Subjects City Life

CITIZENS’ BUSINESS: 1939-1946

Petition of manufacturers along the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia for a new upstream water supply, 1868

Dealing with the city’s wastes in the mid-19th century

Oak Lane Reservoir pipeline, 1904

The Water and Drainage History of Philadelphia: A seven-part course

Dauphin and Sydenham car crash, Jan. 17, 1978

Receipt from privy cleaning by the Frankford Odorless Excavating Company, 1885

Privy Cleaning Receipt, 1885

Bill for Privy Cleaning, 1869

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.

Half a Century of Clean Water

Sewer Demand Taken to City Hall, 7/25/32

International Exhibition situation plan, 1876

Centennial Exhibition situation plan, 1876

Photo of a woman looking at a jar of raw, untreated sewage

Jar of raw sewage before treatment, 2000

City officials tour new interceptor sewer, 1953