Sketch of aquarium in former FWW building, interior, ca. 1950
A somewhat impressionistic pen-and-ink sketch showing some of the interior of the old Philadelphia Aquarium at the Fairmount Water Works, including a very healthy crowd of patrons. The two signs in the foreground read LOGGERHEAD TURTLE and QUEEN TRIGGER, sea creatures of extraordinary beauty that are now vulnerable.
One of the first aquariums in the U.S., the Philadelphia Aquarium opened at the Water Works on Thanksgiving, 1911 and quickly grew to become, by 1929, one of the four largest aquariums in the world. Its heyday was short-lived, however; in the years following World War II, the aquarium was subject to inadequate funding and mismanagement, and fell into disrepair. It closed for good in 1962.