I love shoes, and I love museums. So when I heard that Temple’s School of Podiatric Medicine had a shoe museum, I knew I had to see it for myself! Come along with my co-worker Sarah and me as we go to... the Shoe Museum!
We met Barb, a historian and archivist at Temple, in the lobby of the school building at 8th and Race. (Also in the lobby: really fabulous gold knee-high boots belonging to Ella Fitzgerald.) The displays are up on the 6th floor, lining the hallway in glass cases. Temple’s got big shoes (the size 18 D’s belonging to a circus tall man) and small shoes (three inches long, for the bound feet of Chinese women).
There are sporty shoes (Sarah, a hockey fan, was especially excited to see skates worn by Flyers goalie Bernie Parent during the 1975 championship game) and arty shoes (furry sandals belonging to Grizabella in a touring production of Cats). There are shoes of the stars (Lucille Ball’s pink brocade heels) and shoes of royalty (a Moroccan sultan’s curly-toed shoes), as well as shoes of the common man (sandals made of rope and wooden clogs). Red can-can shoes, ridiculous 6.5 inch heels from 1890 (with the heel worn down to the nail!), Egyptian burial sandals, elaborately buttoned Victorian boots, shoes from Korea and Iran... There are over a thousand pairs in the collection, and believe it or not, Barb’s got stories about them all!
Only a fraction of the collection is on display on the 6th floor, with hundreds more in boxes or on tables in Barb’s office (like Sandy Duncan’s green Peter Pan boots). My favorite pair is in there as well: white pumps from the 1950s, painstakingly embroidered and beaded in China for an American client:
We met Barb, a historian and archivist at Temple, in the lobby of the school building at 8th and Race. (Also in the lobby: really fabulous gold knee-high boots belonging to Ella Fitzgerald.) The displays are up on the 6th floor, lining the hallway in glass cases. Temple’s got big shoes (the size 18 D’s belonging to a circus tall man) and small shoes (three inches long, for the bound feet of Chinese women).
There are sporty shoes (Sarah, a hockey fan, was especially excited to see skates worn by Flyers goalie Bernie Parent during the 1975 championship game) and arty shoes (furry sandals belonging to Grizabella in a touring production of Cats). There are shoes of the stars (Lucille Ball’s pink brocade heels) and shoes of royalty (a Moroccan sultan’s curly-toed shoes), as well as shoes of the common man (sandals made of rope and wooden clogs). Red can-can shoes, ridiculous 6.5 inch heels from 1890 (with the heel worn down to the nail!), Egyptian burial sandals, elaborately buttoned Victorian boots, shoes from Korea and Iran... There are over a thousand pairs in the collection, and believe it or not, Barb’s got stories about them all!
Only a fraction of the collection is on display on the 6th floor, with hundreds more in boxes or on tables in Barb’s office (like Sandy Duncan’s green Peter Pan boots). My favorite pair is in there as well: white pumps from the 1950s, painstakingly embroidered and beaded in China for an American client:
Even the heel is beautiful!
To come see the Shoe Museum for yourself (it's free!), email Barb at bwilliams@tuspm.temple.edu. Visits are by appointment only, but Barb is looking forward to showing you around! Leave two hours to see the collections, and no—shoes are not available for you to borrow!
Speaking of shoe collections: I may not have a thousand pairs (someday...), but a few of my colleagues have challenged me to wear a different pair of shoes to work every day in the month of May. (Twenty-one days? Pshaw! Technically I could go for three more months!) But if you’re interested to see a sampling of the shoes the Shoe Fairy has in her closet, my co-worker Rosie is keeping photographic tabs on me here.
Sales this weekend:
Joan Shepp: Free shipping in the month of May.
Lord & Taylor: 20% off sale and clearance.
Speaking of shoe collections: I may not have a thousand pairs (someday...), but a few of my colleagues have challenged me to wear a different pair of shoes to work every day in the month of May. (Twenty-one days? Pshaw! Technically I could go for three more months!) But if you’re interested to see a sampling of the shoes the Shoe Fairy has in her closet, my co-worker Rosie is keeping photographic tabs on me here.
Sales this weekend:
Joan Shepp: Free shipping in the month of May.
Lord & Taylor: 20% off sale and clearance.
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