The Hidden River Expedition: A Re-Exploration of the Post-industrial Wilderness along Philadelphia’s Rivers

Allen Crawford (aka Lord Whimsy) will present a video using footage shot from his kayak during a three-day, forty-mile solo kayak trek from Mount Holly, NJ to Bartram’s Garden, in West Philadelphia.

He will also give a slideshow presentation, highlighting the strange history along these rivers he traversed: fugitive slave enclaves, floating churches, Civil-War era submarines, and derelict aircraft carriers all await you. This expedition was a re-exploration of Philadelphia’s landscape, and an investigation of how its built and grown environments have affected each other over time. This landscape is not pristine, but it is wild–and perhaps most important, it’s new. The “local frontier” exists!

Whimsy and his wife are proprietors of the design and illustration studio Plankton Art Co. Their most notable project to date is the collection of 400 species identification illustrations that are on permanent display at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Ocean Life.