Items

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

High Water: An Informal History of Flooding in Philadelphia

Rebirth of the Rivers: Water History Video 3

Philadelphia from Belmont, West Park (Picturesque America)

Schuylkill River above Belmont (Picturesque America)

Wissahickon near Paper Mill Bridge, 1873

Wissahickon Creek near the Paper Mill Bridge (Picturesque America)

Drive Along the Wissahickon

Drive along the Wissahickon Creek Vallley (Picturesque America)

Thomas Mill Covered Bridge on the Wissahickon

Thomas Mill Covered Bridge over Wissahickon Creek (Picturesque America)

Anglers Club member Louis Cook with a 16lb mirror carp caught in Wissahickon Creek

Photos from the Philadelphia Anglers’ Club

Gritty and the Phanatic in Ida’s Floodwaters

Black-and-white image of an ornately lettered document with a decorative border

Images from ‘The Water Supply of the City of Philadelphia by a proposed Aqueduct from Norristown Dam’

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

Fairmount Water Works, by W. H. Bartlett, 1839. This engraving from an 1839 painting by William Bartlett shows the porch added to the Engine House about 1835 and the two gazebos built at the same time, all added to welcome visitors to the Water Works and a new saloon, or restaurant, in the Engine House. The powerful jet of water rising from the fountain in the South Garden, fed by a dedicated pipe under the full pressure of the reservoir, was depicted against the green foliage on the west slope of Faire Mount, near the east end of the Colossus. A barge is making its way downstream through the canal, headed under the Colossus to the busy port city of Philadelphia.

Fairmount Water Works, W.H. Bartlett, 1839