Sierra Tishgart OPC ’08

PROFILES

30 Under 30:

BY MARK F. BERNSTEIN OPC ’79

Sierra Tishgart OPC ’08

Like everyone else, Sierra Tishgart OPC ’08, the cofounder of Great Jones, an online cookware company, is weathering the COVID-19 lockdown as best she can. It’s rough, trying to run a fledgling online business remotely. On the other hand, if Tishgart is stuck at home, so are her customers. With time on their hands and restaurants closed, people might be ready to try whipping up something themselves. Great Jones is there to help.

“We’re in the business of home cooking, which is a good business to be in right now,” she said philosophically. “Our goal is to get people cooking more frequently and more confidently.”

Great Jones offers a range of kitchen essentials, including a Dutch oven, stockpot, saucepan, a deep sauté pan, large and small skillets, and a baking sheet. Although the inventory is simple, the design and style are sophisticated. Every detail has been thoroughly researched. Pot handles, for example, are welded on, so there are no rivets for food to get caught in, and they have been subjected to infrared thermography tests to make sure that heat dissipates properly. And with a retro nod, products come in a range of colors that would not have been out of place in your mother’s ’70s kitchen, including mustard yellow, marinara red and broccoli green.

The company’s name, Great Jones, is an homage to cookbook author and editor Judith Jones, who in turn discovered several other great cookbook authors, including Julia Child, James Beard and Edna Lewis. (It’s also the name of the street in Lower Manhattan where they are headquartered.) In order to get customers cooking more comfortably, the Great Jones website also includes favorite recipes from current top chefs Alison Roman, Roxane Gay and Andy Baraghani. It even offers a free text message service (called “Potline”) for recipe suggestions and real-time cooking advice.

Tishgart inherited her cooking gene from both parents. “I definitely grew up in a family that valued cooking and gathering around a table,”

she said. Her mother made a family breakfast every morning, “no matter

what.” Her father built his own pizza oven. The multitasking life of an entrepreneur came naturally to Tishgart. At

PC, she was the head of student government, captain of the girls track team, and also wrote her first op-ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer on the

perils of drunk driving. “The PC English teachers took me seriously,” she recalled. “They respected my writing and encouraged me to pursue

getting published at a young age.” For her Senior Comprehensive Project, Tishgart worked for Barack Obama’s campaign during the 2008 Pennsylvania primary and, though still a high school student, helped lead

their college outreach program. She majored in journalism at Northwestern University and, while

still in college, got a side job as a features editor at Teen Vogue. After graduation, Tishgart decided she wanted to become a food editor,

cold-emailed New York Magazine and got a job. Working there for the next five years, she became senior editor of the magazine’s food and

restaurant blog, Grub Street, won a James Beard Award, and even hosted a regular segment interviewing chefs on CBS This Morning.

During her magazine career, Tishgart authored articles on many subjects,

with titles ranging from “How Big-Name New York Chefs Found a New Platform for Success in Philly" to “The Chef Who Lost His Ability to Cook." But

an article she wrote for Bon Appetit last March sums up her career arc: “I Left My Dream Job to Make Pots and Pans. What Was I Even Thinking?”

Tishgart made the jump with Maddy Moelis, an old friend from summer camp who had a background working with startups. The pair

spent nine months building their inventory and website, raising more than $3 million in funding from investors, including restaurateur David

Chang and Nic Jammet, founder of Sweetgreen. She also landed a spot on Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” list.

Running a business, does Tishgart have time to do any cooking herself?

“I cook so much more since starting the company,” she said, “but in an extremely casual way.” The popularity of cooking shows such as The Great

British Bake Off and celebrity TV chefs, from Gordon Ramsay to Guy Fieri, have made cooking seem fun but also intimidating. Tishgart says not to worry.

“I think people feel they’re not cooking unless they’re roasting this whole lamb shoulder,” she laughed. “My cooking often looks like me

making an omelet in my pajamas. I cook often. It’s just not show-off cooking. But any cooking is better than none.” PC

These 20 treasured objects, featured along with six dozen more in the book History Revealed: Treasures from the Archives of William Penn Charter School, celebrate the history of the school founded by William Penn and the Religious

Society of Friends as told through objects, artifacts and memorabilia. The book was inspired by the 325th anniversary of Penn Charter. Art teacher and historic preservationist Randy W. Granger Hon. 1689 led faculty, staff and overseers in the creation process and toiled to bring the project to fruition. The hope is that the collection, and even the smaller selection shared here, will inspire ongoing connections to the legacy of the world’s oldest Friends school.

William Penn Maquette

1 8 8 8 – 1 8 8 9 In 1875, sculptor Alexander Milne Calder won the artist competition for the sculptural decoration of Philadelphia City Hall and went on to create the 37-foot-tall, 27-ton statue of William Penn, the tallest atop any building in the world. Penn Charter acquired this Calder maquette, or model, in the late nineteenth century and it now resides in our Gummere Library. At 28 inches tall, it is cast in solid bronze and weighs approximately fifty pounds. Of the eight maquettes known to exist, museum experts believe the piece is one of the finest in terms of casting quality and surface condition. The full-size Penn was completed in 1892 and installation atop the tower on City Hall was completed in 1894.

Great Seal of the Province of Pennsylvania

1 6 9 9 This is a fine early example of an impression of the Great Seal of the Province of Pennsylvania and dates from 1699. The 4-inch-diameter red wax impression is double-sided and carries the Penn family crest on the front with the word “MERCY” above the crest, and below it, the word “JUSTICE.” Around the perimeter are the words: “WILLIAM PENN PROPRIATOR AND GOVERNOR OF PENNSILVANIA.” On the reverse side (not shown), directly in the center of the seal, are three radially placed ears of corn and three alternating sticks entwined with grapevines configured in the shape of a cloverleaf. That entire configuration is encircled by a ring of words and the date: “TRUTH PEACE LOVE AND PLENTY 1699.” The seal is resting inside a tin storage case. The Great Seal was used to authenticate government documents in the Province of Pennsylvania. From the outset of his proprietorship of Pennsylvania, Penn sought to govern the province by the fundamental Quaker values of equality and tolerance. Though Penn did not spend much time in Pennsylvania during his proprietorship, he did return to the province in 1699, when this particular seal was used.

Academic Certificate

1889 Prior to the twentieth century, students graduating from William Penn Charter School received a hand-written document such as the one pictured here, which was awarded to John Falconer Sinclair in 1889. At that time, many colleges and universities did not require an official diploma as we know them today. A precious paper such as this was typically issued to students in independent schools at the time to certify that the student had “completed the course of study of the classical side of the school and has passed the prescribed examinations.” John Falconer Sinclair received his undergraduate and medical school degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and became a noted pediatrician who founded and directed a children’s hospital in Philadelphia. This Penn Charter certificate includes the school’s seal and the signatures of three legendary Penn Charter leaders: Richard Mott Jones, headmaster, responsible for “forming” the Penn Charter of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Edward Bettle Jr. OPC and Overseers clerk, and T. Wister Brown OPC, Overseers treasurer and board member for 60 years.

Golden Oak Desk

1 8 7 5 – 1 8 9 5 This late nineteenth century Golden Oak desk measures 30 inches high, 60 inches long, and 26 inches deep. Incised lettering on the apron above the school seal proclaims William Penn’s quote and our school’s motto, “Good Instruction Is Better than Riches.” The desk was brought to this site in 1925 from the old school building located at 8 S. 12th Street. An 1892 photograph confirms that this desk was originally finished with varnish, shellac, or linseed oil, revealing the rich beauty and depth of the oak grain. A later photo (1931) in our collection shows the desk painted white with only the top surface left in its natural state. This desk has been restored twice since 1984 and the white paint fully removed to reveal the original character and beauty of the piece. Often a centerpiece at gatherings, this desk was used by Headmaster John F. Gummere at Meeting for Worship, when it rested center-stage at the front of the Meeting Room. It is now at home in Gummere Library.

Schoolyard Gate 1909

Samuel Yellin, 1885–1940, came to Philadelphia from Poland in 1906 and went on to become America’s most renowned metalworking artist of the twentieth century. From 1909 to his death in 1940, Samuel Yellin and his blacksmiths produced a broad and diverse body of ornamental ironwork that enhanced revival buildings across the nation. This body of work was created for many of the most important structures and clients of the time. The massive entry gate pictured here and on display in our Upper School, comes from the old Penn Charter schoolyard located at 8 S. 12th Street. This gate was one of the earliest commissions completed by Yellin in his first shop on N. 5th Street in Philadelphia. Made in 1909, this 350-pound, eight-foot-by-4-foot hand-forged iron gate possesses a surprisingly light and delicate look, despite its great weight, and creates an illusion of high-energy optical movement going on within the gate’s perimeter. Yellin’s life-span contributions to the ancient art of blacksmithing, made at the height of the industrial revolution, were both monumental and defining for art, architecture and handwork in America.

Understanding something of Yellin’s exquisite artistry and craft serves to heighten our own awareness of the specialness of Penn Charter and its links to the history, art, architecture and technology in our community and beyond.

Bell Tower View

2016 Standing atop the bell tower of Penn Charter one can see the beauty and majesty of both nature and our great city. The skyline of Philadelphia is visible on the horizon to the right of center. It seems altogether appropriate that the city we view from this angle and the school we stand upon to see it were both created by William Penn on the very same day in 1701 when he signed twin charters: the first, establishing the City of Philadelphia as the official center of his “Holy Experiment” and the second, the Friends Public School as the educational vehicle by which to prepare the city’s youth to become active, contributing participants in that experiment. Both entities have gone on to grow, prosper and give to the world. The full arc of student engagement can be seen stretched from athletic playing fields (left) through the academic complex (middle) to the David L. Kurtz Center for the Performing Arts (right).

Clock Tower Bell 1912

What does corn have to do with the Clock Tower bell? The 2,500-pound bell in Penn Charter’s Clock Tower carries the inscription “Corn Exchange Nat’l Bank Philadelphia, Pa. 1858–1913.” It is likely that the bell came from the Corn Exchange Bank building in Philadelphia, located on the southeast corner of Second and Chestnut streets. The 3-footdiameter, cast-bronze bell does not swing; rather the bell and its headstock are mounted on a stationary stand. An external striker with an 85-pound head strikes it on the hour. Just as the Clock Tower provides a visual landmark and icon of the school, the bell atop the tower reminds us of time and tradition. The bell connects us to Penn Charter history every time we hear its ring.

Sexta Costumes

1 8 8 5 One of the more endearing photographs from the school’s collection is this nineteenth century, 10-by-12-inch studio portrait of the members of sexta level, which would correspond to the sixth grade students in our modern-day Middle School. The costumes of the young men in the photo include a sailor, a policeman, circus performers, a football player, a farmer, a dandy, and both Tweedledee and Tweedledum. While we don’t know whether these particular students were dressed up for a school pageant, a play or a Halloween parade, their eyes engage us and raise questions and suggest narratives within our own minds. This example of the photographer’s art was created by one of Philadelphia’s finest photography studios of the period, Gilbert’s Studio at 926 Chestnut Street, shortly before it closed in 1886.

Assembly Room Benches

1 9 2 6 A Penn Charter Business Office letter of Oct. 21, 1926, to Alfred G. Scattergood, treasurer of Overseers, confirmed that delivery and installation by the Chapman Decorative Company of Philadelphia of 78 new meetinghouse benches was successfully completed on Oct. 11, 1926, at a cost of $4,758. Seventy-one of the 10.5-foot-long stained-maple benches were placed in the Meeting Room, then called the Assembly Room, while seven others ended up in the front lobby and throughout other areas of

the school. For more than 50 years, the Meeting Room benches were bare wood, which caused many a student to dread the prospect of weekly Meeting for Worship. In 1988, however, Clerk of Overseers Grace Russell Wheeler successfully advocated for upholstered cushions and Overseer Richard P. Brown OPC ’38 gifted them on the occasion of his 50th class reunion. The benches are constructed of solid maple and their dimensions are 36 inches tall, 126 inches long, and 19 inches deep.

Red Front Doors

1925 There may have been a time when the school’s iconic front doors were not red, but, according to Stephen A. Bonnie OPC ’66, “it has been red for my entire life.” The sepia-colored photos taken of the school in 1925 provide little clue, and there is no mention of door color in descriptions of Penn Charter’s move to our current campus. Like Penn Charter, red doors have a historic and cultural significance far beyond curb appeal. They have been an American symbol of refuge, welcome and remembrance for hundreds of years. In early American tradition, a red door signified welcome to weary travelers seeking lodging. It was a symbol of refuge during the Civil War, as red doors indicated “safe houses” that were part of the Underground Railroad. Every two years, exterior door at Penn Charter is painted in Sherwin-Williams’ classic Ardmore Red.

Girls Basketball Sweatshirt

1 9 8 7 – 1 9 8 8 This sweatshirt is one of fifteen made during the winter of 1987–1988 to commemorate the launch of the very first girls basketball team at Penn Charter. During that academic year the school was moving ever closer to the first class with young women to graduate (1992) in 118 years. Coach Liz Flemming described the historic act of making the first team sweatshirts for girls in this way: “The girls wanted some team clothing and a commemoration of their season just like the boys teams, and so we designed this. We agreed on white hooded sweatshirts and it was my idea to include the ‘Making History’ words. The girls agreed, because we did realize that it was a special moment in time for us and for Penn Charter. The girls’ sweatshirts were hooded, but the one pictured above was mine and I did not want a hood. I like looking at the sweatshirt and seeing how it is yellowing some with a few stains. The iron-on design has some cracks…it shows its age, that it is, in fact, an historical artifact. I also like the memories it brings back. I can see and feel the girls’ enthusiasm and energy, remember their mistakes and their successes. I can picture us all in the gym, learning together and making history together.”

Peace Quilts

2 0 0 1 This wall hanging, referred to as a Peace Quilt, was created in 2001 as a direct community response to the terrorist attacks of September 11 of that year. Guiding the effort was Overseer Jane Evans Hon. 1689, who felt deeply moved to create objects that could serve as tangible reminders of our unity as a community and make a statement for peace at a time of aggression toward our nation and its citizens. Using fabric as the medium, the 96-by-77-inch quilt contains dove-shaped cutouts that populate the blue field. The white doves were cut out by adult members of the Penn Charter community, and children throughout all divisions of the school were given the opportunity to sign a dove that was then placed on the quilt field.

Ancient Learning Tools

1 8 3 0 – 1 8 9 0 For centuries, a student’s basic tools consisted mainly of paper, pen, ink and books. This pine pencil box holds original mid-nineteenth century writing implements and is made of a thin, wooden top that is hinged to a thick piece of pine that has been excavated to safely retain the fragile hand-blown glass penholder and its delicate goose quill nibs. The box also contains a graphite stick to be used as a pencil, and a metal pen nib for writing with ink. Students had to carry ink, made of lamp-black in linseed oil, in hand-blown and cork-stoppered ink bottles such as this one. The book, The Charter of Liberties from William Penn to the Freemen of the Province of Pennsylvania, is a hand-printed, leather-bound volume from our collection.

The Students Gazette

1 7 7 7 The document at right depicts the cover and back of the Students Gazette, dated June 11, 1777, the first known effort at student journalism in the country. Distributed on Wednesdays via multiple copies in longhand script on quartersheet-sized paper, the newspaper was published from June 1777 through August 1778. More impressive than that the newspaper was entirely handwritten each week by students writing with quill pens was the fact that the Students Gazette was published through the entire period of the British occupation of the city. According to the Gazette, students were even “obliged to evacuate” their school on Dec. 18, 1777, “to make room for the British forces.”

Cigar Box Label 1 9 0 6

The idea of using colorful labels on cigar boxes for brand identification for cigars started in the late 1830s. By 1906, when this label with a portrait and signature of our founder was printed for cedar boxes containing Wm Penn Cigars, more than 5 billion cigars were being sold annually in the United States. Four out of every five adult males in the U.S. smoked cigars then, and some women did, too. A hundred years before the feminist movement gained a presence in American culture, many cigar box labels referenced the changing roles of women, and depicted popular sports and historical personalities as heroes, while also making unspoken commentary about the cigar-smoker’s own values and beliefs. These exquisitely printed chromolithographic images were often amusing and frequently controversial. While this example bears no connection to the school or Penn, we admire the rich color and striking graphics.

Petition of 1697

1 6 9 7 In 1689, William Penn, governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, wrote from England to Thomas Lloyd, president of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania and a respected Friend, instructing him to establish “a Public Grammar School” in the city of Philadelphia. Penn’s desire was for a public school to prepare children to be active, moral citizens within a participatory democracy. Penn’s vision led to the establishment in 1689 of a grammar school to teach reading and writing. This 1697 petition to the governor and Provincial Council laid out foundational intentions for the school, the population it would serve, and how it would be sustained and governed by “The Overseers of the Public School Founded by Charter in the Town and County of Philadelphia.” Penn’s three subsequent charters, in 1701, 1708 and 1711, were built upon the framework of this original petition.

Friends Meeting House Postcard 1 9 0 6

This penny postcard of Friends leaving the meetinghouse at Fourth and Arch streets comes from the postcard collection of the Penn Charter Art Department. This 1906 hand-colored card was made before the development of color film. In 1907, the post office calculated it processed 677 million postcards. Few possess the unusual depth and authenticity that this image provides. Walker Evans, one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century, agreed. In his landmark talk, “Lyric Documentary,” at Yale University in 1964, he stated, “… the atmosphere of that Sunday morning, the Friends Meeting … couldn’t be purer or truer. I’m placed right there when I look at that picture. Well, more than that, I have a feeling of…well the human pleasure and beauty of being.”

Annie Virginia Jones and Daughters 1 8 9 6

Richard Mott Jones, Penn Charter’s headmaster from 1874 to 1917, received special permission from the Overseers to enroll his three daughters at Penn Charter, then an all-boys school at 12th and Market streets. In an interview for Penn Charter News in 1980, Virginia Jones Webber, who attended Penn Charter from 1893 until her graduation in 1903, recalled that the culture of the school, and the restrictions society placed on women in that era, kept her from participating fully in school life. “Penn Charter boys were all very nice to us, but we did not mix with them very much. In Friends Meeting my sister and I sat apart from the boys. My favorite teacher was Miss Dudley. I was not Mr. Spiers’ kind of student, but I liked Mr. Porter; he was a fine artist and also started Color Day. I was a Blue. Girls did not participate in sports or Color Day, but I attended every game and cheered louder than anyone. One year I was elected president of the Science Club. When I told Papa about it, he said, ‘No, Baby; thee will have to resign.’ So I resigned.” Annie Jones, the headmaster’s wife, is pictured here with daughters Madeline, Genevieve, and, most likely at far right, Virginia.

Inter-Ac Track Medal

1 8 8 7 This 1.5-inch-diameter bronze medal was won by George Dudley Whitney OPC 1890, of Glassboro, New Jersey, in an Inter-Ac track meet in 1887. The Inter-Academic League (Inter-Ac) is a high school, inter-scholastic sports league of private schools in Philadelphia and environs. When the schools first organized the conference in 1887, they called it the Inter-Academic Athletic Association, and boys played two sports, football and track and field. It was one of the earliest permanent interscholastic football leagues in the United States. Early members were Penn Charter, De Lancey, Episcopal Academy, Friends Central School, Germantown Academy, Haverford Grammar, and Swarthmore High School. In the first decade after the turn of the century, the Inter-Ac increased the number of sports, adding ice hockey, baseball, tennis, and basketball.

Surveyor’s Transit and Case

1 8 9 3 A transit is used by a surveyor to measure horizontal and vertical angles on the land. This Young & Son Transit, serial no. 6683, was made in Philadelphia in 1893 and purchased by the school for use in teaching the practice of surveying. The earliest transits measured horizontal angles only. Later examples, such as this one, were provided with a level and vertical arcs. Legendary teacher M. Albert “Bert” Linton continued to teach with this transit from 1944 through the end of the 1980s, providing Penn Charter math students with practical instruction using what many authorities consider to be the single most important surveying instrument used in the United States during the nineteenth century.

Color Day

1 9 2 3 The tradition of Color Day lives on as a cherished end-of-school event for the entire Penn Charter community. Its participants include students, parents, grandparents, faculty, staff, alumni and friends, all sharing a festive and fun outdoor event. Students, grades kindergarten through 12, compete on the blue or the yellow team in grade-specific friendly relays, with the senior class’s Rope Pull as the final event of the day. Originally conceived by physical education and art teacher Isaac Porter in 1892, the earliest Color Day contests were held on Penn Charter’s 52nd Street athletic fields in West Philadelphia. Since 1913, however, the contests have been held on the School House Lane campus at the very same spot where Color Day takes place today, on the present-day football field.

Exclusive book offer for PC Friends!

This beautifully illustrated, award-winning book is available to the Penn Charter community in a keepsake edition that also makes a perfect gift.

Alumni, parents and friends of the school may now purchase copies of History Revealed: Treasures from the Archives of William Penn Charter School from the School Store. Visit in person or contact the store to ship a copy; $30, plus $10 if shipping is required. Email jburkhart@penncharter.com or call 215-844-3460 ext. 154.