Items

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

Black and white photo of a worker with darker skin, wearing protective clothing, gloves, and a hard hat with the number 25 on the front, reaching up out of a sewer manhole, only head, shoulders, and left arm visible.

Manholes like this give access to city’s sewer system, 1961

Black and white photo of a worker with darker skin, wearing protective clothing, gloves, and a hard hat with the number 25 on the front, reaching up out of a sewer manhole, only head, shoulders, and left arm visible.

Sewer Inspections: Vintage Images

Bill for Privy Cleaning, 1869

Black-and-white photo of industrial tank installation with smokestacks and factories in the background

Emscher Tank Installation at Essen Nord, Germany

Black-and-white image of two cylinders on a white surface

Effects of Expansion of Gas Bubbles in Enscher Sludge Shown in Right-Hand Cylinder

Black-and-white image of a tray with three compartments and four small glass cylinders

Drain water from sludges obtained from sedimentation, septic and Emscher tanks

Philadelphia Underground, Jan. 29, 1961

“Philadelphia Underground,” Jan. 29, 1961

Captain Sewer and Michael Nutter, 1998

Captain Sewer and Michael Nutter, 1998

30th Street Sewer

30th Street Sewer

Gillette Schuylkill mud cartoon

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

State Street pipeline construction

State Street pipeline construction, 1904

Belmont Filters construction 1903

Belmont Filters construction, 1903