Items

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

Laboratory Alkalinity test, ca. 1943

Making It Safe to Drink: Water History Video 2

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

Gillette Schuylkill mud cartoon

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

Belmont Filters construction 1903

Belmont Filters construction, 1903

Upper Roxborough filter beds

Upper Roxborough filter beds under construction, July 1902

McDonnell filter advertisement

McConnell Germ-Proof Filters ad

Black and white image of Philadelphia civic and business leaders watching the start of operations at the new Northeast Sewage Treatment Plant, April 6, 1951

Northeast Sewage Plant opening, 1951

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

Water Before and After Roxborough