Items

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

A Brief History of Water in Northwest Philadelphia

Ghosts of Water in Fairmount Park, Part 1, with Adam Levine

Thomas Mill Covered Bridge on the Wissahickon

Thomas Mill Covered Bridge over Wissahickon Creek (Picturesque America)

Fairmount Gardens, with the Schuylkill Bridge. This 1839 engraving, published in London, shows a view of the South Garden from the walkways that brought visitors up the cliffside to the overlooks at the height of the reservoirs. The fountain used the pressure of the reservoirs and was a a delightful refreshment in hot weather, and a wonder at all times. One anachronistic element of this engraving is the Upper Ferry Bridge, which burned the year before the print was published. Harding’s Hotel, a popular resort, is at the western end of the bridge.

Fairmount Gardens with the Schuylkill Bridge, 1839

Black-and-white reproduction of the title page of an old periodical

Images from “A Day in the Ma’sh” by Maurice F. Egan, Scribner’s Monthly, July 1881

Black-and-white image of workers in a pit with a sewer opening behind them and text

Frankford Creek: Sad History of an Urban Stream title page

Image shows a black-and-white drawing of a creek with dotted lines indicating where changes will be made

“A Snake That Will Be Straightened Out,” map of Frankford Creek with proposed changes, 1949

Birkinbine Schuylkill Hydrographical Survey 1861-66

Schuylkill River Hydrographical Survey 1861-66 by H. P. M. Birkinbine

View of Fairmount Water Works, ca. 1827

Lemon Hill and Sedgley Park, Graff Jr., 1851 (Graff05.21)

Plan of Lemon Hill and Sedgley Park, Fairmount and Adjoining Property, 1851

Penn's Treaty with the Lenape

Penn’s Treaty with the Indians (Watson’s Annals)

Penn landing at Chester

Penn landing at Chester (Watson’s Annals)