Items

Historic resources from our archives - images, maps, documents, and more.

Black-and-white etching of the Wire Bridge at Fairmount, 1873

Wire Bridge at Fairmount, with canal lock and esplanade (Picturesque America)

Frederick Graff’s drawing of the 1815 steam engine, adapted from a design by Englishmen Matthew Boulton and James Watt, shows the engine from the north, with Faire Mount and the reservoirs to the left of the drawing and the river to the right. The 1815 engine sat on the south side of the Engine House and was thus called the South Engine. As Graff indicated in his drawing, the Engine House was essentially open from river level to the roof in order to accommodate the massive beam and fly wheel of the two engines. While Graff showed the crank attached to the axle of the fly wheel, he left the crank shaft and the pump out of the drawing. The North Engine, designed and built in 1816 by Philadelphian Oliver Evans, advanced steam engines’ operating pressures from 2 pounds per square inch (psi) to 200 psi, a significant technological achievement.

Steam engine drawing, Frederick Graff Sr., 1815

Apparatus for testing Model Turbine Engines used at Fairmount, 1859-60

Apparatus for testing model turbine wheels used at Fairmount, 1859-60

Fairmount, bird's eye view from Lemon Hill (detail)

Fairmount Park, bird’s eye view from Lemon Hill, detail

Sketch of aquarium in former FWW building, interior, ca. 1950

New Mill House at Fairmount (2008.001.0046)

New Mill House at Fairmount

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, 1869, Schuylkill flood, 1869

Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Schuylkill Flood 1869

Fountain and stand-pipe, 1875 (2004.007.0006)

Fairmount Water Works, with “Nymph and Bittern” fountain and standpipe, 1875

View of Fairmount Water Works, ca. 1827

Hands holding a silver river herring fish

River herring from the Schuylkill

PWD's Lance Butler holds a flathead catfish caught in the Schuylkill River

PWD’s Lance Butler with an invasive flathead catfish

Jonval Turbines at New Mill House, 1870