. In March, he announced his partnership with Zara.
Wintour and Galliano met with Jewish leaders to discuss the planned Met Gala showcase, according to the New York Times.
The Times quoted Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, as saying: “We believe John Galliano has genuinely worked through the issues that led to his antisemitic outburst years ago in Paris, and we have long since accepted his apology.”
Greenblatt added: “His efforts to repair the damage his words caused and to learn from that incident should be applauded.”
What has the Met said about the Galliano exhibit?
In a news release Friday, the museum promised John Galliano: Horizons would address the good, bad, and ugly of Galliano’s career.
“It will directly address the rupture caused by his antisemitic, racist, and anti-Asian conduct in 2010 and 2011, which resulted in his dismissal from Christian Dior and his eponymous label and his conviction by a Paris court for public insults based on race, religion, ethnicity, or origin,” the release said. “It will also consider his subsequent treatment for substance addiction and his later public acknowledgment of his actions. Rather than presenting a conventional narrative of disgrace and redemption, the gallery will examine how memory, experience, cultural values, and historical circumstances continually reshape the reception of a designer’s work.”
Have other ‘canceled’ designers been honored at the Met Gala?
Several Met Gala showcases and exhibitions have been considered controversial over the years, but experts say this time is different.
The celebration for Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 was criticized for being the first to celebrate a living artist. Critics and art historians suggested the precedent could lead to a promotional advertorial-style treatment for an active brand.
“Lagerfeld had a long record of cruel and discriminatory public comments … But Galliano’s conduct was explicit enough to result in his firing and a criminal conviction,” said Chamlee. As a living designer, Galliano stands to benefit professionally and financially from the renewed attention, she added.
When is the 2027 Met Gala?
The Met Gala will take place May 3. John Galliano: Horizons will premiere to the public May 9 and be on display through Jan. 9, 2028.
The vintage Gillian’s Wonderland Pier Canyon Falls Log Flume Bathing Guy is still up for grabs, with a $2,000 price tag.
So is the 12-by-6-foot fiberglass Haunted Dark Ride Skeleton head, including the top hat and the skeletal hands that once gripped the front of the ride, for $8,500.
Polito is hoping another Halloween season will tempt buyers for the skeleton and the other dark ride props for sale, including a pair of coffin speakers ($600), an animated man in a closet ($1,150), and a spider automaton ($750).
A pair of vintage Gillian’s Wonderland Pier Haunted Dark Ride Haunted House Mechanical Circus Clowns, priced at $1,750 for the pair at Obnoxious Antiques.Obnoxious Antiques
Polito said about half the sold objects were sold to out-of-state buyers, but the other half “went back to Ocean City,” including the Monkey Band, which is on display with other Wonderland artifacts in the Boardwalk food court as a “Wonderland Pier Museum.”
Some of the exterior figurines were bought by nearby Storybook Land in Egg Harbor Township.
Polito says the $8,500 price tag for the skeleton and hands “is a steal,” and notes that they would be perfect for a committed Halloween house decorator.
He estimates it cost $20,000 to create.
“It’s heavy,” he said. “They would have to commit to it and they would have to really want it.”
Ed Frischkorn, 30, holding the log flume miner from the now-defunct Gillian’s Wonderland Pier he purchased at Obnoxious Antiques in Burlington, N.J.Amy S. Rosenberg / staff
Over objections from some nearby residents, Ocean City Council recently voted to designate the former Wonderland site at 600 Boardwalk in need of rehabilitation and will now negotiate with developer and owner Eustace Mita, who has proposed a seven-story luxury hotel on the site.
Mita bought the site from Mayor Jay Gillian, who made the decision to close the beloved amusement park his family had owned for 65 years in October 2024.
Mita’s original proposal called for restoring the Ferris wheel and historic carousel, and preserving several iconic kiddie rides from Wonderland.
John Polito of Obnoxious Antiques with one of the men in the tub from the log flume ride at the now-defunct Wonderland Pier in Ocean City, N.J. Polito purchased three truckloads of relics that are now for sale at his warehouse on Route 130 in Burlington N.J.Amy S. Rosenberg / staff
In a historic addition, Independence Mall will soon be home to a sculpture derived from an iconic political cartoon.
A 46-foot-long sculpture of Benjamin Franklin’s “Join or Die” snake is set to be unveiled this fall on the Liberty Bell Center block of the Independence Mall, near the corner of Fifth and Chestnut Streets. The sculpture will feature eight pieces that represent segments of the snake’s body. These will be carved out of granite, each marked with the initials of the respective colony it’s meant to represent.
The political cartoon created by Franklin in 1754 was first published in his newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette. Each piece of the snake is meant to represent one of the 13 original colonies, except for the snake’s head which represents the six colonies of New England.
The cartoon called for unity among the colonies, particularly during the French and Indian War.
This political cartoon, long said to be the work of Ben Franklin, appeared in the May 9, 1754, edition of Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette,Nate D. Sanders Auction
The Independence Mall sculpture will be installed on the ground, allowing visitors to interact directly with the sculpture.
“I thought it was a great idea to have that on the mall because it’s considered the first political cartoon in the country before we were a country in 1754,” said John Collins, the artist behind the sculpture. “I thought interpreting that into a large sculptural work that still has a playful element to it, that the mall is really lacking in, would be a great addition.”
Collins, who was an architect for 15 years after graduating from Penn State, had first heard of the project in the 2000s while working at landscape architecture and urban design firm OLIN. Founder Laurie Olin had proposedthe snake sculpture to be included inan interpretive art program for Independence Mall in 1997, but that part never came to fruition.
An aerial-view rendering of the “Join or Die” sculpture, set to be displayed near the corner of Fifth and Chestnut Streets on Independence Mall.Courtesy of Independence Historical Trust
“During the pandemic I sent an email to Laurie asking if we could try to resuscitate the snake project and he responded within a couple hours,” said Collins, who left OLIN in 2009. “He said if I put together a proposal with a team and some costs and graphics, we could then shop it around to private donors and try to raise money for it and treat it essentially as a gift to the Park Service.”
This “gift” has come to a total of approximately $3.9 million, with funds raised by Independence Historical Trust, the park’s nonprofit fundraising organization.
The sculpture was originally one of several other improvements to the park proposed in 2025 to be completed before this year’s Semiquincentennial.An America250 time capsule was buried at that same corner at Fifth and Chestnut Streets — just a few feet south of where the snake’s head will be.
A rendering of the “Join or Die” sculpture, which is set to be installed this fall near the corner of Fifth and Chestnut Streets on Independence Mall.Courtesy of National Park Service
In July of 2025, the Inquirer reported that the project was short the $1.6 million needed to complete the project by this summer.
Severe budget cuts to the National Park Service and other federal funding gaps forced the trust to turn to public fundraising for their improvement efforts. They were able to secure funding for this project from the state, the city, private foundations, legacy groups, and individual philanthropists.
Despite the delay, Jonathan Burton, the trust’s director of development, maintains that the fundraising was “intentionally phased.”
“Early commitments allowed the project to advance through design and engineering while additional support was secured for fabrication,” he said. “We are now working on installation fundraising.”
A piece of the “Join or Die” snake sculpture carved out of granite stone.Courtesy of John Collins
The installation of the sculpture still requires an additional $800,000. The trust has set up a public donation page for fundraising.
“The sculpture will create a new civic destination in the heart of Historic Philadelphia, inviting residents and visitors alike to engage with one of America’s most enduring symbols,” said Burton. “It will strengthen Philadelphia’s reputation as a city where history is not simply preserved but experienced, inspiring new conversations about the values that continue to shape our nation.”
No official unveiling date for the sculpture has been announced.
The article has been updated to reflect accurate numbers for the funding shortfall received from the Independence Historical Trust, and details about the America 250 time capsule.
In 1866, the realist painter Thomas Eakins was in Paris studying at the École des Beaux-Arts. While there, he wrote to Emily Sartain, a family friend and artist who, from 1886 to 1920, would go on to become principal of what is now the Moore College of Art.
“I am proud to be a Philadelphian. … I feel 6 ft and 6 inches high whenever I only say I am an American,” he boasted.
It took some years before Philadelphia accepted and loved the artist back.
In 1870, Eakins returned to Philadelphia, where he began a career painting subjects of modern life in a straightforward manner without pretense or flourish. Establishing a studio at his family home on Mount Vernon Street, he hoped to find artistic success in Philadelphia.
But his first paintings received mixed reviews and found no buyers.
Thomas Eakins, “Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross (The Gross Clinic),” 1875. Oil on canvas, 96 x 78 ½ in. Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Gift of the Alumni Association to Jefferson Medical College in 1878 and purchased by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2007 with the generous support of more than 3,400 donors.Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
‘The Gross Clinic’
In 1875, at age 30, Eakins began work on Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross(The Gross Clinic), a noncommissioned oil painting of the eminent surgeon-teacher in clinical instruction at Jefferson Medical College, where Gross was chair of surgery from 1856 to 1882.
Drawing the nude model was a central aspect of academic art training, and students were required to attend lectures on anatomy and study animal and human cadavers in dissection labs. To better his scientific realism, Eakins attended surgical demonstrations and anatomy lectures at Jefferson, and often observed surgical demonstrations by Gross.
Detail from “The Gross Clinic” by Thomas Eakins. The painting was a gift of the alumni association to Jefferson Medical College in 1878 and purchased by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2007 with the support of more than 3,600 donors.Courtesy the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Gross Clinic, the 8-by-6.5-foot large oil on canvas, shows Gross and his assistants operating in their street clothes worn with long coats. The surgical tools and bandages lie unprotected on a table in the lower foreground. (Germ theory of disease was yet to become an influential factor on medical practice in the United States.)
For this first clinic portrait, Eakins uses dramatic lighting that reflects off Gross’ forehead and his extended right hand. He holds a believably bloody scalpel, emphasizing how successful surgery requires intellect and manual dexterity.
Art handlers from PAFA and Atelier Art Services Inc. place “The Gross Clinic” in a packing crate in 2014. The painting was being moved for display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. ( David Maialetti / Staff Photographer )
The patient is a minor; the seated woman recoiling in horror is his mother. A chloroform-soaked cloth sedates the child .
In this stopped-action moment, Gross is the commanding figure of the surgical amphitheater. While his assistants hold a retractor to keep the patient’s left thigh incision open, Gross calmly explains to his audience of students the modern practice of removing a piece of diseased bone caused by osteomyelitis.
The moment celebrates stoic men performing surgery. Gross is a heroic savior giving renewed life to a patient who didn’t have to endure a brutal amputation and will retain use of both legs.
Much of the amphitheater is cast in darkness, but a self-portrait of Eakins sits by a railing to imply authenticity of direct observation. He holds a pen or brush like Gross’ scalpel, suggesting that art making is akin to surgery.
The artwork, Eakins believed, was “very far better than anything I have ever done,” as he wrote in an 1875 letter to Earl Shinn, a Philadelphia friend who had also studied at the Ecole in Paris.
Thomas Eakins in a Chestnut Street studio, 1891-92.Photo taken by Samuel Murray.
Eakins had hoped the portrait of Gross would be seen at the large international art exhibition in Memorial Hall during the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, and help establish his reputation.
It was rejected by the art jury, but was displayed as part of a medical exhibit in the U.S. Army Post Hospital. When the painting was exhibited later at the second annual exhibition of the Society of American Artists in New York, a New York Daily Tribune critic wrote: “It is a picture that even strong men find it difficult to look at long, if they can look at it at all.”
Given the long-term relationship of Gross with Jefferson Medical College, the artist hoped the institution would acquire the painting for its art collection. It was only in 1878 that the Alumni Association of Jefferson Medical College purchased the portrait for $200 (approximately $6,660 in today’s dollars) and presented it to the school where it remained for 129 years.
“The Agnew Clinic” (1889) by Thomas Eakins. On long-term loan to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.Courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Art Collection
‘The Agnew Clinic’
Fourteen years later, in 1889, Eakins painted The Agnew Clinic.
By then, he had taught at PAFA, which admitted women; a rarity in its time. Eakins believed all serious art students, regardless of gender, must work from the life model and learn anatomy.
“I see no impropriety in looking at the most beautiful of nature’s work, the naked figure,” he said. His emphasis on nude life drawing and anatomical study was unsettling to Victorian propriety and his teaching methods eventually proved controversial.
The last straw came in early 1886 when Eakins was giving an anatomy lecture during which he removed a loincloth from a male model in the presence of female students. As requested by the administration, the artist, who was the academy’s director, submitted his resignation, stating: “Was ever so much smoke for so little fire?”
This was upsetting for him. In the summer of 1887, to overcome depression, Eakins made “a little trip to the West,” as he then wrote his friend and former student John Laurie Wallace, to experience “camp cure” at a ranch in the Dakota Territories.
Back in Philadelphia, Eakins received a major boost when in February 1889, he was commissioned by a group of aspiring doctors from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the nation’s oldest, to paint their retiring teacher, David Hayes Agnew, a colleague of Gross. They offered the artist $750 (approximately $27,148 in today’s dollars).
Eakins began work on The Agnew Clinic, his second clinic portrait.
Visitors look at Thomas Eakins’ “The Gross Clinic” in the newly redone American gallery at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2014.
Even larger, at 6 feet by 11 feet, the painting reveals some newly instituted aseptic practices. Surgeon Agnew and his team wear white gowns; sterilized instruments are placed in a covered tray. The operation has a nurse at the patient’s side, but no gloves or masks are seen being used.
Because the canvas was too large for his easel, Eakins worked on the lower sections sitting on the floor, spending long days and nights (and occasionally falling asleep) on the studio floor. The work was completed in three months.
With less dramatic lighting and looser brushstrokes than The Gross Clinic, Eakins shows Agnew in his pedagogical role operating with assistant physicians, a nurse from the HUP Training School, and more easily visible class members who are observing the surgery.
Eakins places Agnew isolated at the left, lecturing. The patient, who has had a mastectomy, is having her incision sewn as a male assistant leans over her lower body. On the far right, the artist, who in this work was painted by his wife, Susan Macdowell Eakins, observes the nude woman sedated with an ether cone.
Deemed “not cheerful for ladies to look at,” the painting is a most provocative choice of surgery for Agnew, who wasn’t a breast cancer specialist but an authority on gunshot wounds.
The Agnew Clinic was given by the medical class of 1889 to their school.
Marble sculpture “La Première Pose (center, 1873-1876) by Howard Roberts; and paintings “The Annunciation” (left, 1898) by Henry Ossawa Tanner and “Portrait of Dr. Hayes Agnew (The Agnew Clinic)” (right, 1889) by Thomas Eakins.in the “A Nation of Artists” show at the Philadelphia Museum Monday, May 4, 2026, in the newly renovated American galleries which were closed for several years.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Side by side
Eakins is a distinguished presence in “A Nation of Artists,” the exhibition of 1,000-plus artworks organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art to mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
The Gross Clinic at PAFA and The Agnew Clinic at the PMA are part of this expansive dual-venue survey of American artworks; each is a tour de force.
The two medical portraits reveal the painter’s respect for the art of surgery, underscoring Philadelphia’s vital role in medicine and its preeminent medical schools. Anesthesia, which was newly introduced in the 19th century, is used in both operations.
Both paintings were not well received and regarded as disturbing and unsightly. But both of those large clinical portraits were exhibited together at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
A Philadelphia Public Ledger writer complained that the “surroundings and accessories are scarcely in good taste for a public exhibition.” Another critic dismissed “the clinical horrors” as “ghastly symphonies in gore and bitumen” and mused: “To have hung the pictures at all was questionable judgment.”
In this photo from 2007, Herbert Riband, vice chairman of the board at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, speaks at City Hall as Mayor John Street listens during the announcement that the Philadelphia Museum of Art and PAFA are to acquire “The Gross Clinic.” Michael Bryant / Inquirer Staff Photographer)
Afterlives
In November 2007, Jefferson Medical College agreed to sell The Gross Clinic for the stunning sum of $68 million offered by Alice L. Walton, Walmart heiress and founder of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark.
It set off a maelstrom resulting in a spirited fundraising campaign that successfully matched her price in a few weeks, keeping the masterpiece in Philadelphia. With a few thousand donations, PAFA and the Art Museum jointly acquired the canvas.
The two institutions collaboratively share the painting on a five-year cycle; it will be at PAFA until 2031.
On opening day of an exhibition at the Art Museum’s Perelman Building, visitors gather around Thomas Eakins’ “The Gross Clinic.” Photo from 2010.LAURENCE KESTERSON / Staff Photographer
Unlike The Gross Clinic, Eakins was asked to paint the portrait of Agnew, creating his second clinic image and the largest canvas of his career. It was completed for presentation at the graduation ceremony that took place at the Academy of Music on May 1, 1889. Its original wood frame has a Latin inscription believed to have been carved by Eakins honoring Agnew as “the most experienced surgeon, the clearest writer and teacher.”
Since 2000, the canvas has been on loan from the university to the PMA.
While recent research has shed light on his pattern of sexual harassment, including allegations that he sexually molested his niece, Eakins continues to be appreciated as an individualist and one of America’s greatest painters. He maintained: “My life is all in my work.”
“A Nation of Artists” runs through July 5, 2027, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, 215-763-8100 or philamuseum.org) and through Sept. 5, 2027, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (118-128 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, 215-972-7600 or pafa.org). Note: Exhibit admission is separate at each venue, though discounts are available to view both.
On a recent visit, the Library Company of Philadelphia’s curator of printed books, Rachel A. D’Agostino, gently removed the delicate 1832 edition of Charles Knowlton’s Fruits of Philosophy from a matchbox-size box within a box.
The two-and-a-half-inch-tall book’s exquisite packaging was like that of a 1.5 oz. bottle of vintage French perfume.
But unlike Chanel N°5, there were no fancy logos or recognizable typeface on the weathered encasing; just a small sticker with its title. Next to the first edition print were two additional volumes published in 1834 and 1839, respectively.
Both a tad bigger, yet small enough to fit discreetly on a chatelaine.
“Fruits of Philosophy is a 19th-century manual about birth control,” D’Agostino whispered like she was sharing a confidence, not simply using her inside-of-the-library voice.
“Fruits of Philosophy,” a 19th-century manual about birth control first written by Charles Knowlton in 1832. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
”Everything about it is meant to be hidden, a secret. There is no name of the printer, or publisher. Knowlton’s name is not even there. Everybody knows this book is a potential problem and they are saying, ‘We think this is important and at the same time we have to keep it hidden.’”
Fruits of Philosophy is one of 1,500 19th-century clandestine hardcovers that are part of the Library Company’s most recent set of acquisitions from respected medical historian, author, and avid book collector Charles E. Rosenberg. Over the last 40 years, he has donated more than 16,000 books to America’s first independent lending library.
Rosenberg’s own scholarly texts about cholera, mental health, and religion in science are widely read and referenced. However, these bound works donated by him were expected to be tucked away in secret compartments and buried in the bottom of bedroom drawers when they were first published upward of 200 years ago.
“Fruits of Philosophy,” an 19th century manual about birth control first written by Charles Knowlton in 1832. One of the various books on the science of sex from the 18th and 19th Century at The Library Company in Philadelphia, Pa., on Tuesday, July 21, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Why? Because they are all about sex. The books taught denizens of centuries past about sex and their bodies.
Not scintillating, bodice-ripping sex, but scandalous enough.
Books about every conceivable unmentionable
Americans didn’t go to the doctor for regular checkups before the mid-20th century, let alone talk to their MDs about their sexual health. Discussions about sex — even between husband and wife — were taboo.
So, an entire underground economy of books and pamphlets printed to help people navigate their sexual lives emerged. They were naughty at best, scandalous at worst, and distributed through the kinds of secret channels we think of today as the dark web. Despite their nefarious nature, people sought them out even when the tips — especially the birth control hacks in Fruits — would be considered dicey by today’s standards,
“They helped people manage their bodies,” said Rosenberg, whose collection spans from the early 18th- to the mid-20th century. “Abortion, birth control, masturbation, anything involving sexual pleasure was controversial in polite company.”
The title of this book appears to be, “Know Thyself” However, its true name is ‘The Science of Life, or, Self Preservation.” “Perhaps the biblical reference on the cover hints at what the book was really about without telling you directly that its about sex,” Rachel D’Agostino suggests.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Rosenberg’s provocative collection covers every conceivable unmentionable from sterility to STDs.
Young wives learned what was expected of them in the marriage bed from sneaking reads of William H. Walling’s 1904 hardcover, Sexology. Men discovered why their virility might be waning through covert perusals of George Howard Jones’ 1881 manualThe Science of Life, or, Self-Preservation, whose cover hid the book’s real title and was labeled as Know Thyself.
“Perhaps, the biblical reference on the cover hints at what the book was really about without telling you directly that it’s about sex,” D’Agostino suggested.
There are also several editions of the 18th-century masturbation treatiseOnania: Or, the Heinous Sin of Sexual Pollution in the Rosenberg donation. In keeping with the mores of the times, the anonymous pamphlet damns the act but also entertains questions from anonymous readers curious about their urges.
First published in 1684, “Aristotle’s Masterpiece” is a midwifery and sexual education manual that among other things acknowledged that women do enjoy sex. It’s the collection’s donator Charles Rosenberg’s favorite.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
“The conversations might have been forbidden, but people were still clearly talking,” D’Agostino said. “It really makes you wonder where these conversations started. Were people asking about themselves, or their teenage sons. … These books give us so many hints about what was important in society, what we shouldn’t talk about, but what was talked about anyway.”
Rosenberg’s favorite are the 35 copies of Aristotle’s Masterpiece. First published in 1684, Aristotle’s Masterpiece — which, by the way was not written by the Greek philosopher — is a midwifery and sexual education manual that among other things acknowledged that women do enjoy sex.
Illustrations, although rudimentary, firmly place the manual in the naughty category.
“I was very fascinated by Aristotle’s Masterpiece,” Rosenberg said. “There is just something very romantic about rare items.”
” Onania: Or, the Heinous Sin of Sexual Pollution,” an 18th century treatise on the perils of self-pleasure, is among the many books donated to The Library Company by Charles E. Rosenberg. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
A subset of ‘popular medicine’
Rosenberg’s donated sexual health primers from yesteryear are a subset of his larger collection of hundreds of books on “popular medicine,” a term he’s lauded in academic circles for coining.
Scientific discoveries made during the Age of Enlightenment challenged the belief that any ailment — whether a stomach ache or a sprained finger — was a punishment from God. As the study of medicine found its way to the halls of universities, a new genre of reading material, blending home remedies with the popular science of the day, came on the scene. Like the wellness gurus of today.
In the 19th century, such reading material teetered between blindly obeying the will of God and understanding the needs of everyday people.
Which is why the popular science in sex subset is the most radical part of Rosenberg’s collection.
“I wasn’t interested in the high culture of medicine,” he said. “I was interested in the questions ordinary people had about their bodies as it related to their health.”
A view of respected medical historian Charles E. Rosenberg’s collection of “scandalous” 18th and 19th century books about popular medicine centering sex. Rosenberg donated these books to The Library Company of Philadelphia. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
In 1962, while a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin, Rosenberg’s most famous work, The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866, was published by the University of Chicago Press. When the first cholera outbreak hit in 1832, people thought contracting the cholera bug, which caused diarrhea and dehydration, was a punishment from God.
During the 1849 cholera epidemic, physician John Snow determined the disease spread through contaminated drinking water. When cholera reemerged in 1866, it was treated as a public health issue. Rosenberg’s book examined the societal shift’s impact on medicine and personal hygiene.
“By this time I already had a great collection of popular science books that I accumulated through my research,” Rosenberg said. “I was a nutty collector.”
One of the various books on the science of sex from the 18th and 19th Century at The Library Company in Philadelphia, Pa., on Tuesday, July 21, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Books, books, books
Rosenberg moved to Center City in 1963 to take a job as an assistant professor in the University of Pennsylvania’s history department.
Shortly after coming to Philadelphia, he befriended Edwin Wolf II, the rare book aficionado and bombastic director of the Library Company. Wolf is credited with breathing life into the struggling institution in the 1950s.
Rosenberg gave his first set of books to Wolf in the 1960s.
“I liked the notion of it being the oldest surviving colonial library that wasn’t a university,” Rosenberg, 89, said. “It was associated with Ben Franklin, the Declaration. … It was rich with American history.”
Charles E. Rosenberg, respected medical historian, author, avid book collector and Library Company Emeritus Trustee has donated more than 16,000 books to The Library Company of Philadelphia including, 1500 popular medicine titles centering 19th century sex.Charles E. Rosenberg
He spent the next 40 years of his life researching, collecting, writing, and giving away books about popular science.
Each book, essay, or paper he wrote meant he amassed books on a new genre of popular science, which would eventually make their way to the Library Company — usually after a major move.
An example of a 17th century anatomical illustration that showing the insides of a woman carrying a child. Although not a part of Rosenberg’s collection these texts centering science rather than God’s will were not socially acceptable at the time. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
“When I moved from Center City to West Philly, I gave a bunch of stuff to the library,” Rosenberg, who became chair of the department of history and sociology at Penn in 1991, recalled. “Then I moved to Merion and gave even more books.”
In 2001, Rosenberg’s wife, Penn professor Drew Gilpin Faust, was appointed the first dean of Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, prompting Rosenberg to donate a slew of books to the Library Company. (Faust became Harvard’s first female president in 2007 and served as its leader until 2018.)
Rosenberg kept donating books through his time on Harvard’s faculty and after his retirement in 2004. The popular sex collection donation, made in the spring of 2024, is his latest batch.
He held on to them the longest, he said, because he was toying with the idea of writing a book that looked at how sexual agency developed through the centuries and would discuss topics like abortion and masturbation.
“When I gave up on that project, I decided to part with the books,” said Rosenberg, who is now a Library Company emeritus trustee.
Pictured here are the “Visitor’s & Citizen’s Guide, of Pleasure and Amusement in the City of New York. New York, 1880. Anonymous. and “Fast Man’s Directory, and Lover’s Guide to the Ladies of Fashion and Houses of Pleasure in New York and Other Large Cities” New York, circa 1853. They are among the collection of books at The Library Company of Philadelphia illuminating the sexual habits of 19th century people.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Sex in the stacks
The Rosenberg acquisitions are extra special, D’Agostino said, because they provide a glimpse into how people actually lived, thought about, and had sex.
“The Library Company didn’t acquire these books on their first run,” D’Agostino said. “We bought for the gentleman, the most upstanding people at the community. They would have come here looking for medical texts, but not books about managing their sex lives.”
Today, Rosenberg’s donations are nestled in the stacks on the top floors of the Locust Street building that smells of old leather.
Rachel D’Agostino, curator of printed books at the Library Company of Philadelphia, in the stacks. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
They sit not far from the quack medicine pamphlets of the late Philadelphia-born collector William Helfand. If Rosenberg’s collection speaks to managing and understanding sexual desires, Helfand’s ephemera — a seemingly endless grouping of city directories telling where and how to cure venereal disease — is proof people were living out those desires.
Also in the vicinity are several brothel directories including A Guide to the Stranger, or Pocket Companion for the Fancy, Containing a List of Gay Houses and Ladies of Pleasure in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection from 1849. It reads like a Yelp review, rating things like cleanliness and performance.
“Look at how they are folded,” D’Agostino said, pointing to a centuries-old crease in one directory. “Proof that this was perhaps hidden in a man’s jacket pocket?”
Recently, D’Agostino purchased a 19th-century condom and corresponding advertising material.
“A Guide to the Stranger, or Pocket Companion for the Fancy, Containing a List of Gay Houses and Ladies of Pleasure in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection” from 1849. This is a part of the Library Company’s growing collection about the sexual lifestyle of 19th-century Philadelphians. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
People like to romanticize the 19th and early 20th centuries as a time when only people on the societal margins were having sex outside of society’s rules of decorum. And that’s just not accurate, D’Agostino said.
She still works with Rosenberg to build collections designed to help researchers illuminate stories lost to the dark shadows of disrepute but which are important to America’s story.
“A market for this work always existed and always will exist,” D’Agostino said. “It’s just finding its way into formal history now.”
Charles E. Rosenberg’s collection at the Library Company of Philadelphia is available for perusal by appointment only. It is located at 1314 Locust St.
It will soon be closing time for New Barber’s Hall, an iconic Black cultural space that has brought jazz, revelry, and community to North Philadelphia for nearly 50 years.
On Saturday, the combination music venue, restaurant, and ballroom on the 1400 block of West Oxford Street celebrated what will be one of its last hurrahs — the longtime owner, Jake Adams, has sold the building.
Adams and his wife, Sarah, said they plan to keep the joint open for as long as they see fit, though at some point the buyer — neighboring Temple University — will take over the property to enact plans not yet revealed.
Before curtains are called, local leaders and hundreds of loyal patrons gathered to celebrate decades of good times and cultural milestones that took place at New Barber’s Hall, a three-story brick building that dates to the 1800s and was once a social hub for the city’s Black barbers.
While there was plenty of talk about icons who had once played gigs or simply passed through — from Miles Davis and John Coltrane to Patti LaBelle and Boyz II Men — the afternoon’s focus was largely on Adams, who has diligently played host since purchasing the building in the late 1970s.
New Barber’s Hall owners Jake and Sarah Adams hold a street sign in their honor during a Barber’s Hall community legacy celebration, a daylong celebration of music, history, and community in North Philadelphia on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
To honor the duo, the celebration included the unveiling of Philadelphia’s newest street sign, designating that portion of West Oxford Street as “Jake and Sarah Adams Way.”
“For almost 50 years being a business leader here in the city, Jake has given back numerous times,” said City Councilmember Jeffery Young, whose district covers much of North Philadelphia, as he announced the new placard.
“When we announced we were doing this, people said, ‘Oh, my God, I had my baby shower there, my wedding reception there, I met my spouse there.’” Young said. “That’s what this place is.”
Adams, who in addition to owning New Barber’s Hall was a Democratic leader of the city’s 14th Ward, gave bittersweet remarks as he thanked the crowd for years of support.
“I tried to fix the building. I tried to make sure that everybody had a great time,” he said.
New Barber’s Hall owners Jake (second right) and Sarah Adams receive a street sign in their honor presented by 5th District Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr., (left) during a Barber’s Hall community legacy celebration, a daylong celebration of music, history, and community in North Philadelphia on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
The sale is the latest development in the building’s lengthy history.
Constructed in the 1860s, it evolved over the decades to house various civic and fraternal organizations such as the National Council for Jewish Women and the Quaker City Wheelmen, and in the early 20th century it spent time as a bicycle factory.
The Barber’s Hall name came about when Black barbers pooled their money to purchase the building in 1949. It soon became a hub for the city’s growing Black community, and musicians staying at the nearby Chesterfield Hotel — listed in the Jim Crow-era “Green Book” — often stopped by to play.
Adams and his older brother purchased the building in 1978, running it as a jazz venue and soul food restaurant.
In addition to LaBelle, greats like Isaac Hayes, Grover Washington Jr., and Robert “Bootsie” Barnes graced the room (in an oft-repeated tale, a teenage Jill Scott was turned away because she was underage).
Guests attend the New Barber’s Hall community legacy celebration, a daylong celebration of music, history, and community in North Philadelphia on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
The building was set to receive a historic designation from the Philadelphia Historical Commission in 2024 that would have safeguarded it from demolition. But at the last minute, Adams had a change of heart about the nomination, saying he did not want his children to inherit a building with strict restrictions for potential buyers.
Temple, seeking to expand its footprint under president John Fry, quietly snatched up the building earlier this year for $2.3 million. The school will “explore further uses for the property, specifically related to how it might support the soon-to-be-completed campus development plan,” Temple said in a statement, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.
In the meantime, Adams told revelers Saturday that the true coda for New Barber’s Hall won’t come until he says so, adding that Temple had agreed to the arrangement.
For those like Lisa Sanders, who grew up around the corner from the venue, that day will mark the end of an era.
“It’s been a part of our family history,” said Sanders, 58, recounting countless birthday parties and platters of shrimp and chicken at the hall.
“It’s definitely been a pleasure, and [Jake and Sarah] deserve it,” she said. “I’ll really miss Barber’s Hall — but as long as I can still go, I’ll be happy about that.”
Tynan knew she wanted to retire back in 2020, when she signed her last contract with the station, which will end next month just as her youngest daughter heads off to college.
Since then, it had been something of an open secret inside the 6abc newsroom that Tynan’s time at the station was coming to an end. Any chance of her extending her contract ended a few years ago, when she experienced a short but intense bout of vertigo.
“For most of the day I couldn’t do anything, and I thought this must be what it’s like to be really old and infirm,” Tynan said. “I didn’t want to work all the way up to get to that stage, so it kind of sealed the deal.
“I’m 57, which is relatively young, I guess, for retiring,” Tynan added. “But I wanted to retire while I’m healthy and active.”
So rather than stick around 6abc or move up the national ladder, Tynan and her husband, Greg, plan to split time between their homes in Delaware County and Florida after her last day, Aug. 31. She even turned down a chance to come back to host Philadelphia’s Thanksgiving Day parade, something she has done for close to 25 years. But the idea of being able to cook Thanksgiving dinner for her family for the first time won out.
“My children have never spent the night before Thanksgiving in their own home. We’ve always been in a hotel by the parade route, and I’ve never actually cooked,” Tynan said. “I’ve always picked it up from Whole Foods and reheated it.”
Tynan discussed her decision to retire, what’s next, and the best and worst weather events she has covered in her three decades at 6abc. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
How do you plan on filling your retirement? Is it just going to be water-skiing and enjoying life?
That sounds pretty great!
That’s definitely a big part of it. That and visiting and watching all my daughters’ cross-country and track meets. I do want to stay active in animal rescue. … I’ve been really active with Providence Animal Center. I’m not sure exactly how I’ll do it, but I would definitely still want to be involved in that.
And I’d like to be able to go to bed at a decent hour.
What do you make of the reaction to your decision to retire?
I’ve been talking about it for months with my personal friends and they’d be like, “Philadelphia’s gonna freak,” and I’m like, “No, everyone’s gonna be fine.” I get it because I’ve been here for almost 31 years, so for a lot of people it seems like they’ve been watching me their whole lifetime. I think that Philadelphians have a special relationship with Action News that you don’t see in a lot of other cities or stations.
Are there any on-air memories that stand out?
One fun moment was when my earring fell off, and Jim Gardner got up. I saw him stand up and take off his microphone, and there was a frenzy behind the scenes, like, “Jim’s on the move. Traveler’s on the move.”
I tried to ignore it, and then I saw this white thing go behind my head, which I thought was a cloud animation. Then I realized it was his hair. It was hilarious and then it went viral — it was on Live With Regis and Kelly the next day and stuff, and that was fun.
Another one was when I was on the morning show with Monica [Malpass] and Rick [Williams], I would always try to crack them up by dancing off camera.
One time Rick told the director, “Record Cecily when she’s dancing.” I dance like Elaine from Seinfeld, but worse. And so they aired that.
Is there a reason you stayed in Philadelphia vs. moving to national television?
I was born and raised in Newtown, Conn., so I always watched the New York stations.
I thought I would work here a few years and then go to New York. Then I had I had some opportunities early in my career to go up. I filled in on Good Morning America for a full week with Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer, which was a great experience. Gibson gave me a bottle of champagne when the week was over.
I talked about going to New York with Tom Kane, who was the general manager of WABC and was the GM when I came to Channel 6. … But then I spent the rest of my week there and was like, “Man, I want to get back to Philadelphia.”
Philadelphia felt like home. … Even when I walked in for my interview, I felt really at home with everyone and they were all nice and welcoming. No backstabbing at all.
Also, once you have children, that really grounds you. Your children are growing up in a community, and you don’t want to uproot them and leave.
What are the best weather events to cover, and what are the worst?
The worst are tornado warnings because we get a lot of those nowadays, because we have more advanced radar … and we do have a warmer climate. But tornado warnings freak people out, because I’m telling them to get in their basement.
I was at the airport back in the spring … and the people in front of me recognized me and thanked me. They live in Mullica Hill, and they were there when they had the tornado warning and I told them to get in their basement. They said they got their kids and their pets down there … and when they got out of the basement, their house was destroyed. But they were OK. … That really hit home about the importance of our job. I kind of teared up.
I’m sure you hear the other side, too, when the weather shifts and your forecast might be off.
Oh, yeah. The whole saying, “Oh, I wish I had a job where I could be wrong 90% of the time and still keep my job.” I get that all the time. Anybody who says that doesn’t really understand the complexities of the atmosphere. … But I feel like when you’re in the public eye, you do have to grow a thick skin. Especially in Philly. They’re going to tell you what they really think, so they’re not going to sugarcoat it.
Is there a weather thing people still get confused by?
One thing I think people really don’t understand is tornado watch vs. warning.
When a tornado watch is issued, it usually means there’s like a 2% chance of a tornado happening in your neighborhood. It’s pretty low.
I think a lot of people think when there’s a tornado watch it means warning, which it doesn’t. It just means heads up. The warning is when you have to go to your basement.
I’ve visited At My House a couple of times, scouring the aisles for quirky vintage pieces, loving the eclectic vibe of the store even when I didn’t buy anything. So I was not surprised to see them hosting what is possibly the most whimsical art show I’ve ever been to, displaying art about the size of a postage stamp.
The Queen Village clothing and homewares store is run by Kelly Braun who, in collaboration with artist Fabiola Lara, started the mini art show last year. They invited artists to create art that was 3 inches x 3 inches, so this year, it had to be even more silly, cutting it in half to 1.5 inches x 1.5 inches.
Prints by artist Fabiola Lara for sale at “The Mini Mini Art Show” at the store At My House on Fourth Street in Philadelphia on Friday, July 24, 2026.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The opening reception for the show was absolutely buzzing, with people grabbing cocktails and lining up around the store to view the wall of tiny pieces. There was tiny clothing, houses, rooms, closets, and classic art pieces — those were made by Lara, who is no stranger to mini art.
You may have come across her mini art vending machines, of which there are 13 around the city.
Leann Curly (middle) and Karen Sarappo (right) were thrilled with artist Fabiola Lara’s (left) mini art print that they purchased from the mini art print vending machine during the opening/public reception of “The Mini Mini Art Show” at the store At My House on Fourth Street in Philadelphia on Friday, July 24, 2026.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
After visiting several major museums with grandiose pieces, I never thought I would see people get the most excited over art that can fit in the palm of their hands. But there was an infectious energy and a sense of joy at At My House.
In a world where large-scale exhibits are so heavily celebrated, getting giddy over comically tiny art felt like a therapeutic break from artistic snobbery.
“The Mini Mini Art Show” is on display through Aug. 2 at At My House, 760 S. Fourth St., Philadelphia. atmyhou.se
— Morgan Ritter
Philly band Hurry’s new album is “Zoned Out.” They play Main Street Music in Manayunk on Aug. 1 and Philly Typewriter on Aug. 22. Luke Ivanovich
Harmony-happy Hurry is back with ‘Zoned Out’
Matthew Scottoline is Zoned Out. That’s the title of the transporting new album by Hurry, the jangly Philadelphia band that has been his creative outlet since 2012, when Scottoline — previously the bassist in Philly emo band Everyone Everywhere, stepped out as leader of his own power-pop project.
Now six albums in, Scottoline continues to refine the harmony-happy Hurry approach, where longing and yearning and experiencing a bittersweet melancholy is elevated to an art form.
In his notes to the album — which began as home recordings on cassette and was completed at the Metal Shop in East Kensington — explains that the dreamy, hypnotic song that gives the collection its name came about because “I tend to disassociate. I zone out and sort of crawl into my own head.”
In this case, that dissociating is a result of facing life changes — the end of one relationship, the beginning of another, and the decision to become a parent — “and how [expletive] scary that is,” as Scottoline puts it in his notes.
But while that tension exists as an undercurrent, Scottoline’s knack for breezy, cascading melodies mean that Zoned Out is always riding a pleasurable, reassuring wave. The album — which features a cameo from Gerard Love of Scottish power-pop heroes Teenage Fanclub — conveys a sense that any conflicts or “Complications” that may arise will ultimately resolve themselves, just as the melodies do on this seriously catchy set of 10 songs.
Hurry will perform for free Aug. 1 at Main Street Music, 4444 Main St. in Manayunk with Planette Automatic, mainstreetmusicpa.com. After heading to England and Scotland for a short tour, the band will be back in town at Philly Typewriter, 1735 Passyunk Ave., with Chime School and Te Vista on Aug. 22. r5productions.com.
— Dan DeLuca
A photograph of Mary Oliver from Sasha Waters’ documentary, “Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World.”Courtesy of Kino Lorber
Saved by Mary Oliver
Before Mary Oliver’s poems became the stuff of Instagram inspiration posts, she was the patron saint of college girls discovering love and nature for the first time. I was 16 when I read “Wild Geese,” almost crying at the lines: “You do not have to be good. / You do not have to walk on your knees / for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.”
In the years since, I have met so many women in love with her words: a former coworker had a tattoo of her lines, a friend will often quote from Oliver’s “The Summer Day” from memory just to describe her joy of being in a beach on a day so hot that the water shimmers as it evaporates in the horizon.
Oliver, who lived with her partner, Molly Malone Cook, in Provincetown for several years, is also a queer icon whose words never fail to soothe a soul in need of a reminder of the love and tenderness in this world.
Now, a documentary on her life and career — featuring readings of her poems by the likes of Helena Bonham Carter and Oprah Winfrey — celebrates the poet who died in 2019. Peppered with poetry, remembrances, interviews, photos, and notebook pages, Sasha Waters’ Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World is a treat to those who love Mary Oliver and those who are waiting to start.
“Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World”plays July 31-Aug. 6, at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr. brynmawrfilm.org
— Bedatri D. Choudhury
Jeweler Steven Lagos’ flag is among the 120 flags from national and international designers celebrating America’s 250th birthday in Rockefeller Center. The flags will be up through Sept. 4, 2026.Lagos
Steven Lagos’ Philly pride at Rockefeller Center
Philly master jeweler Steven Lagos’ flag blows along the perimeter of Rockefeller Center with graphic images of a cracked bell, 13 stars, and red-and-white striped detail. At first glance, it does not look much different than other art shouting out Philly’s history.
Then, I noticed Lagos’ golden caviar bead ribbon dancing in the center of the red, white, and blue canvas and thought this is special in a Lagos loves Philly kind of way.
Those caviar beads are Lagos’ trademark, a part of the design dictionary of Philadelphia, where Lagos has lived and worked for more than 50 years. It’s amazing to see him continuing to integrate Philly in his work.
Lagos’ flag is among 130 featured in the “United Flags of Fashion,” a joint project between the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Vogue, Rockefeller Center, and America 250 to honor the country’s milestone birthday. CFDA describes the project as a “sweeping tribute to American creativity, identity, and design.”
Other household-name fashion brands with flags flying high are Tommy Hilfiger, Vera Wang, Calvin Klein, Gap, and Kenneth Cole. Bucks County-born Thom Browne’s flag is steely gray flag and features a crest; Main Line-bred Tory Burch’s red, white, and blue flag also showcases a Liberty Bell, but her image hovers over the words virtue, liberty, and independence. These Pennsylvania makers are full mast.
While those designers proudly say they are from the Philly area, Lagos — whose red and white stripes represent the columns at the Philadelphia Museum of Art — stayed in Philly. His flagship business is on Philly’s toniest street and, as evidenced in his Rockefeller Center banner, Lagos reps Philly in everything he does.
The flags will fly at Rockefeller Center through Sept. 4.
— Elizabeth Wellington
Michelle Buteau as Mavis in the Netflix comedy “Survival of the Thickest.” MUST CREDIT: Netflix photo by Vanessa Clifton
God bless you please, Michelle Buteau
It’s hard to say goodbye to one of my favorite shows, but the third and final season of Survival of the Thickest felt like a fitting ending for Michelle Buteau’s witty comedy. She plays Mavis, an aspiring fashion designer who wants to make clothes that fit all body types — thick girls, genderqueer folks, and anyone else who thrives outside of the fashion world’s narrow beauty standards.
In this season, (part-time) Delaware County resident Wanda Sykes joins the cast as Mavis’ fertility doctor and she’s a cool-headed, hilarious scene partner who deflates her patient’s babbling anxiety with well-timed precision.
The show remains funny, warm, and sassy, but the emotions reach new depths as Mavis experiences a miscarriage and struggles in her recovery. Nothing keeps her down for long though, and it’s such a comfort to see Mavis get back up. It’s an uplifting and heartwarming story that could help any viewer overcome summertime (or other time) sadness.
