Items

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

Black-and-white image of a brick sewer outlet that drains into a creek with trees and a hill behind it

Thomas Run sewer outlet at Cobbs Creek

Water, Water Everywhere – Philadelphia Record, 1937-03-14

Black-and-white image of a refinery with smokestacks emitting smoke

A Day in the Ma’sh – Oil Refinery

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

Outhouse over Schuylkill near Pottstown

Outhouse over the Schuylkill near Pottstown

Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1884

Baldwin Locomotive Works

Pegg's Run

Pegg’s Run, Northern Liberties (Watson’s Annals)

Swimmers at Pier 126, Delaware River July 15, 1918

Swimmers at Pier 126, Delaware River, July 15, 1918

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

Water Before and After Roxborough

Henry Disston's Keystone Saw Works was located along the Delaware riverfront in Tacony. The black-and-white lithograph shows the factory's many smokestacks emitting smoke into the atmosphere.

Keystone Saw Works