Items

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

Frankford Pumping Station, ca. 1900

Frankford Pumping Station Plans and Diagrams, 1870s

Fairmount Park topographical map, showing East Park Reservoir, 1872

Navy Yard on the Delaware River (Picturesque America)

Appletons' Journal Schuylkill, 1869

Fairmount and Schuylkill, Appletons’ Journal, 1869

Wingohocking Sewer across Penn St.

Wingohocking Sewer across Penn St.

Girard Avenue Bridge, Fairmount Park

Girard Avenue Bridge, Fairmount Park, 1895

Queen Lane Reservoir pumping station

Queen Lane Pumping Station, proposed design

Mill Creek Sewer under construction. Several men standing beside a giant partially constructed sewer pipe.

Mill Creek Sewer under construction, 1883

William Penn balks at drinking the "mixed drink" offered him: Schuylkill water, mixed with pollution from the upstream sources named. Editorial cartoon by Fred Morgan, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 6, 1899. One of a series of cartoons drawn by Morgan protesting the state of the city's drinking water and trying to encourage the passage of legislation authorizing the construction of a water filtration system.

“A Decidedly Mixed Drink,” April 6, 1899

Pumping stations after Philadelphia's incorporation, 1854

Main Pumping Stations for Philadelphia Drinking Water

Black-and-white image showing a factory, smokestacks and smoke, and streets

Dobson’s Mill, 1884, from History of Philadelphia by Scharf & Wescott

Outline Map of the County and City of Philadelphia and Vicinity (wd000516)

Outline Map of the County and City of Philadelphia and Vicinity, 1883