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The matchbook — that once-ubiquitous tool for lighting cigarettes, candles, campfires and all manner of flammable objects — takes a starring role this week in Philadelphia’s year-long celebration of the city’s innovations and inventions.
A festival in Old City on Saturday will commemorate the creation of the matchbook in 1892 by Joshua Pusey, a Philadelphia attorney and Delaware County resident.
“He was a big cigar smoker, and he was really frustrated with existing match technology,” said Jesse Smith, director of the museum at the Science History Institute. “These were wooden, they were carried in large, bulky boxes. So what he did is, he pulled together three different innovations in his matchbook.”
Pusey replaced the wooden sticks with lightweight, flexible cardboard, tipped them with ignitable red phosphorus, and made the key advance of including a striking surface inside a folding matchbook.
After patenting his creation, he sold it to the Diamond Match Company. The company made some changes, such as moving the striking surface to the outside, so that lighting a match couldn’t accidentally ignite the whole book. “And once companies started using these for advertising, matchbooks took off,” Smith said.
Pusey was a commuter into Philadelphia, which historians believe “informed his work and his desire for a really lightweight, flexible match,” Smith added. “You had a lot of historical threads coming together in this tiny, little, seemingly quotidian object.”
‘A small but meaningful object’
The invention will be celebrated this Saturday, March 21, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Science History Institute at 315 Chestnut St. It’s the latest event in the “52 Weeks of Firsts” — a year-long series of “Firstivals” the Philadelphia Historic District 250th Committee is putting on to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday and the city’s central role in U.S. history.
Every Saturday in 2026, the free events offer storytelling, performances, exhibits, souvenir giveaways and activities for kids and adults to celebrate innovations or “firsts” that originated in Philadelphia.
Recent Firstivals have commemorated the nation’s first medical school for women, first flower show, and first authentic Chinatown Friendship Gate, among other firsts.
Festival-goers this Saturday can also check out artwork commissioned for the event. For each Firstival, an artist decorates a 5-foot foam statue, in the shape of a ‘1,’ with images related to that week’s theme.
For his statue, artist Malachi Floyd of Germantown drew overlapping matchbook shapes, images from Pusey’s patent, and a hand holding a match over the smoke of a lit candle.
The piece “reflects the cultural history and everyday ritual of the match folder, a small but meaningful object tied to travel, memory, and place,” he said. “The design captures how simple items can become keepsakes that mark moments in time and experience.”
First medical school, stadium and circus performance coming up
Here’s the complete list of other firsts being highlighted this year, along with the upcoming Saturday Firstival dates and locations.
Completed
Week 1: Successful balloon flight in America (1793)
Week 2: The Mummers parade, the nation’s first folk parade (1901)
Week 3: Volunteer fire company (1736)
Week 4: Professional basketball league (1898)
Week 5: Public Girl Scout cookie sale (1932)
Week 6: African Methodist Episcopal congregation (1794)
Week 7: Abolitionist society in America (1775)
Week 8: Authentic Chinese gate built in America (1984)
Week 9: Public protest against slavery in America (1688)
Week 10: Flower Show (1829)
Week 11: Women’s medical college (1850)
Upcoming
• Matchbook (1892)
March 21, Science History Institute, 315 Chestnut St.
• The first medical school in America (1765)
March 28, Perelman School of Medicine, 3400 Civic Center Blvd.
• Stadium in America (1895)
April 4, Franklin Field, 235 S. 33rd St.
• Circus performance in America (1793)
April 11, Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, 6452 Greene St.
• Botanical garden (1728)
April 18, Bartram’s Garden, 5400 Lindbergh Blvd.
• Postmaster (1737)
April 25, Franklin Court, 322 Market St.
• American-made piano and sousaphone (1775 and 1893)
May 2, Ensemble Arts Philly, 300 S. Broad St.
• Mother’s Day (1908)
May 9, Historic St. George’s Museum & Archives, 326 New St.
• Hospital in America (1751)
May 16, Pennsylvania Hospital, 800 Spruce St.
• World’s Fair on American soil (1876)
May 23, Please Touch Museum, 4231 Avenue of the Republic
• Steamboat for passengers and freight (1787)
May 30, Independence Seaport Museum, 211 S. Christopher Columbus Blvd.
• American flag (1777)
June 6, Betsy Ross House, 239 Arch St.
• U.S. Army (1775)
June 13, Museum of the American Revolution, 101 S. 3rd St.
• Annual Reminder demonstration (1965)
June 20, Philly Pride Visitor Center, Lombard St. and S. 12th St.
• Paper maker in America (1690)
June 27, Rittenhouse Town, 6034 Wissahickon Ave.
• Bank of the United States (1791)
July 4, First Bank of the United States, 120 S. 3rd St.
• Organized baseball team (1831)
July 11 (location TBD)
• Ice cream soda (Oct. 1874)
July 18, Franklin Fountain, 116 Market St.
• American art school (1805)
July 25, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 118-128 N. Broad St.
• Scientific Society of Natural History (1812)
Aug. 1, at Academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
• Zoo in America (1874)
Aug. 8, Philadelphia Zoo, 3400 W. Girard Ave.
• U.S. Mint (1793)
Aug. 15 (location TBD)
• Selfie (1839)
Aug. 22, Love Park, 1501 John F Kennedy Blvd.
• Slinky (1943)
Aug. 29, Philadelphia Art Museum, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
• Signing of the Constitution (1787)
Sept. 5, National Constitution Center, 525 Arch St.
• Continental Congress (1774)
Sept. 12 at Carpenters’ Hall, 320 Chestnut St.
• Naming of the United States (1776)
Sept. 19, Independence Hall
• Ronald McDonald House (1974)
Sept. 26, Ronald McDonald House, 3925 Chestnut St.
• Penitentiary in America (1829)
Oct. 3, Eastern State Penitentiary, 2027 Fairmount Ave.
• The First Peoples
Oct. 10, Penn Museum, 3260 South St.
• U.S. Navy and Marine Corps (1775)
Oct. 17, Arch Street Meeting House, 320 Arch St.
• Public showing of a motion picture (1870)
Oct. 24, Philadelphia Film Society, 1412 Chestnut St.
• Modern detective story written (1841)
Oct. 31, Edgar Allan Poe House, 532 N. 7th St.
• Thanksgiving Day parade in America (1920)
Nov. 7, Benjamin Franklin Parkway
• University in America (1740)
Nov. 14, Houston Hall, The University of Pennsylvania, 3417 Spruce St.
• Children’s hospital in America (1855)
Nov. 21, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Main Building, 3401 Civic Center Blvd.
• Pencil with an attached eraser (1858)
Nov. 28, National Liberty Museum, 321 Chestnut St.
• Weather bureau (1870)
Dec. 5, The Franklin Institute, 222 N. 20th St.
• Electronic computer (1945)
Dec. 12, The University of Pennsylvania, 3451 Walnut St.
• Public lending library in America (1731)
Dec. 19, The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1314 Locust St.
• Philly food firsts: Cheesesteaks (1930s), water ice (1932) and bubble gum (1928)
Dec. 26, Reading Terminal Market, 1136 Arch St
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