Items

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

Pen and ink drawing of the proposed Delaware Seventh Street Sewer

Plan and profile of proposed Delaware Seventh St. Sewer, 1850

1830 plan for the Pine Street Sewer

Plan of Pine Street Sewer, 1830

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

Diagram and description of the typhoid bacteria

Typhoid bacteria diagram, 1905

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

Bridge Street Draw, Cofferdam, ca. 1896

Pennsylvania Hospital in Pine Street

PWD water tech at the Philly Home Show, 1960

PWD water tech at the Philly Home Show, 1960 (detail)

Lab tech at Philly Home Show, 1960

Lab tech, water cleaning demo, Philly Home Show, 1960

Gillette Schuylkill mud cartoon

‘Gillette, All By Himself, Gets Fine New Idea On Germ Slaying’