Items

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

Diagram showing the Philadelphia Water Department's water treatment process

PWD Drinking Water Treatment diagram

Cartoon depicting William Penn toasting the Devil with a glass of filtered water

“Speeding the Parting Guest,” Feb. 25, 1909

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

Black-and-white image of a table with numbers in columns

Bacteria in Delaware River, Torresdale Filters, 1913

Belmont Filters construction 1903

Belmont Filters construction, 1903

Finished Upper Roxborough filters, 1903

Finished Upper Roxborough filters, 1903

Upper Roxborough filter beds

Upper Roxborough filter beds under construction, July 1902

A.C. Abbott, MD

A.C. Abbott, MD

McDonnell filter advertisement

McConnell Germ-Proof Filters ad

Two bottles of water from a river, one dark with pollution and one clear after filtration

Water Before and After Roxborough

Black-and-white photograph showing the completed Upper Roxborough Filter system. Vaulted concrete ceiling with beds of filter sand.

Upper Roxborough Filter Beds Complete, 1903