Places Pennsylvania

Water Bureau Newspaper Scrapbook, 1942-1952

Colored ink drawing showing drainage areas and sewer inlets in Philaelphia in the early 19th century

Drainage area plan, early 19th century

Diagram from sewage treatment plan for Philadelphia, 1912

Down Under, Part 2: Beaver Creek as it appears today

Typhoid Fever and sewage tainted drinking water: An 1889 report from the Philadelphia Board of Health

Dauphin and Sydenham car crash, Jan. 17, 1978

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 and description of the typhoid bacteria

Typhoid bacteria diagram, 1905

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

This Philadelphia street scene, with dogs facing off with pigs for a pile of tasty garbage, was captured by artist Augustus Kollner in 1844, but would have been very familiar to 18th-century Philadelphians.

“Town street scavengers from life,” Kollner, 1844

Norman Lofton inspects sewer at Ditman and Sheffield, 1987