Subjects Public Health

Includes activities to maintain the healthfulness of the city, and the animals (such as pigs) and diseases (such as cholera, yellow fever, and typhoid fever) that were the objects of public health efforts.

Fairmount Water Works: The Surprising History of an American Landmark

Rebirth of the Rivers: Water History Video 3

Dobson FLP

You would not have wanted to drink it: Philadelphia’s water supply in 1884

Color image of a grassy field with trees and buildings surrounding it and white lines drawn on the grass mimicking the path of a creek.

Drawing Dock Creek

Image shows three bottles of water, one clear, one dark and one with sediment floating in it.

Bottled vs. Tap in 1906

Board of Health Newspaper Clipping Scrapbooks at City Archives of Philadelphia, 1891-1908

Kensington Water Supply in 1883

Sewers, Pollution, and Public Health in 19th Century Philadelphia

Oak Lane Reservoir pipeline, 1904

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

Birkinbine Schuylkill Hydrographical Survey 1861-66

Two reports on the state of the Schuylkill River, 1867

Outhouse over Schuylkill near Pottstown

Outhouse over the Schuylkill near Pottstown

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

Water Before and After Roxborough