Oops! This Hagley Vault post is a bit belated. In our defense, time moves differently when you're living on the surface of the sun. This week's heatwave has inspired this post; a love letter to air conditioning.
'Manufactured Weather: Nothing More Modern' is a ca. 1932 pamphlet that promotes the modern heating and cooling systems of the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society's PSFS Building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Construction on the PSFS building began in 1931 under architects George Howe and William Lescaze with the design slogan, "Nothing More Modern", and advertised the building as the "first modern skyscraper in America". In addition to other amenities, it was also the first building of its kind to have year-round "manufactured weather," with individual thermostats in every office.
This pamphlet is from Hagley Library's Philadelphia Saving Fund Society (PSFS) photographs (Accession 1993.302) collection, which is composed of materials from two Philadelphia mutual savings banks which date from the first half of the nineteenth century. The collection has been divided into two series: Philadelphia Saving Fund Society (PSFS) and Western Savings Fund Society (WSFS), which was merged with PSFS in 1982.